Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Challenging Traditions & Simplifying Languages | Anuradha Agarwal @ Multibhashi
132 Plays5 years ago
Being a modern person in a hidebound culture isn’t easy. Especially when you are a woman because then, your resume is crafted for getting a placement in a ‘good family’. Your qualifications, work experience, education and description all count!
But, the less the better!
Just like many other women, this is a part of Anuradha Agarwal’s story as well. However Anuradha chose to author the latter half of her story herself and after a lot of hotchpotch, she finally built Multibhashi, a language learning platform that makes the process of learning fun & engaging. It is one of the best ways to learn English speaking courses through 10 different local languages or vice versa!
Born out of Anuradha’s sincere determination of helping people learn English, Multibhashi had over 1,00,000 installs by July 2017! Today it has over 1.5 Million learners & over a million downloads on Playstore.
In today’s episode host, Akshay is in conversation with Anuradha, about her journey of building Multibhashi, about having hopes, being strong and growing through adversities. Tune in listen to the inspiring story of this “she-boss” & for some great insights & ideas on starting up.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Founder Thesis Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
H.T. Smartcast You are listening to an H.T. Smartcast original
00:00:24
Speaker
Hi, I'm Akshay. Hi, this is Aurob and you are listening to the Founder Thesis Podcast. We meet some of the most celebrated sort of founders in the country. And we want to learn how to build a unicorn.
Cultural and Family Challenges in Jaipur
00:00:38
Speaker
Yahape in Jaipur at that point of time, now things are changing. Everything is driven by the fact, will this affect the girls' prospect of finding a good match? And if it does, then it is not allowed. And because my parents were very focused on getting me, I would say, placed into a good family.
00:00:57
Speaker
And a good family's criteria of selecting a good Bahu would be somebody who's not so educated and definitely who has never worked. Because any girl who has ever pursued any professional distinct is not at all adjustable into the family, according to this whole mindset.
00:01:13
Speaker
So I understood their challenges. It's not that they were trying to force me out of things I wanted to do, but I understood that they had a certain objective in mind. And if I did certain things, it would get fulfilled. But anyway, so then again, I had no options to work. So I again turned to studying further. I started pursuing CFA from IK-5 University.
Anuradha's Journey: From Finance to Language Learning
00:01:34
Speaker
What if your entire life's path was planned right in front of you? You do not have to do anything but follow it. But what if someone decided that they did not wish to follow their well-planned life and chose to break the shackles of patriarchy and choose a career?
00:01:56
Speaker
simply because education and language was a passion, and they possessed the grit and determination it took to make it to the top. Well, somewhat similar is the story of Anuradha Agarwal, founder of Multibhashi, a language learning platform that teaches English in 10 different languages. In this episode, Anuradha talks about the idea of Multibhashi, how it came about, and her journey from finance to founder.
00:02:23
Speaker
and don't forget to subscribe the show from HD Smartcast, Apple, Spotify or from wherever you get your podcasts.
00:02:39
Speaker
What I used to do well overall in school, I used to be a topper in class. And this is the reason my parents never discouraged me from studying. But higher studies they were a little skeptical because in a place like Jaipur, it becomes tough to find a match if the girl gets too educated.
Breaking Engagement and Setting Marriage Criteria
00:02:58
Speaker
Incidentally, they were able to find a match when I was around 21. I had completed computer engineering and I was doing my MBA. I started my MBA in finance at that point. I scored 49th rank in the entire state and I got into the best possible college.
00:03:16
Speaker
Why MBA Finance? I used to just move based on Hardbinder and it never occurred to me that I should stop and introspect at what I want to do, right? Or what really interests me. It was all about, okay, toppers get into computer engineering, then after engineering, toppers do MBA. And I had limited choice, right? I scored 98 percentile in my ZAT exam, for Exhilarization, right?
00:03:46
Speaker
So I used to give all these exams. I knew I had no chance of going out, but I still kept trying my luck. My father obviously didn't allow, so I didn't even apply for interviews and all. So I settled for the best possible MBA college in Jaipur, and I started doing my finance, MBA in finance and marketing. Finance was major, marketing was major. During first year you got married?
00:04:14
Speaker
No, so I didn't get married, luckily, but I was engaged to this 12th failed guy at the age of 21. And that was probably the first time I got into a small level of depression and I started questioning what was happening. And, you know, I really, I was never repelled by the idea of getting married. But then at that point, I realized here getting married is fine, but
00:04:42
Speaker
why do my parents not at all care about my qualification or my talent or why is it okay for me to get married to somebody whom I can't even talk to like we just had nothing in common. So I was practically like you know I got engaged because women in our this this whole matter they don't have a choice like they don't even ask whether okay so what do you think no I mean it's a good family they have a great business the guy is not educated so what
00:05:11
Speaker
We didn't even want you to be educated. And then all those things that we already told you, you shouldn't study so much. Now because of your studies, you're creating a problem. How does it matter if he's not educated? And it was not about education, to be honest. It was not just about education. There was a lot of things because of which I was not able to find any
00:05:32
Speaker
any common connect with the person culture mismatch yeah maybe that aspirations level of intelligence the quality of discussions topics was entirely a big mismatch and within 15 days i gave up like um and i told my parents that see this is not going to work out um i don't want to take an extreme step so and then my parents were not like
00:05:59
Speaker
the filmy villain kind of parents. They were quite understanding and somehow deep down they also knew that they had taken a decision but they were also iffy about it that how will she survive and all that. So thankfully they were very cooperative and we called it off.
00:06:15
Speaker
But probably that was a turning point where I started thinking here, if I don't take this matter in my own hands, I'm going to again fall into some ditch. So I told my parents categorically that, see, these are my four or five criteria. Now, obviously, I still leave the decision to you, right? But now please make sure that the screening is proper before the resume comes to me.
00:06:41
Speaker
And then I have to have a final word. So I streamlined the entire recruitment process. And that was helpful for me. But it was extremely tedious for my parents now. What were your filters? So one was education. Has to be more educated than me. And education is the screening process. And once I get into the interview process, I'll also judge whether the person is at least
00:07:06
Speaker
as intelligent or more intelligent than me, I will be able to enjoy a conversation with the person, right? So this is one. Intelligence. Second was, and it was a personal choice, of course, I'm not, I'm not trying to say that it should or shouldn't be in anyone else's list. But for me, I had a few value system related issues, which I ran into with the previous person also. So like,
00:07:31
Speaker
drinking, alcohol, smoking, all these things don't go down well with me. So I think those basic checks you have to make sure that at your end you confirm and then at my end I'll confirm again. So that was there and one was location which never got fulfilled. But I wanted to stay around my parents. So I said if possible find a match and checker which was the least priority criteria.
00:08:00
Speaker
And it finally got completely thrown into the dustbin because it wasn't possible at all for them to do that. And obviously they had their own filters coming from a traditional background like related to caste, religion, the family background. So multiple things happened and then it became extremely tedious for them to find that first screening process was not possible.
