Shawrya Mehrotra - I Feel Formal Education in India Has Become Extremely Outdated and Redundant (Founder - Metvy)

Entrepreneurship gave me a sense of freedom and empowered me like nothing before. It gave me ample space to explore and express myself as well as contribute to society.

Tell us about your background, journey, and upbringing.

I was born and brought up in Delhi. After completing high school, I pursued my Bachelor's in Commerce with Honors from Kirori Mal College, Delhi University. My father works for a corporate and I am the first entrepreneur in my family. 

Hailing from a middle-class family, I was always taught the importance of hard work, determination, and perseverance. I have always valued money and I believe in leading a simple and down-to-earth life. My parents always encouraged me to try out new things and explore myself to find my true calling.

When and how did you get clarity on what you wanted to do?

When I was in 11th standard, I watched a series online about entrepreneurship called ‘the pitchers’, it inspired me to read more about the lives of entrepreneurs. I was highly fascinated with how entrepreneurs add value to mankind. 

This convinced me to give it a try. I started my project and eventually ended up working with a few startups where I was able to create significant value. I further realized that it's something I could do all day. 

Entrepreneurship gave me a sense of freedom and empowered me like nothing before. It gave me ample space to explore and express myself as well as contribute to society.

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What does your typical workday look like?

I usually start my day with a cup of tea while checking my schedule for the day. After I am done with my breakfast, I freshen up and start working. Throughout the day I have various sessions, meetings with different departments as well as events. 

I always ensure that I take some time out to meditate during my day. At night I take a daily call with the heads of all departments at Metvy to monitor the progress. After that, I either practice music or read some books to rejuvenate myself.

Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What is your opinion about this?

I feel formal education in India has become extremely outdated and redundant. The methodologies and the syllabus have very less or no relevance to the real world. 

There is not much scope for creativity and critical thinking and reasoning. This starts at a very early level. In school, when a student asks an out-of-the-box question, instead of appreciating the curiosity, he is told how the question is “out of syllabus”. 

Even teachers are not given adequate incentive to work hard as a result of which good teachers end up leaving their jobs. Since there is very little practical exposure, India has a lot of educated unemployed population even after having a lot of job opportunities.

How do you handle someone who has lied on their resume?

I take these issues very seriously. If a person engages in these activities at an initial stage of working with Metvy, I condemn it and take strict action against the person. I feel if a person can not maintain professional integrity in the starting, he or she will never be able to maintain the integrity.

                         

What are some of your typical challenges and how have they evolved over time?

Initially, the challenges were more on the lines of understanding the entrepreneurial processes and how to get things going. Now they have evolved more into problems related to managing the team, ensuring growth, implementing the strategies, and ensuring super high levels of customer satisfaction.

Which is your favorite book and why?

My favorite book is “Zen Speaks” by Tsai Chih Chung. It is a book that explains the principles of zen through the medium of comics. It makes me understand that life is much simpler than we perceive it to be and how at the end of the day we all are alike. It explains spirituality and life with simple illustrations and humor.


Bio -

Shawrya, 22, founded Metvy in 2018 where he is building India’s first social mentorship platform that helps youngsters connect with relevant networks and engage in curated mentorship learning experience using the peer2peer learning model.

He left multiple job opportunities including one at an International Management Consulting Firm to build his startup.

Furthermore, Shawrya has been invited for TEDx and has delivered over 50 talks and workshops on Entrepreneurship and Marketing in many colleges including IIT Delhi, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Hansraj, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Kirori Mal College, Ramjas College, and Gargi College to name a few. 

He has also been invited as a guest lecturer on Entrepreneurship and Start-Ups. Shawrya has also judged multiple national-level B-Plan competitions.

Metvy has been covered by YourStory, Yahoo Finance, Inc42, DailyHunt, and 30 other media houses and is being backed by Delhi Govt (seed funded) and Hostel Fund (Pre-Series). Metvy created a buzz in and around Delhi University during the launch of their beta where they got about 8K downloads at 0 CAC over 30 days and were trending on Google Play Store - and raised funds within months of their launch. 

Metvy was further adjudged as a finalist and ranked 4th in Times App Search (Bennett Coleman) and was shortlisted for Y Combinator’s Startup School 2019. Metvy launched India’s first personalized cohort-based mentorship in mid-2020 and became one of India’s first Curated Learning Experience providing platforms. 

Metvy launched its product pan-India again in December 2020 to a highly successful launch trending on both App Store and Play Store - and also raised a round of funding. Metvy recently got incubated at IIM-Bangalore.

Shawrya is deeply passionate about branding and has interned with Ogilvy and worked with startups like SproutBox, Maa Made apart from mentoring many young entrepreneurs.