1. Tell us more about your company and your journey.
This decade, it is expected that E-learning will generate $500 billion. Therefore, the need for e-learning platforms with certified courses will expand daily. Especially the COVID wave highlighted the need to never stop learning.
Upon seeing this, I was motivated to produce and publish courses that offer a comprehensive collection of text and video lectures for programming languages and web development tools.
As a result, I made the decision to post the notes, or study material, on the website Studyopedia and the free course videos on my tech YouTube channel, Amit Thinks.
Even though Studyopedia has been operational since 2018, we were preoccupied with finding clients for web development and programming. The focus moved to producing video courses for our YouTube channel, Amit Thinks, as the COVID wave turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
I was able to establish a reputation for myself as a freelancer before I founded Studyopedia, working for reputable e-learning companies. The best e-learning websites in Australia and India, Tutorialspoint and Sitepoint, respectively, were among of my freelance clients when I was 23 years old.
I have worked on, produced, and published text and video lessons in 40+ technologies so far, including computer languages, databases, content management systems, etc. For students, engineers, and professionals interested in e-learning, I have produced or published more than 70k articles, posts, scripts, blogs, and videos till now. Millions of people have viewed these posts, blogs, and videos.
I opted to start my own business as an entrepreneur after gaining experience from all these reputable government organizations and private companies through full-time positions and freelance work, including IIT Delhi, IASRI Delhi, the University of Delhi, and C# Corner.
The Studyopedia website and the Amit Thinks YouTube channel were both founded by me. On my channel and website, I provide classes in programming and web building. I was also recognized with the Excellence in Education Award in the year 2022 by the Indian Achievers Award.
2. What is the typical role of a Founder person in any organization?
The founder needs to make all the top decisions. He should be a leader who takes the entire team along and leads.
While leading, the founder should never forget to motivate employees and keep all the negativity out of the office.
3. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to people management
The biggest challenge for us was not only people management, but free education, funds, etc also kept us busy. But yes, people management was tough at the time of COVID.
Some of our employees were COVID-positive, and it was a difficult time. We realize health is more important than anything, and we were patient enough to wait for our employees to get fully fit to begin working again.
Prior to founding Studyopedia, I developed an Android app, Learnofy, for kids facing difficulty learning, but the app was discontinued the same year. That phase taught me a lot about understanding the needs of the users.
Providing free education in the form of online courses is not easy for any start-up. We realized it immediately and focused more on our quality videos to run our YouTube channel. If the content is good, it would surely work on YouTube, and Google AdSense would love it.
White-hat SEO and quality content are favored by the Google algorithm, and they were effective for us. More quality content makes it into YouTube's suggested videos section, generating more natural views with a greater reach rate and engagement.
Not to miss, funds and manpower management. If you know how to crack people management, you can begin the entrepreneurial journey with fewer funds. A lot of times, the hurdles related to funds and competition came in between, but I never gave up.
4. Describe a time you had to make a tough decision (e.g., budget cuts, organizational restructuring, market withdrawal, etc.). What did you do and what was the result?
At the time of the COVID lockdown, all work went online, and employees worked remotely. It was a tough decision initially since surprisingly the offices were closed due to the COVID wave.
At that time, in March 2020, we restructured our plans and shifted our focus to creating video courses on our YouTube channel, "Amit Thinks".
As a result, I made the decision to post the notes, or study material, on the website Studyopedia and the free course videos on my tech YouTube channel, Amit Thinks.
5. How can one know if they have a knack for Founder and will enjoy the role?
In layman's terms, if you want to solve a problem that not many have even tried or that no one has ever thought of, then that is the first step towards your entrepreneurial journey. Also, some entrepreneurs do not want to work for anyone and love making decisions. They want to be their own boss.
In our case, we tried creating short, 2-hour crash courses for beginners that became popular on top educational websites like Udemy, Packt, O-Reilly, TutorialsPoint, SkillShare, GeekforGeeks, Packt, etc. We focus less on ranking our courses and notes.
Instead, we focus more on providing the best courses that are clear and crisp. This resulted in students loving our short courses instead of just stuffing the slides, content, and videos.
We focus mostly on examples, quizzes, and content with self-explanatory illustrations. Our focus is on that single user who is interested in even a single topic in programming.
6. What are your tips for first-time and aspiring interns?
Never give up!
If you can keep your patience for the first 1-2 years, then you will not be hesitant to take risks.
With that, cracking people management is the key. The right people, at the right place, at the right time, will scale your venture.
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