Byju Raveendran Answers All Controversies, Layoffs, Acquisitions & More | FO 61 - Raj Shamani

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In this latest episode of Figuring Out Podcast we are in conversation with Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO of Byju's, the biggest edtech startup and we have discussed:

-How did Byju’s become the biggest edtech startup?
-How BYJU's Became the Most Valued Startup of India?
-Why did Byju invest his own money in his startup?
-Why did they sponsor the FIFA World Cup and Cricket World Cup?
-What’s happening with Byju’s employees?

BYJU'S was founded in the year 2011 by Byju Raveendran. He is India's youngest billionaire with a net worth of $3.05 billion as per the Forbes list of India's 100 Richest People (2020). BYJU's The Learning App was launched in 2015 and is currently noted as the most valuable startup from India with a valuation of $22 bn.

Coming from Azhikode, a small village in Kerala, Byju Raveendran was an engineer with a shipping company based in the UK. While he was working, he started to help his friends prepare for the CAT exam, an entrance exam for getting into the best business schools in India. To test himself, Byju also gave the exam and secured 100 percentile! He did not join any of the IIMs but started teaching students for their mathematics exams.

Initially, he took mathematics workshops for free and then started charging a fee when he was confident about his prowess. At one point his workshops were so popular that more than 20000 students participated in one such workshop. In the year 2009, he started to record videos of the workshops he organized.

His former students who graduated from the IIMs encouraged him to start BYJU’s classes. ‘Think and Learn Pvt Ltd’ was then formed to create content for school students. He launched Byju’s – The Learning App in 2015, and the app was downloaded by more than 5.5 million people in the first year itself.

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Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction
03:23 - Early life of Byju
05:41 - His parents role in his journey
07:40 - Monitoring vs Mentoring
09:46 - How Maths should be taught?
11:03 - Byju Raveendran's childhood
17:24 - His mindset during his surgeries
20:00 - What he learnt from his parents?
27:11 - Tough time of his life
30:27 - Why Byju's endorse Bollywood and Cricket?
32:48 - Biggest challenge for entrepreneurs
34:09 - His take on work life balance
41:11 - How to create Founders?
43:07 - How was BYJU's Started
46:58 - Byju's growth hack
53:16 - Why people are bullish on India?
1:01:57 - Byju's next global brand from India?
1:04:41 - Hiring vs Firing
1:08:15 - How to keep your team together?
1:12:13 - When should you raise funds?
1:16:15 - Acquisitions of Byju's
1:19:38 - What people misunderstood about Byju's?
1:29:04 - Byju on dealing with hate on social media
1:37:32 - What should founders focus on?
1:39:02 - How to get customers?
1:43:09 - Why there is so much negative noise about Byju's in media?
1:45:55 - Why there was audit delay?
1:47:15 - Akash payment
1:48:01 - Self funding in Byju's
1:50:12 - Future of Education in India
1:52:24 - Next big industry in India?
1:54:34 - Entrepreneurship in India Vs US
1:57:27 - Byjus Raveendran's advice to all of us

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About Raj Shamani
Raj Shamani is an Entrepreneur at heart that explains his expertise in Business Content Creation & Public Speaking. He has delivered 200+ speeches in 26+ countries. Besides that, Raj is also an Angel Investor interested in crazy minds who are creating a sensation in the Fintech, FMCG, & passion economy space.

To Know More,
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About Figuring Out
Figuring Out Podcast is a Candid Conversations University where Raj Shamani brings raw conversations with the Top 1% in India.

[rajshamani]

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[akashj]

Just wanted to make some points here :
1. No matter how you try present it, it is clear that no hard hitting questions were asked in the podcast which are generally linked with Byjus (toxic work culture, lay off, accounting, etc) and the whole podcast only tried to show how great the company and its founder is
2. It's quite clear that most of the positive comments are written by fake ID( CHECK WHEN THEY WERE CREATED AND YOU WILL SEE 9/10 WERE CREATED EXACTLY AT THE SAME TIME AS THE COMMENT WAS POSTED BY THEM
3. Most of the negative comments are being deleted

I would just like to say that we understand that this is a business for you and providing knowledge to your audience is a byproduct. However, atleast let people have an opinion and be legit about your our work ... All I could think while watching this podcast is the movie Sanju where the whole point of the movie was to show how Sanjay dutt was never a bad person but only the byproduct of the circumstances ( this is much worse )

Highly disappointed. Hopefully this doesn't get deleted 🙂

[shabeerali]

I had very bad experience with BYJU. 😬 And thankfully by now everybody knows what BYJU's is all about.

[nirmalpaul]

I would like to think either Byju is not aware of things happening in his firm or is extremely intelligent enough to mask all of it.

[meghrajkamath]

My most regretful decision in life is joining byjus last yr...
Their animation their tech catches our eyes and makes us fall for their trap and till we realize it's too late and we are in deep disappointment and depression of wasting so much money on such shitty stuff
The whole last yr for me was a stressful situation don't know what toor do where to ask for help... They just mentally destroyed me and filled their pockets and provided the worst course

[sangramgaikwad]

I think its just another PR activity
by Byjus to get rid away from the negative news floating in the market, because Brut has also released a podcast with divya gokulnath, and now with Raj, all connected.

[Ninad_]

Don't let a Byju's salesman enter inside a radius of your child's mind

[tikeshwarpatel]

God bless to those who really think this video is not a PR activity and shows the REAL truth of BYJU's.

[karansingh]

We work as a Vendor for Byjus, not paid for almost 2 years now.

[prabhatshankar]

One thing i want to add
I was a byjus student in my 11-12th class
And honestly it was not good for me
I wasted my 30k on that app
I wish I would have joined unacademy or PW instead of that

Still regret my decision

[kohoyoxamudra]

Byju's co- founder was found in Brut and Founder is here with Raj Shamani.
I don't know why Byju's is so much interested now to reveal the internal life of the office.

[abhishekjavali]

Everyone has the right to present their side of the story. To believe in it or not is our choice. Its good to see Mr. Byju getting to put forward his "reasoning" but we can clearly see through his bull💩 now.

[hey_aspirant]

Byjus achievement - they sponsor teams and tournaments☺️

[mayankagrawal]

I never thought Raj Shamani would also get sold. Everything has a value

[navaneethkuttan]

Byju Sir you should see how actually new sales enrollments happen and have close watch on the service the customer get. If you have time I would recommend to see wats happening in ground level. Am sure that if you get to know those you will have lot of things to change in the system restructure.

[AdityaPanwar]

Someone please tell me the time stamp where Raj asked about the Layoffs and Sponsoring Fifa and Messi….

[lijomathew]

Freedom is the key! Unfortunately byjus’ employee don’t have it😂

[manmohansaklani]

Youtube so interesting place...
Byju is talking about empathy and treating all equal.
In Youtube there are videos where Byju's manager abusing sales executive at the worst level

[HardeepSingh-ucjk]

In every interview his leadership spirit is seen in the way he communicates

[fumblyfingers]

He always manages to get the right person on the right time on his podcast. Ashneer grover, byju cofounder, ...