Ep #5 | EdTech What’s Broken, What’s Next? With Nikhil, Ronnie Screwvala , Gaurav Munjal & Jay Kotak

Get ready for a gripping episode all about the EdTech revolution... We've got Gaurav and Ronnie, the masterminds behind EdTech, joining forces with Jay, who went to the best colleges, and Nikhil, who went against the college tide.

Don't miss out on this discussion, where we'll uncover the magic of personalized learning, gamification, and supercharged teachers reshaping the education scene.

P.S.: This episode brings you four diverse contrarian perspectives on EdTech in India that'll leave you wanting more!

Nikhil Kamath - Co-founder of Zerodha, True Beacon and Gruhas

Follow Nikhil here:-

Ronnie Screwvala Chairperson & Co-Founder - UpGrad - Building Careers of Tomorrow

Follow Ronnie here:-

Gaurav Munjal- Co-Founder and CEO at Unacademy
Youtube @unacademy

Jay Kotak - Co-Head at Kotak811
Follow Jay here:-

#edtech #unacademy #nikhilkamath #education #educational #technology #iit #iim #jee #neet #sslc #icse #ai #podcast #upgrad #ronniescrewvala

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
01:07 Bill Gates Windows, Gaurav Munjal Doors
04:46 Genesis of Unacademy
09:25 Ronni's entrepreneurial beginnings in a time of no Angel and VC funding
11:50 UTV
13:37 Funding, Movies and Building a B2C Business
16:00 The 30 X business model
19:30 What is Ronnie up to today?
20:25 Owning sports teams in India
22:00 Cost of owning a sports team
23:10 Jay Kotak’s Journey and him feeling older
25:55 Staying in the United States or coming back to India
27:56 Soft Power Vs Patriotism
29:41 Cricket vs. Other Sports
31:20 Imposter Complex and Balance in Entrepreneurship
37:20 Jay’s serendipitous love story
41:31 Ronnie taking a compliment and Gaurav’s drive
45:32 What does it mean to be a unicorn today - Unacademy’s scaling story!
48:40 Why did Nikhil call Jay, Ronnie and Gaurav
50:35 What is Jay building at Kotak811
53:40 How did Nikhil and Jay meet? Kotak's future
56:50 How many children in India go to private schools?
59:55 What does UpGrad do?
1:01:11 Unacademys Tournament Business and some Teachers getting paid a million $!
1:04:22 Syllabus vs Teachers
1:05:34 Ivy League vs Ed Tech
1:13:55 Roblox and gamification
1:16:06 Making Education Addictive
1:19:08 State of the Current Education System and the Future
1:21:55 Are exams and qualifications the only way to get a job?
1:25:30 How to measure talent today?
1:28:55 Why do People get degrees? Does it help prepare you for a job?
1:32:57 Why do we actually learn
1:35:30 Predicting the Future of Education, Jobs & Climate Change
1:41:50 Summary
1:42:10 Ed Tech Founders Share Insights of the Industry
1:45:35 Boot strapped Vs Funded Ventures & Physicswallah
01:48:45 TCS on LRS
1:53:00 Current State of Indian Start-Up Eco-System?
1:57:40 Learnings from their journey
2:07:35 Outro

[kunala]

Middle class in India has the largest range after the Himalayan ranges. A guy with upbringing in 70s in Mumbai around Colaba, with Dad, a professional with Tata, UK firms and siblings studying abroad is saying to had a low middle-class upbringing. That hit me really hard...

[vikasdwivedi]

Gaurav is brutal, knows ground realities and harsh truths of aspirants and education system of India.

[EditxSB]

If these people were from middle class families, especially Jay Kotak. Then I'm homeless 😭

[unseen_lastmile]

This episode pushed me from middle class to lower class😂

[GauravKapatia]

I felt that the podcast discussed the balance between realism and idealism. Gaurav approached the topic from a realistic perspective while understanding which aspects of idealism could be integrated into educational technology or education in general. Screwvala, Jay, and even Nikhil were all idealistic about the concept of education. The majority of the population in India, and even the world, studies to improve their lives, which in turn fosters a desire for the intrinsic value of learning.

