GuruQ – Aims to Provide Multiple Ways to Search and Choose the Tutors
The burgeoning EdTech sector has spawned many new segments and its growth is so fast that only guesstimates are available on the size of the market today. This is also because a large segment of the market is unorganised. The only study which everybody quotes from by ASSOCHAM in 2013 - Business of private coaching centers in India - indicates that by the end of 2017 the estimated tuition market (including freelance tutors and tuition centres) should be around $70 Bn. The online tutoring market is a miniscule percentage of the whole pegged at about $250 million but in the years to come this is the sector that will see the highest growth.
Founded on 23rd August 2016, GuruQ is a platform that brings tutors (supply side) and students (demand side) together and ensures that students (including their parents) find the right tutors for their requirements. So the main aim of the platform is to provide multiple ways to search and choose the tutors. The first approach is do-it-yourself (DIY) whereby we allow students to use various filters to narrow down their search, compare tutors on key parameters and choose the right one. The second approach allows students to provide their requirement specifications and let the GuruQ Engine generate the best fit options to choose from. And lastly, the simplest approach allows a student to broadcast their detailed learning requirement to all the relevant tutors and let the interested ones to respond.
In an interaction with BW Disrupt, Ms. Minal Anand, Founder & CEO, GuruQ talked about her venture.
Idea Behind the Inception
It started when GuruQ’s founder, Minal Anand, got an opportunity to compare the Indian education system with its American counterpart during her studies in US. The impact of schooling and extra-schooling (tuitions) was clearly evident from the excellent performance of Indian students there. She realized that all the Indian students needed was right guidance, and they could competently use it for their benefit. So the best way to create an impact in the Education sector would be to help students get this valuable guidance easily by putting them in touch with the right tutors. And the impetus was provided by a KPMG study she commissioned, which clearly indicated the potential of the private tuition industry both offline and online.
Special Key Features
With the main aim to help students find their right tutors, GuruQ offers many features to support the cause. Firstly, to ensure that our students get the very best, every tutor is made to undergo 5-level checks spanning their knowledge, qualifications, background & experience, and only the best are inducted into the GuruQ fold. Students are allowed different ways to reach out to these tutors as mentioned above. Students today are pressed for time and we help them save this precious commodity by taking tuitions completely at their convenience. They can do actual on-demand tutoring by booking classes at short notice and even booking them by the hour for special needs such as revision. In addition to time, students can personalize their tuitions with respect to the mode (offline or online), type (individual or group) and budgets (hourly or monthly). Parents can keep track of their child’s progress and seek feedback when they want to.
Competition & Differentiation
We have entered a market where there are many established players so we understand the need to stand apart. We have made sure our differentiation is not just in the solution we provide but also the way we approach the problem. Our market research even before we began the journey from concept to commercialization revealed the many pain points that our target audiences face and we have planned 101 ways in which will not just eliminate their issues but also make learning easy, efficient and effective for them. We are starting with 21 features, advantages and benefits that we will provide and release the others in a phase-wise manner.
Funding Status
We are completely self-funded and have no plans to go for external funding for now.
Monetization
In the first phase of our operation we are facilitating tutors to transact with their students using our platform, so we will be charging a certain percentage as our facilitation charges. But for the future we have devised diverse short, medium and long term revenue streams which will depend on the various features that we deploy across multiple phases of growth.
Challenges Faced
The journey so far has been one of exploration and experimentation. This is best exemplified by the fact that just 5 months into operations and we have already began revamping our entire digital infrastructure including the website and dashboard. While the challenges have been across various areas such as the processes, technology, design etc. but we have overcome them all keeping only one thing in focus - the 'Experience' we are able to provide by integrating the various ingredients of our operations.
Traction Details
It has been only 5 months since its inception and GuruQ has got over 15000 tutor registrations and has certified over 1500 tutors on its platform. We just completed 100 hours of tutoring and the best is yet to come after the launch of the GuruQ Platform 2.0. Our focus is on Delhi NCR for the 1st year but we intend to eventually cater to all major cities through a phase-wise expansion. But we have begun online tuitions Pan India since the medium transcends all boundaries.
