Building a Terrific EdTech Venture in India: Pallav Pandey, CEO of Uolo (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Education is the only passport to get to the next level.

Pallav Pandey: Absolutely. Everybody in India is very clear that if I have to go to the next level, it is my child who can take me there if educated properly. People are spending on education. If you are able to do EdTech in India at a thousand rupees per annum, then every single family is going to buy. We didn’t know how exactly it will play out. Blume got excited, so they put in some money.

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Building a Terrific EdTech Venture in India: Pallav Pandey, CEO of Uolo (Part 4)

Pallav Pandey: Then we had another divine intervention, I would say. He started collecting whatever money was due from schools so that he can pool up whatever was left. He said, “There is one school in Delhi which was opposite to your house. They were supposed to pay us some amount. They’re not paying us. They want to meet somebody senior.” The principal was insisting on it.

I met the principal. She said, “I’m very sorry to hold your payment to meet you.” She thought I was the founder. She said, “I really wanted to meet you. We love your product. This is how we use it.” It was a very simple ERP. Think of like WhatsApp for schools so they can do the parent-teacher communication via the app. She said, “I will refer you to a school I used to work with. We have three branches in our current school. Before referring you, I wanted to know who these guys are.”

Building a Terrific EdTech Venture in India: Pallav Pandey, CEO of Uolo (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: I have coached and mentored hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs. As a rule, I advise people not to follow this principle of releasing a free app or any kind of free service thinking that we will figure it out later. I want you to hypothesize that you are going to do a free app and it’s going to get a number of users. What is your premium service?

I don’t actually like freemium. I like free trial. Something you use for three months for free and then you pay for it. If that is a viable go-to-market strategy, do this business. Otherwise, don’t do this business. This is my mantra.

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Building a Terrific EdTech Venture in India: Pallav Pandey, CEO of Uolo (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What you did had a major impact.

Pallav Pandey: They did that and they swept the election. While we were consulting them, something crazy happened. There was a batchmate of mine in the US. He was consulting for McKinsey. He was after my life. We were doing some interesting stuff, but it was person-dependent. I was also getting tired. Not to mention that the people I had to work with were not great people to work with and look up to in life.

Thursday, November 30 – 626th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 626th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, November 30, 2023, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 p.m. India IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to “attend” to watch, learn, and interact through the online chat.

You can learn more here and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Register and you will receive the recording by email, even if you are unable to attend. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be interested. All are welcome!

Building a Terrific EdTech Venture in India: Pallav Pandey, CEO of Uolo (Part 1)

Pallav is a serial entrepreneur and one of the cofounders of Knowlarity. Readers may recall our Knowlarity story as told by Ambarish Gupta. Pallav’s newest venture is a fantastic case study in positioning and Go-to-Market Strategy for EdTech.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background?

Catching Up On Readings: M&A Trends in 2024

This report from Gartner analyzes the top trends in M&A for 2024. These include unlocking technology M&A opportunities amidst macroeconomic ambiguity, acquiring AI-based businesses, and navigating an increasingly complex regulatory environment. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.

Best of Bootstrapping: The Disbalance Between VC Compensation and the Entrepreneur

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

The compensation disbalance in the Venture Capital / Private Equity world remains quite stark. Take a look at the chart a friend once sent me showing some concrete data on VC compensation, and Private Equity industry performance.

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