Kompanions- Revisualizing Education in India
An Ed-Tech-Sci organisation that aims to build a more cognitively healthier and intellectually smarter planet.
KOMPANIONS, firmly believe that each and every individual has tremendous potential and it is all about unlocking it via varied channels. It is like being the OS where different applications can run in parallel to create future driven amazing things. KOMPANIONS, are deeply driven towards advancing the human race ahead and accelerating intelligence.
Their Vision is to nurture an ecosystem that encourages creative and critical exploration, facilitates accelerated understanding and encourage individuals to cross frontiers to go beyond the obvious and assist curious minds in the creation of NEW by positively impacting the BRAIN.
Simply put, they are Knowledge Companions for Learners across the globe, quenching their thirst for pure knowledge, assisting learners at every stage of their journey, giving insights, action points, remedial strategies and much more, thus ensuring that the path to discovery is extremely intriguing and stimulating. They use innovative and disruptive schemas to invent solutions that integrate some of the best traditional approaches along with pioneering technology to build skills and abilities in all learners. These skills and abilities empower learners not only in the current scenario but also gear them up for future challenges!
How did the entrepreneurial bug bite you?
For us (Gautam and Yuvraj) it wasn’t really an apple dropping moment that led us towards our first steps as entrepreneur’s, but it was an ardent desire, since our college days, to do our bit in making a positive contribution to our society, help build a cognitively smarter planet and derive joy by making learners across the globe enjoy the sheer joy of learning and knowledge. During our stint of jobs at various MNCs that we have worked with, we realized that degrees were just reducing the entry barriers. Every candidate that we recruited during our stints at these MNCs was recruited only on the basis of smartness, logical thinking capabilities and communication skills. This helped us zero down on the areas which need to be focused upon to enable the growth of smarter generations. The moment we were able to streamline our plan and were able to garner enough investor backing for us to launch ourselves, we started full throttle and since then there has been no looking back for us! So far we have had our shares of smiles and sorrows in our small journey as entrepreneurs but we have certainly gained and enjoyed every single bit of it.
What were the challenges before you while setting up this startup?
Well for starters, we were attempting something that has never been done before, which obviously meant that to find talent, then to find the right kind of talent was a big challenge! We work in a technology which is both niche and nascent, so to setup processes was a daunting task. And lastly, though a lot of youngsters want to join the startup bandwagon in India, but few are willing to put in the extra stretch. So, as an organization, finding and on-boarding right minded professionals remains our biggest challenge.
What are the challenges for startup companies setting up shop in India?
As explained above, we feel that all innovative startups do face the challenge of hiring the right minded professionals, the ones who are willing to learn, toil and grow rather than just grow! Professionals need to understand that a start up, as the name suggests takes time to grow, and they need to have patience to reap the benefits of the efforts that the team puts in. They need to acknowledge that appropriate and sufficient efforts by the team members which assure growth of the start-up as well as the individuals. Apart from this, we feel that there has to be a substantial period of investor backing. Innovative ideas do require time and hence the backing. The tendency to generate over-night returns may lead to some really good startups, burning out fast. So, attracting both the right – investor and working talent are the biggest challenges that most startups face.
How is your business model different from the existing ones?
Well, the best part about our business model is that it avoids any seasonality in business cycles. Additionally, we have a model for both B2C as well as B2B segments. This makes the model more robust and hence different.
Who are your clients? How do you look at expanding?
Our clients range from toddlers to eighty year olds. From working professionals to leading institutions across the country. We have already expanded to 5 states in our first year of operation and will soon be expanding to other geographies, both in India and beyond.
The best and worst memories while setting up …
Though it’s not easy to pick the best and the worst and we take the worst as a part of our learning curve. But one of the best things that happened in year one, was that, being a product company, our products – KUBE (India’s First 3D Educational Knowledge Cube), K-LAB (India’s First 3D Brain Training Knowledge Laboratory) , KANVAS (India’s First Cinematic Presentation on the Art of Learning) and KOMPASS (India’s First Analytical, Remedial, Predictive and Adaptive Assessment Architecture) were well received by all stakeholders within our target groups.
