Transcript: Democratizing Education (Bonus Clip)
Listen to the full transcript of this bonus clip from The Startup Project, where host Nataraj Sindam and guest Eric Bahn of Hustle Fund discuss the Indian EdTech giant Byju's. They explore its role in democratizing education and leveling the playing field for millions, weighing its societal impact against criticisms of its business practices. This conversation offers a nuanced look at the complexities of scaling a mission-driven startup.
2022-09-11
Yeah, I mean, even, uh, when people talk about startups in India, if you look at what is the most successful company, which is not just based on valuation, but also like in terms of, you know, positive cash flow is Byju's, which is, uh, I think at this point some 12 billion dollars, and it is worth that much because they actually generate a lot of, uh, uh, you know, operating income as well. Yeah. But they do face a lot of criticism because, um, you know, there are some aggressive sales tax dates, you know, that people don't like and people, you know, when I speak to, you know, my friends who are Indians, and who are not into startups, it's like they're always complaining about Byju's. But to me, what it looks like is, if you look at what what the world is with Byju's and without Byju's, it's much, you know, a level playing field. Yeah, there are some bad things with every company and, you know, that have to be corrected. But if you look like post Byju's and pre pre Byju's, what a Tier 4 or, you know, Tier 5, uh, you know, city kid can achieve now versus what was possible before is entirely different, right? He has the access and most of it is free. Like we can say that you know, hey, you know, there are some bad things about this particular company or that, but at the end of the day if you look at on a 20, 30 year timeline, what change that caused is actually very big and it sort of level plays probably at 200 million population. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so, yeah, I mean I mean just giving access is much more important.