How I Got Trapped Into the Startup Life *Again*

… getting back to job was a nightmare for me. I was not sure if I would be able to start my own startup or join some other.

I was meeting with lot of entrepreneurs, startup founders, wannapreneurs and like minded people. It was then I met Vineesh at one of Morpheus Gang’s meet-ups in Delhi.

Failure was the best thing that happened to me at my first startup.

Vineesh had built a mobile app for class-x students with intent of evoking curiosity while helping them master their science curriculum. He was the sole founder of an education startup called PocketScience. Smart guy — he converted the NCERT textbook into addictive games like Crossword & Anagrams.

Have you ever solved word games? I used to play crosswords printed in newspaper for improving my English. I never thought that same game can be used to improve in science as well.

When I met Vineesh, at first I thought he is a first time entrepreneur like me. But, he not only founded his first startup just after graduation, but he had also designed an iPad like tab in the final year of engineering.

He was badly bitten by startup bug !!

Pocket Science is his second startup and in between his two startups he worked with Aakash institute on their tablet learning initiative, iTutor. He was the mastermind behind all the planning and execution of this multi-million idea.

I wondered — why the hell did he quit iTutor project where he could have earned few millions!! For running a Startup?!?

More chapters started to unfold when we debated about startups, schools, students, education system, learning, how education is, how it should be. Some points stuck in my mind.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — W. Yeats

He shared the core purpose of his startup and why he wants to be in education business only.

Learning to Learn

Break the barriers of traditional education system and help children to learn naturally — be it games, discussions, experiments and explorations. Making people aware that getting marks is not the only goal of education, the whole purpose is learning by experience. Spark curiosity in kid’s mind and inspire them for thinking innovatively.

Every Kid is a Genius

Focus on one thing — Excellence!!

Our education system pushes every child to study with the aim of coming first in class. But the reality is that only one child can come first. Isn’t every child special in his or her own way? Why do we celebrate just one?

Truth is that only one child can stand first but every child can be excellent student. Can we make something to build an excellence focused generation?

Pain of Education

Vineesh shared that as a kid he enjoyed learning, discovering and exploring but Education System dragged him into race of being in IIT. He wrote a book for NTSE scholarship exam which put him in touch with parents, students and teachers. He interacted with a lot of students and parents during his career with Aakash Institute. He learned that kids everywhere are looking for direction, support and meaning.

My previous startup was also solving pain points of educational institutes. I wrote an article on how I started my venture in education domain. Our thought process was resonating with each other. I shared a few of my startup learnings and experiences with Vineesh.

Priorities

Family > Organization > Self Goals > Everything else in this world

I feel that Money is essential for survival but not my primary goal of running a startup. My real earning from a startup is the satisfaction of what I am doing, a sense of happiness that comes by solving pain points of customer. Life becomes worth it, when my efforts touch human lives, ofcourse in positive manner.

Transparency

I believe that transparency is core of Trust and great teams can only be built with trust not by signing policies. Any relationship gets stronger with more trust and gets weaker by not being transparent with each other. Transparency -> Trust -> Better outcomes.

It was an awesome experience meeting with Vineesh. I stayed for two days at his home and enjoyed delicious free food :-). I worked with him in no-strings-attached model which means any of us can say good-bye at any time and there will be no questions. It worked very well for us to understand each other.

I joined him as co-founder after around one month. We are moving fast towards our goals. Do you feel you want to have ride? We don’t have specific job position but we love to talk to like minded people.