What a journey! The voyage has but begun...

October 15, 2021, was a special day at Vedantu. The atmosphere at work was intense; it was one of those nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat anticipations as the dhol players increased the tempo of their rhythmic beating of drums. This was not a cricket match or election day. But it was an important day for each one of us at Vedantu as it was the D-day, a culmination of our collective and tireless efforts over the last few years. This was the Results Day and we were glued to the screens live-streaming the consolidated results of our students from IIT’s selections.

The numbers climbed as we watched. It was with a whoop of euphoric joy that we greeted the results as the final numbers came in. Around 1,500 students coached by Vedantu had aced JEE Advanced 2021 and were selected into the IITs. Around 60% of them were from Tier II, III, and IV cities from across India. This puts Vedantu’s selection ratio at 12.5%, which is 3X higher than the national average of 3.5%.

Even as I write this, we are thrilled that Vedantu has also helped qualify 1200 students into NEET, who will grow to become future medical professionals.?

This was a double celebration for me personally as the Results Day coincided with my first-year anniversary with Vedantu. Seeing and experiencing the impact I was making along with my colleagues within a year of joining Vedantu was amazing. Because at the end of the day, it is all about impact, and often, in my previous roles with large corporates, I got to see the impact of my work years down the line, but here I am watching it happen live. It is indeed humbling to be a part of an organization that serves as a springboard for our future generations.

I am still pumped—seeing our students win was a big win for us and the best illustration of what we are doing right, not just as an organization but as individuals too. A student-centric culture, is our guiding matrix or often quoted in startups now, our “North Star metric”! Everything we do is dictated by the needs of our students. All decisions, initiatives, and goals begin and end with the student in mind. It is a value that each Vedan imbibes in their approach to work.?

As my first experience of being in a startup that achieved unicorn status, I was pleasantly surprised that our Results day celebrations were far bigger than us turning a unicorn. Looking back, this bears testimony to the north star metric indeed. When I spoke with the founders, they were clear that us reaching a unicorn status is a validation that we are in the right direction and funding rounds help us move towards our goal of inspiring and impacting a billion children.

At Vedantu, I have been a part of so many discussions where ‘What is good for the child’ has been the driving criteria rather than the money invested in that project reinforcing the value of student centricity. In fact, our founders often mention that when we replace the word ‘Student’ with ‘Child’, our focus on what is best for the child internally germinates.??

Every Vedan (as Vedantu employees are called) represents Vedantu and demonstrates it’s value system to everyone they speak with. This puts the onus on our learning culture to ensure that we are able to create and curate such learning experiences that every Vedan is able to inspire every parent and child they speak with. This is underlined by the VOW factor—that’s Vedantu Out of the World experiences for you!

Being in the education space and with founders who were themselves teachers, there is a constant emphasis on improvement so that we are the best versions of ourselves. As is often heard in the Vedantu leadership discussions, ‘we cannot give something that we don’t have.’ This is because we must own what we want to give, that is, if I want to inspire you to love learning, I have to love learning too and I have to be committed to learning.

Results Day affirmed that our values and our approach to learning are on track. The stories we heard in the valedictory function that was hosted to celebrate our students and their achievements was an eye opener to me on the impact these results have had on the families.

Vedantu is but a few years old, yet has achieved targets that decades-old brands in the industry are only now reaching.? Many of the children who qualified into the IITs or are going to be future doctors are from tier II and tier III cities across India.?Great teachers and technology were able to ensure that these children did not have to leave the safety of their homes to attend classes far away. What a leveller the access to good education can be! The lives of these children and their families have now changed forever for the better.

The results and my insightful year with Vedantu have made this Deepavali so much more special for me. When people ask me why I chose to join Vedantu, I can point to this article and tell them, this is why. I don’t like making vague statements like “It’s a great company” or “I like the work I do,” but to be able to say “This is the impact we are making on students and learning” makes me feel inspired and motivated. That is why when I started to write a small post to wish everyone for Deepavali, so many thoughts were triggered that I couldn’t help but share them all with you.?

I am motivated just by thinking about what can be done by all of you who have access to the best of resources at your fingertips!