00:08:24
Speaker
kind of
Pursuing Education Against Societal Norms
00:08:25
Speaker
thing. But finally, at 25, so I continued with my MBA finance, completed that. Then again, job was a big taboo. So by the time I graduated out of my MBA, I had rejected five job offers. I got placed right after my engineering graduation.
00:08:47
Speaker
interviews used to be very easy for me to crack I used to enjoy attending interviews although I knew even if I get selected I will not be allowed to join the job I still used to go for interviews so I selected for a job in Bangalore software development after that after MBA also I got selected by two banks
00:09:10
Speaker
and one CA firm in Jaipur and one very fledgling startup in Jaipur. So these were the five different jobs that I had, options I had. So ICSE bank, I got a posting in Ajmer and this time I was, I don't know what rebellion I got inside me, especially after that incident, I was like, hellbent, I want to do this job. Why are you not allowing me to do a job? I've already rejected three jobs because of this whole thing. And my father was like, you can't leave Jaipur.
00:09:39
Speaker
Ajmer is two hours away from two, two and a half hours drive from Jaipur. And he's like, if you're so insistent, you can travel to work every day and come back, but you can't stay in Ajmer. So at that point of time, I used to get up at five in the morning.
00:09:56
Speaker
go to the bank, travel two and a half hours in a Mercedes with a bank for a three level job. And then come back by and my boss was very strict. So he was like, I don't care if you're not in Ajmer or whatever your family, you're not leaving the bank before 8pm. So then I used to reach back home by 11, 11, 13. I used to be very tiring and then more than tiring, I used to feel guilty of wasting all that fuel on going and coming back.
00:10:26
Speaker
And I'm not adding that much value as an entry level candidate. I did it for one and a half months. And because again, I don't know very weird Akshay but Yahape in Jaipur at that point of time, now things are changing. Everything is driven by the fact, will this affect the girl's prospect of finding a good match? And if it does, then it is not allowed.
00:10:52
Speaker
And because my parents were very focused on getting me, I would say, placed into a good family. And a good family's criteria of selecting a good Bahu would be somebody who's not so educated and definitely who has never worked. Because any girl who has ever pursued any professional this thing is not at all adjustable into the family, according to this whole mindset.
00:11:16
Speaker
So I understood their challenges. It's not that they were trying to force me out of things I wanted to do, but I understood that they had a certain objective in mind. And if I did certain things, it would get fulfilled. But anyway, so then again, I had no options to work. So I again turned to studying further. I started pursuing CFA from ICHFI University. It has nine levels. I think I completed six out of them.
00:11:39
Speaker
So this would be like a distance learning kind of a thing? This was a distance learning course. You had to, and it was quite tough, like core finance, right? And I was self-studying and then I used to go take an exam. So they have these nine levels, I cleared five or six out of them, but it kept me busy. It kept me fulfilled, intellectually stimulated.
00:12:01
Speaker
Otherwise, I was completely unemployed. At the age of 25, finally, I got married to Devendra. Okay, so this was how many years after passing out? So 22, I passed out in 2008 out of my MBA, got married in 2010. So in the meantime, for two, I was engaged in the CFA program. And I also did and that point of time, surprisingly, my father agreed to
00:12:29
Speaker
send me for a one and a half month course that they have in Hyderabad because my mother was there. But it was still a big surprise to me that he finally allowed me to go and pursue this. It was really helpful for me. I first time I got exposure to the outside world, the corporate world. It was kind of an internship where we were learning a lot and then we were also working on a few life projects. So at that time was Devendra already an entrepreneur or was he working
00:12:59
Speaker
Devendra, at that point, was working in private equity field. He was with Olympus Capital. And he was from Jaipur? He's from Rajasthan but not exactly Jaipur. So my criteria of Rajasthan and Jaipur completely got dropped out because my father finally decided that, okay, it's not educated larka.
00:13:19
Speaker
to find such an educated guy in his career life, almost difficult. So let's start looking out of options. So then this proposal came and I was obviously extremely impressed by the resume again. And the most impressive thing about Devinder was that he had made a switch from tech to finance without any education background. So he was from IT Bombay, electrical engineering.
00:13:47
Speaker
And then after his first job with Texas Instruments, I think for one and one and a half years only, he switched to finance without any course in finance. So that was most interesting. And then that became a talking point for us when we first met. So the intelligence factor was established, was well established. And also because I was also from the field of finance, we could relate to each other. I was never passionate about finance. Devendra was very, very passionate about finance.
00:14:16
Speaker
But I had a background in finance. And then my other filters were also all checked. And so where was he based out of at that time? He was based out of good government at that point. Okay. He was working as an analyst in a PE firm. Yes, he was working as an associate. I think he had been promoted by then, but yeah, in a PE firm and very good job and pretty settled.
00:14:42
Speaker
But my father with a heavy heart said yes because my parents biggest concern was I was extremely happy with the resume after meeting him also I was very confident. My parents were very iffy about it for two reasons one the guy was in a job and not a business and the family background so the event was not from a very well-to-do family.
00:15:05
Speaker
They are in fact from a small village in Rajasthan and his father had a small garment shop in the village. Like I said, my parents' whole dream or aspiration, they never wanted me to get educated, do what is anything. They just wanted me to be placed in a good family, right? So for them it was from a small village. So they kept
00:15:30
Speaker
confusing me a lot of times during the decision-making process. Are you sure you want to get married to this guy? You'll have to probably spend some time in that village with his family. He was like, okay, absolutely fine with me. So, thankfully, I was very clear in my decision-making. I got married in 2010 and then I moved to a good one. And then, you know, my whole career thing began because I always wanted to try working.
00:16:00
Speaker
never was allowed. So I quickly got a job in finance, started with a few companies. So the first was Agilent Technologies, that it was a blended role, tech plus finance kind of a role, then moved to Coppol Partners with pure finance, equity research, financial research kind of a role. I was serving the IB clients there. So doing all the research, financial research for investment banking clients of Coppol.
00:16:30
Speaker
But that research was mostly into US and UK firms and not Indian firms. But I was really enjoying my time. Although
The Birth of Multibhashi
00:16:40
Speaker
I'm not very passionate about finance, I used to enjoy the high-paced life there, like getting into office at 9am, getting out of office around 11.30, getting things done every day, learning new stuff every day. So it was all very thrilling for me.
00:16:57
Speaker
And Devendra was obviously extremely supportive of me trying to, but he used to keep questioning me a lot. Like, okay, you're working in finance, but is that your passion? If that's not your passion, why don't you keep questioning yourself? What's your passion? Which area you really like working in, right? So then Devendra decided to move to Kota for resonance, a job as a CFO of resonance.
00:17:24
Speaker
What does Resonance do? Resonance is an IIT prep coaching institute in Kota, one of the largest at that time. And RKB Sir, the promoter, was Devendra. Devendra was among the first few students of RKB Sir. So he always kept in touch and Devendra respects him a lot. So when he needed somebody to help him with the fundraise for Resonance, at that point of time they got talking and
00:17:54
Speaker
Devindra decided that, okay, I want to jump onto this ship. Obviously, P was a cushy job. We were in Gurgaon. I was already working. So he was a little concerned about how will I manage or like, your job will be suffered. I'm not sure if you'll find a job in Kota.
