5 Things To Keep In Mind While Starting Your EdTech Venture- Part II These tips will you to approach investors in right way.
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'Tech gives the quietest student a voice,' says Jerry Blumengarten. Binding the education sector with technology, Educational entrepreneurs (Edupreneurs) are filling the gap government had left in this system.
The journey of one education startup will probably differ from another in some ways, but their goals remain same. We met top investors at our sixth edition of Startup Kickoff, where they brewed up coffee and tossed a perfect game plan to revolutionize the EdTech sector with their guidance.
1. Research Well:
If you are planning to cater to the educational sector, then you should research well. As an edupreneur, you can a find many products that you can build. But, before stepping in, do find answers to these questions - who are your end customers, how is the market evolving and what need you are addressing.
"You are not talking about the community that is aware; you are talking about the kids. People become little touchy when it gets to kids because getting into this domain will vastly effect them. People are very choosy when they pick startups, adopting technology or a new system of learning. Therefore, Edupreneurs should be well aware about the existing norms in schools, what they are good or bad at, and then make their pitches to invertors so that investor feels that the idea is well thought of, well explained and they have done their due diligence in researching the market before they are entering into it," said Gary Dalal, CTO, Apptology.
2. Don't Build Just "Me too' products:
At the early stage, entrepreneurs usually end up building a "Me too' product. Always remember that you are catering the niche sector where people are very particular when it comes to their child's education. So don't just create a product, create a remarkable product which has a tendency to create an impact in the market.
3. Prove your Product
If you are planning to seek investor attention, it is important to keep this point in mind. Talking to an investor about why your product will work is redundant; they want to see it work.
"Don't tell us why it will work, show it to us. Give us the evidence whether its number of users or revenue you have generated, which is more than enough for us to say that yes the product will work in the market," said Siddhant Bhansali, Startup Mentor and Advisor, 91Springboard.
4. Should Have a Kick-Ass Team:
A good and strong team acts as a growth driver for any startup. And yes, if you venture out to seek funds, investors look for this first. An edupreneur needs to build a strong team by putting them together and by filling all the gaps between them. "We bet too much on teams. I think complementing team with proved MVP are pre-requisites when you actually reaching out to the investor," said Ashish Mittal, Angel Investor, Turning Ideas Ventures.
5. Disruption in EdTech Sector
Yes, this is what investors are looking at. EdTech is an interesting and growing space in India. And investors want to back those startups that are bringing change in the sector with the help of the technology.
"The phenomena stand point we are looking at is disruption in the EdTech space. While there have been many test prep and assessment based startups, we are looking for disruption in the learning space and teaching space, disruption in leveraging technology to scale and disrupting with learning itself. So these are three areas which we primarily look for when it comes to fund a EdTech startup," explained Mittal.
