Hubli, April 2021: A locally grown educational technology start-up, Baju’s-dot-com, has gone viral in the last fortnight. The banner advertisement free platform acts as an online classifieds board for local tuition teachers for school-going children. Generating revenue only through small fees collected from advertising teachers, they expect to turn profitable with scale.
It all began as a small group project in the TiE Young Entrepreneurs Program 2020. The project brought together 23 tuition teachers in the city to advertise their classes on their platform and saw a significant spike in student enrolments after. It was no surprise when the group were awarded first place in TiECON Hubli 2021. Following an incubation of two months, the company has now gone national.
“Our platform unites all the small and fragmented tuition teachers across the country. It gives those tuition teachers who teach just 10-15 students a fighting chance against the big companies with all their million dollar marketing teams that can build big enough lies and stories and endorsements,” said an emotionally charged Ms. Doddamani, co-founder and CEO of Baju’s.
Parents in the city believe that Baju’s offers the personal touch that is so essential in education and that which is morbidly lacking in both over-crowded schools and “online education”. “The teachers at school don’t have enough time to pay attention to my kid and repeat and explain subject matter. That is why my kid now goes to Ms. Hosmani’s classes to clear his doubts and practice,” said Mrs. Hanchinmani, an involved parent. Ms. Hosmani has added 5 new students to her tuition classes after listing on Baju’s.
In just two days of national operations, over 200 tuition teachers from all over the country have listed their classes on Baju’s online platform. The CEO further envisions to add services for hobby/extracurricular trainers soon. Expected categories of classes to be found on the platform include dance, drawing, music, martial arts, and more. With such an open platform, imagination alone is the limit.