00:18:14
Speaker
But I was very supportive and I told him that I'll find something of my own. It's okay. So we moved to Kota and we were there for almost one and a half years, one and a half, two years. So for me, obviously there were no jobs in Kota. But I figured out some online working options. There was a company called Elance at that point, which is now known as Upwork. So I used to do financial research projects there and my clients used to be mostly abroad.
00:18:45
Speaker
I also found another online company which used to tutor kids from abroad on English and Maths. So I used to prepare students for SAT exams. These were all NRI kids.
00:19:05
Speaker
And I took up that also. That was very interesting to me, although it was not pronounced, but that is something more interesting to me. And I also started learning French at that point. I said, okay, I have all the time on my hand and I really like learning new languages. Why don't I try French? So that experience was very frustrating for me because no proper resources online. I tried a lot of self-learning apps. They could take me to a level, but beyond that,
00:19:30
Speaker
speaking practice, talking practice, a lot of listening practice and online also there was not much good quality content. But I was persistent and I cleared my Delph A1 level. After that my first child was born and we at that point of time residence fund raise had also closed.
00:19:53
Speaker
So Devendra then had been contemplating starting something of his own even before we got married. So now that he had more time at hand, he finally said that, OK, I want to take this leap of faith. And I was really excited about it. So we started Dexter in 2013. 2012, December, Aditi was born. 2013, January was our launch date for Dexter.
00:20:22
Speaker
started working on Dextre with Devendra. What does Dextre do? Correct. So it is a services company, Akshay, right? So the idea was, so Devendra came from a rich investment background, very good connect with investor community, right, in India and abroad. And also because of his IIT background, he was connected to a lot of entrepreneurs as well.
00:20:52
Speaker
And there were a lot of startups coming up, doing well. Fundraze was the, you know, a pain point for almost all entrepreneurs. They were clueless on how to go about it. So our idea was that we want to streamline the entire funding process for an entrepreneur.
00:21:09
Speaker
hand hold him from pitch decks and this sounds very common now because there are a lot of other outfits but back then it was something almost innovative because there were not many outfits like that till that point especially for smaller entrepreneurs. So we started with the focus on pre-series A, angel rounds, pre-series A rounds because those kind of entrepreneurs nobody used to give much attention to them
00:21:39
Speaker
because there was not much money to be made there, to be honest. And also because there were no small outfits. There were only large outfits who were enabling the larger entrepreneurs. So with that idea in mind, we started, in fact, from Jaipur itself. So we relocated back to Jaipur. And our initial thesis was that there are a lot of players in these tier two cities, entrepreneurs in tier two cities, who lack the support
00:22:06
Speaker
who need the biggest support because in the urban cities there are still options, there are still resources. But our initial thesis was not very correct, to be honest. The momentum is there only in the hubs like Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai. So ultimately all startup momentum is there. The activity is there. So we had to be at the center of the action. So we soon relocated to Gurgaon then.
00:22:36
Speaker
We started off from Jaipur, but I think within a year or two, we completely shifted to Gurgaon. So from 2012 to 2013 to 2016, I was with Dexter, really happy with what I was doing. I mean, it was very, very gratifying to see something you started doing so well.
00:23:01
Speaker
Like within a few months we started onboarding clients and then quite a few of them raised funds successfully. So a client success is your success and it's a great re-occursion and it was very thrilling.
00:23:17
Speaker
But I never had an idea of starting something of my own. I graduated in my aspirations from having aspirations to become a housewife, to the aspirations of supporting my husband in his entrepreneurial journey. But I never graduated till then to the level where I could aspire to be an entrepreneur myself or do something of my own, right? That was never the intention.
00:23:41
Speaker
In 2015, my second child was born and that's when I, it was a complicated pregnancy. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. And at that point in time, we were in good ground. So we had already shifted to good ground, but I came back to Jaipur for a couple of months.
00:23:59
Speaker
And at that point, while I was there for a couple of months, a few of my relatives, family, friends, whenever we used to interact, I used to see a shift in mindset. The way people used to shun all girl child education, career aspirations for women, these things were changing.
00:24:22
Speaker
at least the younger females in my circle were looking up to start a career. And they admired the way I had transitioned from such a conventional family to a working woman. So for me, actually, to be honest, when I was growing up, I had no role models for working women.
00:24:46
Speaker
The concept itself was very alien to me. So when I got married and I was working and I had kids and I was juggling all this, I used to draw a lot of flack from my family because they never understood the concept of why women need to work.
00:25:04
Speaker
Your husband is earning. Why do you need to work? Why are you making your kids suffer? Why don't you spend time with them? And I used to take my kids to office every day. Even then, you know, so we didn't have any support. Devendra's parents are in village only till then, right? So it was just me and Devendra. If I have to go to office with Devendra, I have to take my child with me. Take care and all. In Jaipur, it wasn't possible.
00:25:33
Speaker
So although I was struggling so much on juggling between professional, personal life, I never got any appreciation from my family just because they, and I don't blame them because for them, it was a non-existent concept, right? They used to always feel, instead of empathizing with me, they used to always feel, why is she making her own life hell? Who's asking her to work? So that was the kind of attitude.
00:25:59
Speaker
But now, you know, these women were looking for guidance on how we can start a career and we want to do something in this field. And for them, the biggest roadblock or mindset was that we can't even speak in English. So, you know, what will we do in life? You did well because you were so good at English.
00:26:23
Speaker
Because of that, you've got opportunities. And because of that, you're doing so well. I can't even think about going to a corporate office. I feel so nervous. What if somebody talks to me in English and I'm not able to revert back?
00:26:39
Speaker
So I said, yeah, that's not a big deal. Let's see how we can help you with English speaking. And I referred them to the existing solutions at that point of time. There were a lot of apps and websites by then. And I was also, because I was in touch with so many players in the market, like startups and all I used to study, I knew there were quite a few startups in the segment.
Gaining Traction and Securing Investment
00:27:01
Speaker
Okay. Which ones were there at that time? Most popular was Duolingo, even then.
00:27:08
Speaker
But in India also, we were seeing some homegrown startups like Hello English was coming up. So there were a few apps and websites. But then these people tried them and came back and said, because this is teaching us high five vocabulary, you know, grammatical rules.
00:27:36
Speaker
I mean, the comment from this person was like, if I have to learn English from this particular option, then I need 12 years of my life. I need to devote 10 to 12 years of my life because then I need to start from scratch like a school student. So I was like, this is not instantly gratifying.
00:27:58
Speaker
And so I said, okay, let's look at your problem more deeply and try to understand where you're struggling. So these people, most of them had similar problems, contextual problems. So for example, Cholo job interview, the ultimate goal here to clear the job interview. But even before that, I want to build my confidence in small, small instances. So I go to a mall.
