Help improve the learning experience of first generation learners - Looking for a co-founder

April this year I plunged head-on to the build Shunya - guided only by three first principles -

1/ "Education" was far from being a solved problem - and I had the passion and life experiences to improve it.

2/ I was more than ready and prepared to solve it - full time.

3/ No matter what the end outcome was - I would be net positive by this experience.

I started formally this April, and I didn't have a co-founder. I applied at Entrepreneur first, but I was rejected, and like most of the people do - I pretended that I go in, anyways - and made my own plan, made double the number of conversations with people to brainstorm, and to accelerate the learning process.

Across these months, I have had some founding exploratory discussions, and somehow when you speak, pretty much like dating - you know it when two of you zing. After that is a long process of validation and understanding each other's style. Putting this post to share my experiences of the many conversations I have had (and in an effort to make this referenceable matrimony material for the "groom" I am searching :) And that, it may help you think why you need one - and who/who not to start a startup journey with.

This is the economy to take risk

Just a day before my last day at InMobi , I tossed and turned most of night, reflecting on how I was going to do what I wanted todo. Unaware of what I was going to build. Sure I had spoken to a broad spectrum of parents, teachers and students and it was only my conviction that told me, that it was the best time to take risk. Most bad economies are. You buy in a bad economy.

The best part is that this economy self filters perseverance and grit - and that makes the life easier. You can't take hairy audacious journey f you are driven by fear. You should be driven by the thrill of the mountains you will scale together, the company, culture and market you will co-build. And the person, you will become. For starting, there is never a good time assuming your basic expenses are taken care of - and this of all, is the best time.

Product is only 1% of the Startup. The team, vertical, vertical growth and the cluster of end user problems vs the gap with the current offerings is 99%

Want to know how EdTech compares to the growth of e-commerce - read original from Aviral's post here.

A company is built over a period of time, and you do a lot of throw away positioning as you do repeated customer discovery and as market forces change. The only thing permanent in all of this is the TEAM. Don't co-found for short time fit, just because it takes away temporary pain of scaling yourself. Think many years out in the future and take the founding team there.

More than the market/odds of exit is the belief that Education is even more ready as an overall segment, waiting to be disrupted, bottom's up. Don't stand at the ringside, hoping someone else should. People who were the byproduct of the machinery are best placed to fix it. People like you and me.

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happens “ --- Vladimir Lenin

Want to co-build a learning experience for first generation learners ? While content is important, it will loose the MOAT with all companies trying to do the same {bigger, better, bolder} content. This will bring down the value/ differentiation of content. Unfortunately, this is why people think that EdTech is a solved problem. We haven't even scratched the surface yet !!

Why now ? COVID will irreplaceably change the way we consume and interact with digital education, so the discovery of good "content" will no longer be the MOAT. The only MOAT will be real long term differentiation in 360 degree understanding of all touch points of the user, and actually improving the learning outcomes. How do I know this - basis 60+ interviews we did PAN India. The apps we think are a part of the user's life - are not the part of it. Sooner there will be a catch phase.

EdTech is not a solved problem.

Broad access and discoverability : maybe.

Affordability, Quality, relevance, actually improving the learning outcomes at school - No

A early entrant in an emerging market is better than a late entrant in a matured market. Given the clutter of offerings in EdTech, the target segment we are going after is difficult, I fully understand and I acknowledge that. I think a tough TG forces you to truly innovate. Everyone can pay - you just have to discover what they will pay for and build what they really need. Also the people who duck behind insisting to find a 100% business model are less amenable to adapting after a flurry of rejections from VC's/ angels.

What can we doing differently, together ?

In short, orthogonal thinking. Because you can't solve the problem from the same perspective you created it. Here is one of the result of a pilot - where we had goals for the user to engage with the product. Compared to other Edtech companies that are also solving meaningful problems - we are solving them very differently. Not because we have a lot of time to squander - but because we really want to be proud of the technology we are building. May be not in MVP/ POC - but eventually yes :) We won't defy the customer discovery, and we won't build wasteful products, no one wants.

On Perseverance, grit, experimenting and pivoting

They often say that perseverance is the ability to go from obstacle to obstacle without loss in motivation.

People usually say, working with governments is difficult. It's like trying to swallow a mouth full of chicken bone with bones. Be slow and steady, build trust, momentum. Audit your energy and pivot when things go as planned. Yes, all those are real problems. But that is ALSO the defensibility of the alternative reality we are trying to create. We will adapt to B2C, or discover a model that is sustainable. If you offer anything of real value to anyone - you can monetize it. You just have to reach the threshold where the

Chasm that most Tech companies need to solve in emerging markets.

Benefit + value of your product >> cost of adoption / status quo

We will debate, take big bets, make and own a lot of mistakes, move fast - and most importantly become a better version of ourselves.

Reversible decisions >> cost of indecision

Make mistakes, internalise, better the hypothesis and move on. Resolve conflicts, plan and complement each other - and have some fun !

Either you shape the experience, or the experience shapes you.

Most of the news that you see on Startup's is a "survivor ship" bias. If you factor in the kind of emotional turmoil, the risk - the richness is not the money - it is the irreplaceable experience of working on a different level of abstraction. I know this because the first 3 months in my role at InMobi - I almost felt like I lost my voice, but then I also know that I would have been a very different person had it not been for that experience. And this is the 4th deliberate disruption I am taking for myself.

It always looks difficult till its' done. Come build a small part in the large future and our own legacy with me. For a Bigger, Better, Bolder, Tomorrow - Today.

What we are building : 

Re-read : Product is only 1% of a startup - it will change , based on what the users tell us from their behaviours. Build what people want!

No Content, no Live classes - content agnostic Information retrieval and concept taxonomy. EdTech will go where Adtech and e-commerce did, and I know it because of some of the great mentoring I had while at InMobi. 

Bet on yourself. Have I sold it to you, or you know someone who would be crazy enough to bet ? Ping me 1:1