[viparyaasa]

Jay Kotak should visit an SBI branch and open an account, that’s the first step of feeling middle class

[aniketdhiman]

Let Gaurav speak for god’s he was far more focused on edtech topic than anyone else

[ayushankar]

Jay Kotak's contribution in this podcast was more than that of Indian batsmen in knockout matches

[mohankumarg]

Nobody was wrong, but others was discussing more idealistic, but gaurav was speaking ground reality. I think gaurav understands mindset of MAJORITY students and parents.

[vvibhorseth]

Gaurav was spot on with tournaments happening in India and how ed-tech really is all about that
Anybody else felt Ronnie picking on Gaurav for no solid reason

[bsethupathi]

I got to give to Gaurav. He's extremely sharp and spoke my mind. It's the one who goes through *shitty* experiences knows the value of *finer* things in life.

[nkhlxd]

man who grew up in bombay in the 70s and a guy who went to harvard for his education will never understand the problems that students in India go through. I haven’t used unacademy but I personally feel Gaurav understands the sentiment of a young aspirational kid far better than mr old everything’s philosophical dude or the kid agreeing with. To me Ronnie and Jay (even Nikhil at times) seem bourgeois with only Gaurav being the exception. An indian student’s way to a good life starts by whether he or she goes into IIT or cracks NEET or UPSC (this does change later in life though). Also the only thing I learned after watching 2 hours of this is that I’ll never get those 2 hours back because nothing of value was spoken but maybe that’s just me.

[tejasasank]

Ronnie Screwvala seems to be a big time bully. Kudos to Gaurav Munjal for keeping up his patience and demeanor.

[abhiramsingh]

Summary of this talk:
Gaurav : In my opinion ...
Ronnie : I don't think so ...
Jay : I agree.

[rohanmukherjee]

Jay Kotak looks like that kinda guy who plays squash at a nice upscale club on Sundays, has orange juice, toast and eggs and ends with a nice cup of coffee - checks and responds to his emails on his phone while being surrounded by an equally affluent, yet jovial group of friends and colleagues before driving home in his Audi.

[reevu.]

After seeing a few of these episodes, I feel that the rectangular table is detrimental to the overall quality of the conversation.
The person sitting to the left of Nikhil (eg: Gaurav / Umang) is often sidelined as a result of being in his blind spot, and a round table would be a good solve.

[uuuuu]

Ronnie was such a mood killer man. He looked like someone who wants to constantly be gratified and at the same time wants to appear humble by rejecting compliments. If I would have been in place of gaurav I would have been pissed I am sure he also might have gotten frustrated after a point of time.
Nikhil You are an excellent host and have a calm aura but a podcast is as good as guest are sometimes conversation we t towards global warming, banking and other areas as guests were from different fields. Ronnie was so early to criticize gaurav for taking funds from vc but he should understand gaurav and others were not as rich as him before starting Ed tech companies it is a field which requires money as they and byjus were pioneers they had to burn a lot of cash to bring about awareness and normalising online education PW came at a right time and had popularity online education had become a medium of preparation so that is why he was able to catapult such growth with low expenditures.

[amitmahar]

I came here with so many expectations, specially after watching #Ep3 (which was amazing )
I was like this is so much fun to watch but this one was like those high society meetings where a bunch of rich people ridicule the little guy and talk things that don’t remotely associate with the common public, Gaurav was that little guy who made sense to me every time he spoke unlike the rest . Nikhil ! Man this fell too short from my expectations, wish you luck for the next one .

[salilshukla]

I have so much respect for Gaurav after this, “So you went to Harvard to become an entrepreneur?”

[vmovie]

Gaurav is real at his words, the pov he looks after. Others being a billionaire, they so easily suppress and surpass him and his words. Also he is right in a lot of things. Jay saw things from his pov that doesn't mean Gaurav is wrong.