00:28:23
Speaker
and few malls were opening up in Jaipur at that time. And there we have, you know, those high-five salesmen who asked me, okay, how can I help you, ma'am? Am I, please? I mean, I don't know what to say, what to tell this guy, and I just run away from there. Or if we go to fancy new restaurants coming up in Jaipur, again, the same thing, what would you like to order, ma'am?
00:28:46
Speaker
and I start fumbling and then somebody from my family would help. But I feel low because I was not able to tell him what I want, right? If somebody from my parents, from my father's office is calling me, so there was this one lady was saying, my husband's, my husband is very fluent in English and his colleagues, when they call, and he's not around, I have to answer the calls. And they started with, hey, can I talk to Rajan, please?
00:29:13
Speaker
I have to fumbles, I have to mumble something in Hindi only. But I feel low. I was not able to respond back in English. What will he think about my husband that his wife can't speak in English? So these small things, but they meant a lot to these women. And then I was like, okay, let's solve the problem first. These small little problems first. Let's not try to climb Mount Everest. Let's start taking baby steps towards it.
00:29:38
Speaker
So what I did was I sat them down and I said, okay, let's see next time when Rajan's friend calls you, this is how you're going to respond. So he says, okay, may I speak to Rajan? You will say this, and he will say this, you will say this, he will say this. So I did a whole written script for her. And she was really happy. She was like, I'm not going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. So then let's speak it. So we role played with each other. I was like, I'm Rajan's friend. Okay, and you're the wife.
00:30:07
Speaker
So I'm calling you, what will you say? So we did that, and she was just reading out from the paper, but she was feeling so happy. And I was like, you go home, you practice these dialogues, and we will do a role play again tomorrow. And I also asked her if it's supposed to be clear, if you don't know any word or any sentence, then ask me. So she had a few doubts around a few words or a few structures, I resolved that. But then I was like, now you have to practice speaking these dialogues, because opening is most important for you at this point to build your confidence.
00:30:36
Speaker
And when we did it the next day, she was over them. She was like, and Radha Basapu say, I say English. There's like here only for a couple of months. It wouldn't happen so soon, but let's keep trying. And then she had more and more context. There were other people who had more and more context. So I kept building on those use cases against small written notes, role plays mostly. I used to give it to these guys. They were very happy. But I was seeing some pronunciation related mismatch, like
00:31:06
Speaker
They were able to say these dialogues but the pronunciation was not correct. And when they were practicing it at home, I was not around to tell them your pronunciation is off, right? So I started recording my voice. I used to give them my voice recording as well as the written notes. But it was a little tedious in my opinion. So I went one step ahead and I explored something online. There was a free drag and drop animation too.
00:31:32
Speaker
So I created my first animated video out of one of these use cases. I recorded my own voice and gave dialogues to characters and it came out really well. I mean, I enjoyed making it and enjoyed listening to it and learning from that video instead of the written notes. So that became then an obsession. I had already gone back to Gurgaon by then.
00:31:55
Speaker
But I kept working on these animated videos and I kept taking more and more use cases from these people and they used to, they used to share it with their friends and they used to then come back with more content. So, but sharing the videos on email was tedious because there were heavy files they used to download and then watch and most of them didn't have laptops, right? So, I started posting it on Facebook page and just for fun I called it Multibhashi.
00:32:27
Speaker
This page grew very popular. So besides the immediate circle that I was trying to help, a lot of unknown people were coming on the page, liking the videos, dropping their comments, chatting with the page and giving their use cases. So I already had enough use cases and now I had even more. Before I realized I had created more than 100 animations.
00:32:48
Speaker
and the page was going very strong. And my videos were mostly bilingual in Hindi because my immediate circle was Hindi speaking, right? So my videos would typically start with aajam seeking a restaurant and raising a guest. And then there would be a waiter coming up in English, I'll explain that dialogue, then a customer coming up in English. This you were doing when your second child was just born?
00:33:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was what, one month old? And I was, I used to just, I used to put both the kids to sleep because day job I already had a Dexter. I used to put both the kids to sleep. Then I tipped her out of the room. I record my own voice and create these animations. I used to sleep around 2 a.m., 3 a.m. and then get up in the morning at 7 a.m. So this had me to sleep, especially with young kids, but I was enjoying it so much. So now Feb 2016 is when I actually launched the Facebook page.
00:33:44
Speaker
And it became quite popular. By July 2016, I had made up my mind that I have found my passion and I want to pursue it more deeply. How big was the Facebook page by July?
00:34:01
Speaker
Yeah, so by July, I think we had some 30-40,000 likes on the page. Very good traction. And in the month of like, during these months from February to July, there were quite a few incidents which strengthened my conviction in the idea and the problem. More than the idea of the problem, that the problem is very huge. There are a lot of people struggling with the same problem. And I was also reminded of my days trying to learn French.
00:34:27
Speaker
how tedious it was because again, nobody teaches you in a conversational format. Nobody focuses on the spoken context. So there were a few people, so there was one guy from Bangladesh who landed on the page and said, I want my mother to learn English, but all your videos are bilingual in Hindi.
00:34:50
Speaker
She doesn't understand anything. Do you have something in Bengali to English? I said, yeah, we have a lot of videos in Bengali. I had nothing practically by then. It was like, give me a week's time. I'll get back to you with the videos. And I quickly hired. And the good thing was because I was the next day, I was aware of all the options I have online because I was connected with so many startups. So there was a startup called Let's In Turn. It's still there, right?
00:35:13
Speaker
I hired a virtual intern next in turn. Nukaia Ali was her name. She was my first ever, I tell her you are the first ever employee of Multifash. I hired her for a very reasonable amount and she dubbed a few videos in Bengali for me. So they were linked to English. She dubbed it for, instead of my voice, it was her voice then.
00:35:35
Speaker
And then I provided it to this fellow and I also posted it on the Facebook when he was really happy. So this and a few other incidents, people coming from Sri Lanka, people coming from Pakistan, not just India, people coming from Tamil Nadu saying, do you have any Tamil? I was like, no, sorry, not right now, but soon we will roll out more videos in this language.
00:35:57
Speaker
So that I think, and the fact that the problem was huge and the second thing that I was enjoying it so much. Solving the problem and third thing, I was doing something right because of which people were liking it because there were plethora of options otherwise. In July 2016, I got really quick text term and I started working on the idea. So I put together a small team on the tech side.
00:36:24
Speaker
Then we decided that we want to go with an app idea because we will be able to bring a customer again and again on the platform which was required if you want them to learn a language. They needed practice every day. So the first version of the app was extremely embarrassing, very basic, raw. It was just a collection of all the videos that I had made and on top of those videos there were a few quizzes to reinforce what you've learned in the video.
00:36:54
Speaker
We were very mindful of the fact that we want to ship out quickly. We don't want to build a Taj Mahal and then because we wanted to ship out quickly so that we can get a feedback quickly and improvise. So December 2016, start to finish, we had an Android app, which taught English from Hindi and Bengali. We'd already released it. We also launched a web version, by the way, at that point. Okay. How are you funding it?
