For entrepreneurs who have just started their startup or plan to do so in the edtech field, the path is exciting and challenging! No doubt, the evergreen education industry is brimming with opportunities but at the same, it is rife with quirky challenges.
Here are some major challenges which new entrepreneurs face to carve out a niche in the edtech industry
Gap Between Academic And Business Worlds
You need to explain, discuss and sometimes even debate your point while dealing with the schools or other academic institutions. The less trust comes from the fact that you are a business world habitant who can relate more to the action and less with theories. To overcome it, add some educators to your team as representatives so that the thought-familiarised world can believe in you.
The Conventional Approach
The class-blackboard approach is resisting you in the academic industry because the educators still believe in that approach. To win over them, demonstration is the best way. The evolving technology and innovation world will definitely impress the teachers and academic stakeholders if you have data and statistics to prove your point.
Budget
With the limited budgets, affording edtech courses and stuff is not possible for every school. Plan your startup’s pricing strategies carefully to prevent this problem so that your potential customers can think of investing in it.
Competition In Edtech industry
The edtech industry has exploded in the last few years. Hundreds of entrepreneurs have entered this field and hence the competition has really become tough, making it difficult for the startups to exist. Good funding, innovative techniques to promote your edtech startup or uniqueness of your methods can only help you in this case.
Funding For Edtech Startups
With a lot of players in the Edtech industry and high competition in the market, finding investors is a very tough task. For startups, the conditions are even tougher. So, it will be a good idea to focus on growing as a revenue-making company after the initial funding to avoid such circumstances.
Data Compromise Issues For Students
Student data and teaching material are another matter of concern. Making educators believe that there is no risk of data compromises needs good policies and the right practices.
Training Of Educators
In the world where teachers are trained to teach through offline and conventional methods only, sudden changes are not acceptable. Your marketing strategy must have provisions to train the teachers if you don’t want to face rejections.
Buyers And Consumers Are different
Who are the actual consumers? The answer is – teachers and students.
The administrators and Education Board Members are surely not going to use your products or services but they have a great impact on the decision-making of the consumers as they are the investors.
So, a wise approach will be considering buyers as well as consumers while marketing your startup.
Well, someone has aptly said, “Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations.” As entrepreneurs, we must take our challenges as opportunities and keep working to achieve success and fulfill the academic and career dreams of innumerable students.
[The author of this post is Vishesh Goyal, CEO, MeetCareer.com]
