Professional experience · 2018–23
Building an education business from zero
What it takes to price, staff and retain a service when the fee has to arrive every month.
The problem
A household wanted a child to keep up at school and could pay a monthly fee if the class felt real. Existing options were too expensive, too far, or too casual to trust with a working parent’s evening.
How it ran
Curriculum followed the board the children were already in. Acquisition was local: parents, schools, a child whose marks moved. Pricing was the first serious decision: too low and the room could not be staffed; too high and the household that needed the class left. I adjusted against retention, not a market-research document. Cashflow, space, my time, and the academic calendar set the limits.
2018–23Founded a tuition centre in Delhi with no inherited classroom. Closed it in 2023 for the next degree of work.
₹1 lakhMonthly revenue reached over five years. Margins are not published.
What it taught
An organisation that cannot price, staff and retain will not deliver, however elegant its theory of change. When I now sit in a panchayat interview or cost a help desk, I still ask whether this will exist next month for the person who has to use it.