00:37:23
Speaker
So, Dexter was sponsoring that. So, Dexter was the earliest investor in Mandibarshi. Till July 2017, August 2017, almost a year, we had raised no external funding besides Dexter. Okay. But how much did you invest in that one year? Almost 40 lakh.
00:37:51
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So it was a significant risk you were taking. Significant risk we were taking, but both I and Devyendra were very, very optimistic about the idea. But what was the monetization like at that stage? No, so there was no sort of monetization at that point.
00:38:11
Speaker
When we started off, there was no thought to the monetization. The initial focus was only to build an effective product, which solves the problem. So the whole thing was people should be able to confidently say that after using Multibashi, they were able to learn a language and speak fluently in that language. So learning outcome has been our trick from day one. We were like, we'll figure it out. We don't have a monetization plan right now.
00:38:37
Speaker
But let's focus all our energy on solving the problem and getting as much traction as possible so that we can improve the product further. Because it is only from user feedback that we're going to improve this product. Ultimately, it should be a working prototype. It should be able to solve the problem.
00:38:54
Speaker
So we started off with Hindi and Bengali through which we were teaching English. By March, we had added three more South Indian languages through which we were teaching English. Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. Right. And by July 2017, we had 1 lakh installs on the app. So August 2017 is when we raised our first round and we were still teaching only English. How did the first fundraise happen?
00:39:19
Speaker
Sure. So Akshay, our first investor was Dr. Aniruddh Malpani. He's a very prolific angel investor. He's an Infertility Specialist by profession, but he's invested in quite a few startups and he's very active on LinkedIn. So I used to follow him on LinkedIn and I used to comment on his posts. I used to find his posts very interesting and we used to sometimes get into one-on-one chats on LinkedIn.
00:39:44
Speaker
The subject was very interesting. On one such discussions, you know, we decided to have a call. And during the call, he incidentally asked me, okay, so what do you do? Tell me about your business. Tell me about your stuff. And he got talking about Multibash and he found it very interesting.
00:40:01
Speaker
So he then suggested, why don't you send me your deck if you're looking. And we were at that point of time, not really actively fundraising. But yeah, we started thinking about that. OK, we need to probably start working on fundraise of multi-party. The traction is good enough now. So he told me, send me your deck. And that's how the discussion started. And I think within two weeks, the money was in the bank.
00:40:27
Speaker
So, he was fairly quick and they did all due diligence. He has a separate firm solidarity which does it. They talk to our customers, they talk to our team members. At that point of time, there was no cost. Other than that, there was no revenue, there was not much spend also.
00:40:48
Speaker
But you must have put projections and all in your deck. Correct. So there was deck, everything went to him for sure. So what did you project as monetization? Like how would you monetize? So at that point of time, we had started experimenting with some B2B projects Akshay. And they were sounding promising. And in fact, we started making revenue not from the intended channel, but from an unintended channel.
00:41:16
Speaker
In the language learning space, we were still not able to make any revenue. But in the language space, per se, we started making revenue. So what was happening was, as we were adding more and more languages, Akshay, we were onboarding linguists from all the language backgrounds. And these were mostly educated housewives that we were onboarding. I started with a network of five educated housewives in Feb 2017.
00:41:43
Speaker
early days when I was adding those South Indian languages. But it soon grew up to almost today, we have a network of 12,000 such women. Wow. So these are women who contribute content, who contribute a lot of content, who also contribute to training on the platform now. So we evolved into a blended learning model now from a pure self learning model.
00:42:05
Speaker
So there also they play a lot of role. They help us with a lot of SEO content that we generate for the product. And they practically handle almost anything and everything at Multibash. 90%, 99% in fact, of our workforce is formed out of these people.
00:42:22
Speaker
But they would not be like on payroll kind of a work. They would not be paid on the basis of the work they do in that month. Not all 12,000 are actively working. We would have a few hundreds like 500 or so women who are actively working in a particular month.
00:42:40
Speaker
Okay, so what did you see as revenue at that stage when you had five of them? Yeah, so what we were doing was we were doing two things for businesses. One was we were training their employees in the amount of English. Like customer facing employees. Customer facing employees. And number two, there were few startups who needed Indian language content. Okay. So there also we were helping because we already had a base of content creators.
00:43:11
Speaker
So, although at our first fundraise we had projected that the B2B business will do well and we will start monetising from that, it didn't really pick up at that point of time for sure. In fact, we worked, so we carried on in such a capital efficient manner that it lasted us almost two years.
Monetization and Growth Strategies
00:43:32
Speaker
two to two and a half years because we were very lean in our costs and we started generating some good revenue from the language business and some very initial revenue from the language learning business also. Right? So then from there on we added more and more languages by our second fundraise.
00:43:55
Speaker
We had become a player which taught English through 12 Indian languages and also taught these Indian languages through English. Okay. When was the second fundraise? Which year? The second fundraise was kicked off in 2019. Like, November 2019 it was kicked off, closed in March 2020. By 2019, what kind of numbers did you have? Like, how many? We had 16 lakh registered users on the platform.
00:44:26
Speaker
We had substantial revenues from B2B segment, and we had very small but promising revenue stream from B2C segment. Okay, so how do you monetize B2C? Like you charge them? From our first fund raise to the second fund raise, we figured out, so we were constantly taking feedback from our users, right? And again, like I said, the Nordstar metric was learning outcomes.
00:44:53
Speaker
And we were talking to these people and we were figuring out, okay, you're completing the courses. So our course was really good on the platform. Engagement with the content was really good. What is the rate? Like how many people finish the course once they start? 50% of our users were completing minimum 25% of the course. And when I'm talking about the course, I'm talking from beginner to advanced. So it's a huge course.
00:45:19
Speaker
The code's completion rate, the time they were spending on the app was really good. And that's where we wanted to understand from our users if they're actually achieving learning outcomes. And when we say learning outcomes, it's basically fluency in that language. Right?
00:45:34
Speaker
But when we were talking to these people, they were telling us, the app is amazing. It's helping us learn a lot of new words, phrases, second structures, grammar rules in a fun, innovative way. And we had launched a chatbot. The interface was very similar to WhatsApp. So by our second fundraise, a little before that itself, the product had been completely transformed and it was very effortless to learn the basics of a language.
00:46:03
Speaker
It used to look like, imagine you have an interface which looks like WhatsApp and there is a bot who is interacting with you and teaching you a new language. So the bot would serve up a video based on what you last
00:46:17
Speaker
It will send you video files, like your friend sends you video files on WhatsApp, right? It will then send you questions on WhatsApp and give you options. WhatsApp will give you options, but this bot will give you options that you can select from. So all those things, we're doing some really good stuff.
00:46:34
Speaker
So the interface is pure chat. Like it's not like you browse courses, select a course and all that, but through chat only you tell the bot what you want to learn and then it was a chat first platform. If somebody is not comfortable with chat, we also have a card format. So go to parallel formats and then there was a community learning feature where I'm still there. Like a card format is still there.
00:46:59
Speaker
learning piece is still there but we have evolved over and above that and I'll tell you how so when you started talking to these guys they said see my problem is twofold why I'm not able to master the language number one I'm not sincere
00:47:12
Speaker
And also you send me a lot of notifications and you keep reminding me. But because it's just an app, I don't care. Second, I don't want a human being to talk to. So that's my progress. So, you know, that's how we came up. And there were a few other things they told us based on which we decided that, OK, we need to bring in assisted learning also.
00:47:32
Speaker
We need to experiment with that. And when we started experimenting with that and early results were promising, that's when we projected that this is going to grow like anything. And that's how we raised our second round. But those early numbers were really promising. And of course, fundraise, we've seen an explosion in growth of revenue because of that particular evolution in the model. So now what we do is it's a blended learning model. Let's say, Akshay, you want to learn French.
00:48:00
Speaker
Now, what we do is we give you a proper roadmap. So, in the next 30 days or let's say in the next 40 days, this is how you are going to and we've mapped our curriculum to the internationally recognized certification exams. So, for French for example, like I said, I do Delft right, I also cleared Delft A2 later.
00:48:26
Speaker
So, B2C monetization is what you were telling me about. So, yeah, so like I was saying, we were talking to our users, and we were trying to figure out why are they not able to develop the required level of fluency. And from whatever they told us, we thought it would be a good experiment to try human assisted learning also, along with the self-learning that we were already following. So we came up with the idea of a blended learning model. And like I was saying, Akshay, just imagine if you want to learn French, okay?
00:48:56
Speaker
I'm you and Yolan Multibashi and I give you your coffee day plan. Okay. When I say that every day for one hour, okay, or every other day or twice a week, some frequency I decide or once a week, you will get a live audience with a French expert. And she will help you with a particular topic and she will make you speak and it will be a batch of 10 to 15 students.
00:49:26
Speaker
You will all compete against each other. The teacher will first teach you. We'll encourage all of you to speak those words and phrases and give you live feedback on your pronunciation. And then she will make you all compete against each other in a quiz so that you can see what you've learned today. Then she will give you a lot of reinforcement self-learning practice exercises that you will do before the next class.
Innovative Learning Methods and Expansion
00:49:52
Speaker
okay and then there will be a lot of recommended material on the app again in the self-learning mode but by next class you will be proficient in that particular topic and the teacher will move on to the next topic right or maybe multiple topics you'll be proficient with some you've learned through assisted learning some you've learned through self-learning and then you'll reinforce those topics in the next class learn get introduced to a new some new concepts and that's how your journey will look like
00:50:17
Speaker
And all this that you're doing is aligned to a curriculum which is prepared for you to succeed in an internationally recognized certification exam. Right?
00:50:28
Speaker
So for example, like I was saying, French, we have levels like Delft A1, Delft A2. And we have a set curriculum, which is very, very, and these are CEFR levels, Akshay. So the curriculum is not your traditional school level curriculum. The curriculum is aligned to the speaking capability of an individual. Like at even level, this person will be able to speak and understand this, this, this, this. This is how we define it.
00:50:57
Speaker
So what is there in English? Like, like you have Delph in French, what do you have in English? Is it like IELTS? Yeah, IELTS is a internationally recognized certificate that you can take up in English, but in English, typically people are not aiming to clear IELTS. Typically, we are looking for fluency. Right. And for that, we go by the CEFR guidelines, because CEFR guidelines already give you fluency. So we again design our wish syllabus or curriculum based on those fluency guidelines.
00:51:28
Speaker
So this is your A1 English curriculum, this is your A2 English level curriculum and so on. So in French like I was talking about, for French Delph A1, we prescribe 60 hours of live learning along with a lot of 100 or 120 hours of self-learning.
00:51:52
Speaker
So, this is what we are now working on and we've seen some massive growth after that in revenue and in learning outcomes. So, people are actually and we then we have checkpoints. So, there are daily quizzes, there are weekly assessments, monthly assessments and students are provided with proper progress reports around them. Next of the things, for example, creating curriculum done by Maltefashi, providing notes to the teacher so that she can train students. So, the in-class material provided by Maltefashi.
00:52:21
Speaker
the post-class notes provided by Multibash 2 students, progress reports provided by the company. The teacher's role is just to deliver the learning in the classroom. So it's a very limited role. So when we are selecting the trainers, we look for subject matter experts, but we also look for a lot of empathy, cheerfulness, showmanship, because you have to engage a class.
00:52:50
Speaker
you have to inspire a class. So those qualities will look more rather than, yeah. And for English, so this is for foreign languages, what is the charge for English? Same pattern for English, but for English the charges are low. So we charge 1800 rupees for the first basic level of English. That's for how many days or like months? So that involves 30 hours of live learning.
00:53:19
Speaker
along with close to 50 hours of self-learning. Okay. But a person could choose his own hours, like if someone wants to do one hour every day. The multiple batches and we place a student according to his choice of timings. But once you choose that timing, we recommend sticking to it because the trainer connect, the batch connect is important in your learning curve.
00:53:44
Speaker
And these are like two-way video kind of classes or is it audio? It's like a video conference between kids and between students in training. But wouldn't there be like bandwidth issues for somebody who's not in a city which has good network coverage?
00:54:04
Speaker
We haven't seen that issue so far, to be honest. Most of the people these days are using high speed geo network. So haven't seen that, but yes, the product does a few optimizations. So everything happens on the app that we have.
00:54:24
Speaker
So we have done some adjustments in the product in such a way that the low bandwidth can be handled. So what typically happens is if the bandwidth is, we do a certain, you know, last minute fixes, for example, if the bandwidth is too low, the student video will get off. Because the trainer video is extremely important, right?
00:54:47
Speaker
But the student video can get off, or maybe the student, if the network is poor, may not be able to see the fellow student's video. Those kind of things, those kind of adjustments happen in real time. If the network bandwidth is not supportive. So in a one hour class, what would be the percentage split of time in which the teacher is speaking and time in which the student is speaking?
00:55:11
Speaker
So we keep it very very interactive Akshay to be honest. I would say 50-50 because students are naturally inspired by teachers to speak a lot and then there is doubt solving also, instant. So the time that teacher spends talking and when we interview teachers that's when also we give them and in our trainer orientation programs also we have guidelines like if you've been talking for more than three minutes
00:55:38
Speaker
stop and reflect. Why is it that you are constantly speaking and there is no student participation? So like you rightly pointed out, class participation is something we are very conscious about. And these learners would all be from the same vernacular, like all Hindi speaking learners in a batch. Correct, correct. So if it is a Hindi to English batch, then there will be all Hindi background people learning English through a trainer who is fluent in Hindi.
00:56:07
Speaker
Now, whether she chooses to speak Hindi during class or not depends on the level of the students. If they are very initial level students, she will obviously instruct them only in Hindi, but then gradually she starts telling them that, okay, guys, I will only speak in English. I'll speak slowly, very slowly, but I will prefer that I speak in English so that you develop a flavor for listening in English.
00:56:33
Speaker
So what is the level at which you can cater to someone like say somebody is fifth pass, you know, or just started till class fifth? Would he be someone you would cater to or like would you need at least like a tenth pass or what?
00:56:49
Speaker
No, so grades don't matter. We are, by the way, also getting a lot of kids who are learning languages with us. So there is a whole playlist of video testimonials by Multivashy. There are more than 200 video testimonials on YouTube, where you will be able to see people from various walks of life, women, housewives, working women, kids in school, kids in colleges.
00:57:16
Speaker
working professionals, blue-collared workers, all of them are voicing their experience with Multibashy and how they learned the language with Multibashy. So even kids, we form separate batches for kids, obviously. And more than grade, in case of English, actually how we place them is based on their level of fluency. So whether they are at an A1 level or A2 level,
00:57:44
Speaker
or so on, we need to get that out and then form a batch. But I'm assuming one would need to at least know some English, like at least ABCD and just a few simple words like hello and bye and all that. I mean, you wouldn't be teaching them ABCD if someone doesn't know that also. So then what happens is actually we have another product, which is a premium product called one to one.
00:58:10
Speaker
Now these are we'd be capability wise obviously we have the capability to start from that level but the problem is on demand side we see very few people like that coming up right so but still if we get some edge cases like that then we recommend them to join our one-to-one programs but there won't be a batch setting they'll get maximum attention but obviously it is higher priced as well.
00:58:38
Speaker
How do people pay? Do people use cards? Yeah, so people use wallets, people use cards, bank transfers also happen.
00:58:51
Speaker
I think that is one hurdle that we used to face when we started off. A lot of people didn't have any online payment methods. We got completely resolved by the time we figured out our monetization model. Why did you start regional languages? Like, isn't there a dilution? I mean, your focus was to empower people by teaching them English. So then why distract yourself by also teaching them Bengali, for example?
00:59:18
Speaker
So, we thought hard about this Akshayan and we started getting requests for teaching Indian languages, foreign languages as early as 2016 itself. When we started off in English, there were a lot of people who used to tell us, Baki language is only, why only English, right? And we kept thinking about it for a long time and we said, no, we just want to focus on English. We don't want to dilute focus on this and that.
00:59:40
Speaker
Then as we started growing, the realized curriculum preparation is not an everyday job. I mean, it keeps evolving, but it is intense in the initial few days. In terms of trainer, our supply base, like I said, already so many talented linguists we are, we have in our network, right? So for us, same platform, same delivery model, everything remains the same. So when I say I will lose my focus, what is it that will bother me the most?
01:00:11
Speaker
I started questioning myself like that so initial few days when we are launching a new language curriculum preparation becomes the heaviest focus right for that particular language but once that is done and that's figured out
01:00:25
Speaker
I mean it becomes smooth so I didn't see it as a dilution of focus or a problem for me but it in fact gave us more and more I see it that way that as soon as we started teaching foreign languages also and which is more recent phenomena somehow and it's unfortunate but somehow our credibility increased that much more
01:00:47
Speaker
As long as we were saying we teach English, people still used to perceive us as users. I'm talking about the learners. Because they are going to teach English. Because teaching and using are a big deal for them. There are so many people who are professional in English. But when you say that we also teach foreign languages, that's when you establish yourself as the one-stop shop for learning any language.
01:01:08
Speaker
So I think that served the entire, the greater purpose. And we, I don't think we've lost focus or there has been a problem because of that. Like for these foreign languages, these would be Indians only who would be signing up like an Indian signing up to learn Japanese. Our entire user base is India or maximum like neighboring countries.
01:01:34
Speaker
And what is the game plan here? Like are you looking at eventually like teaching Japanese to an American, for example? Yeah, so I think it will be a natural progression, Akshay. If we do well and if we establish ourselves as a one-stop solution for learning any language in the world effectively, where you are able to gain
01:02:01
Speaker
real fluency in a language and not just fiddling with a few new phrases and words, then I think it will happen naturally. I mean, we don't need to strategize for that. We just need to focus on our core strength, which is making the language learning process more and more effective, giving the best possible learning experience to our users by adding more and more learning focused features, learning enhancement focused features.
01:02:29
Speaker
and just giving a great value to our customers for the money they're paying us. If that happens, ultimately word of mouth is very strong. So we have currently students staying in, let's say, France, moved to Paris for their studies and we're learning coach with us. We have people NRIs in China
01:02:52
Speaker
who never learned Chinese because they said, okay, we could get by speaking in English. But then they realized that their kids started going to school and Chinese became a subject that the kids were struggling with. And if they were to help their children with Chinese, they had to learn a little bit of Chinese. So they are learning Chinese with Maltebashi as a family.
01:03:12
Speaker
the batch consists of two families where there are parents and kids and they've just taken a premium batch and they're learning patterns. So these use cases I have already which means that geographically we have already started expanding. Demographically it's still Indian user base but Indians in America, Indians in France, Indians in China are already jumping the ship and now when
01:03:40
Speaker
more people in their circle will figure out that, okay, this people learned Chinese. So let's say, a Japanese living in China, who's a friend of an Indian who learned Chinese with us will automatically be drawn to multinational. But I mean, I don't see it as an immediate priority. So I'm not focusing on that really, geographically expanding, but I see that happening as a natural progression. And in my opinion, it should happen. If we are focused on delivering
01:04:10
Speaker
are valued in the best possible way. Okay. So what is your break-even for a batch? Like, you know, how many learners do you need in a batch for that batch to be profitable for you in English? Correct. So our gross margin is pretty good, Akshay.
01:04:32
Speaker
At the same time, we decided that we don't want to be too greedy and we don't want to have very large batches because the learning has happened in that case. So the maximum batch size that we run today is 20, maximum. Like most of the times we average out between 10 to 15.
01:04:54
Speaker
This is the batch strength that gives us good margins as well as makes sure that each participant is growing. Each participant is being paid proper attention.
01:05:07
Speaker
Okay. And what is the percentage of people who will pay again, like, you know, who take, let's say someone takes A1.1 and then they come back and take A1.2 also, like, you know, go to the next level and pay again. Yeah, that's a very high percentage. So once people clear a level, and now we are seeing, earlier we used to see most of the people paying in smaller bits. Now we are seeing people taking higher bits.
01:05:35
Speaker
So instead of just paying for A1.1, we have people who are paying from A1 to B2, like, which is a long journey. There is this one edge, again, it's an edge case, but there is this one customer who's paid for two years of learning at Multibashy. He's going to learn six languages for four months each. Something like that. Or four languages for six months each. I'm sorry, I don't remember, but either of this, this was like,
01:06:07
Speaker
But there are people who are signing up for longer duration parts. So how much does it cost for someone to learn English entirely like from A1.1 till the last level that you offer? Like do you have like a bundled? Yeah, A1, so EFR defines six levels. A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2.
01:06:31
Speaker
And C2 is a near native fluency. So I myself would fall somewhere around B2, I guess. Okay, so in the job market, which is the biggest reason why people are normally learning English, a B1 level free fluency is more than enough. Like if you're a B1 level English speaker, you're like sorted.
01:06:58
Speaker
So our programs, if I talk about duration, even duration is almost three months to again, almost three months, even takes slightly longer. It takes four to five months, depending on the catching power and all. And you also take similar level. So we're talking about almost a year's a continuous journey in English, even if it's more continuous on and off, that's fine.
01:07:25
Speaker
But if somebody is starting from A1, and that's, I'm talking about somebody who's starting from A1. A1 is a level where you are only, and there is an A0 level as well. So the level that you were talking about, right? Remember you, somebody doesn't even know alphabets and all. So that's an A0 level. So at an A1 level beginning, before an A1 level, somebody is at a level where they know the alphabets, basic words, but they are not able to form a proper sentence confidently.
01:07:55
Speaker
I'm talking about from that level to if you reach, if you want to reach to B2, it's easily a year's time you will require. Okay. And how much will it cost? So if we, if somebody takes a lump sum package, right, if we pays as they go, like monthly or that will be close to 1800 rupees a month, right.
Building a Positive Work Culture in Bangalore
01:08:19
Speaker
But if they pay lump sum,
01:08:22
Speaker
I think it should be close to 20,000 rupees per year. What are your projections by the end of this financial year? What do you think will be the split between B2C revenue and B2B revenue? How many paying learners would you have? Do you have any top line projections like you would have crossed this much revenue by end of this year? Yeah, sure. So Akshay, we've given ourselves the target of growing 10x in revenue by the end of
01:08:52
Speaker
December 2020. And which means that there will be a 10x increase in the user base also paid user paid user base paying customer base. And for that, again, we are also working on quite a few product variations. So, for example, we've recently come up with an exclusive course for English interview preparation.
01:09:22
Speaker
Similarly, we see a lot of requests from people on business communication. They are in a job already, so interview preparation is for somebody who is still looking for a job.
01:09:34
Speaker
This communication English program is for somebody who's already in a job and a lot of this program will be dedicated to email writing, handling office meetings and so on. So we are planning to release products like these also which will be slightly higher ticket size but will also be catering to a large audience.
01:09:59
Speaker
So, yeah, so we just focused on adding more and more features and products and acquiring more paid customers. What do you see as the split between B2C and B2B? B2C has already surpassed B2B for us. In the past six months, we've grown almost in from Feb, from March to July, we've already grown 8X in revenue.
01:10:24
Speaker
And yeah, which is why I'm so confident about, again, from July to December, we will again grow 10X. And this is all B2C growth that I'm talking about. It has been fairly consistent and constant for us. But it acts as a robust revenue stream and helped us in being extremely capital efficient in our journey from the first round to the second round.
01:10:52
Speaker
and even now we see that as a constant support but definitely it will become so before you know b2c was at x and b2b was at y so the ratio is already interchanged now and b2b will become a very small piece of the pi very soon
01:11:13
Speaker
So what is it that is personally driving you? What is it that you are looking to learn? Because you are by nature someone who loves to learn new things. So what is it that you are currently attempting to learn? So honestly, Akshay, I am not a hands-on techie at Multiproshy. And what I'm driving at Multiproshy currently is hiring.
01:11:47
Speaker
So, these are the three verticals that I am, that are my core focus, like I am the responsible person for them. We have a tech, otherwise for tech we have proper support, marketing, sales, we have proper, what's in for
01:12:05
Speaker
even for the functions that I'm talking about, except funders, but hiding we have a proper team and support for product also, for curriculum also, I have a team. How big is your headcount? Like how big is company size? So like I said, 500 people across the country actively working, which is our not on payrolls, but that's our network. Otherwise, the team which is on the payroll, we have 25 people now in the passion.
01:12:35
Speaker
How many of them in tech and how many in marketing? Like what's the breakup? So we have five in tech, five in marketing. Then we have some people in design, curriculum, HR and finance. And constantly learning new stuff here. But I also want to, you know,
01:12:59
Speaker
learn new stuff in marketing as well as tech. That's always been my aspiration, although I've never been able to spend much time there. So that is one area that I keep bothering my folks with. If you involve me more, I would like to stay in touch with how we can ramp up our capabilities there. And leadership-wise, I think I've learned some valuable lessons while building Multibarshi.
01:13:28
Speaker
leadership in terms of inspiring people, in terms of, you know, getting inspired by them, learning new stuff from them. I mean, you have an amazing culture at Multivarshi. And this I keep telling my team that, you know,
01:13:44
Speaker
even if I had not been successful, even if I hadn't reached where we are today, and this is not obviously the pinnacle, but even till this part of the journey, if I hadn't reached, one thing that I would have always felt good about would be that we went in an absolutely beautiful culture at Multibash.
01:14:03
Speaker
So this is something that we can't compromise with going forward as well. New people are joining in and you have to be extremely cautious of adding people who match the DNA of the company and then preserving that DNA even when they are involved in the company. So why did you move to Bangalore? You were in Gurgaon earlier, right? When you started Dexter. So we were in Gurgaon till 2000.
01:14:33
Speaker
2016. 2015 to 2016 was my whole, you know, experiment with the idea. And so in July 2016, I finally decided to quit Dexter. Interestingly, at the same time, Devendra, so I didn't even talk about Devendra's other venture, right?
01:14:54
Speaker
In 2015, Devendra also started off another venture called InstaOffice. So, he and Vikas, they are the two co-founders, they started with co-working space startup and they started off with Gurgaon. So, once they had quite a few properties in Gurgaon and the business was thriving, they decided that they wanted to also expand to Bangalore, which was another startup hub.
01:15:22
Speaker
And that's where they decided one of the founders need to relocate there for some time and build the process out of there and then maybe come back to look down. For that purpose, Ayan Devendra moved to Bangalore in July, August, I think June or July we relocated for and we thought we'll go for a month and we'll come back.
01:15:40
Speaker
after setting up a few centers. But I absolutely loved the city. So I was like, I'm not going back to Gurgaon ever. I want to build out my team. And remember I told you around that time, I was looking for the first few techies to build out the product.
01:15:57
Speaker
And I was completely swept off my feet by the ecosystem. Like the kind of talent you find here and the kind of support you find here for entrepreneurs is just out of the world. In 2017, April, we also got selected by Axillor. That's another fantastic thing that happened to Multibashy because absolutely amazing folks. We were a part of their one and a half month, three months, sorry, three months long accelerator program.
01:16:28
Speaker
I met a lot of people, networked with so many geniuses, got such good mentorship, connects. I mean, Bangalore was just magic for me. And I attribute the success of Multibarshi a lot to my relocation to Bangalore. It was easier for him also, it was more effective for Instorphis also, having one founder in Gurgaon and one in Bangalore.
01:16:52
Speaker
We scaled up pretty well in Bangalore also, the office business. So you've been in I think multiple incubation acceleration programs. What is the difference between then incubator and an accelerator and what is the value add that they provide? So we've been a part of I think five such programs. Some of them intense, some of them not so intense.
01:17:16
Speaker
Three were most intense, Axelor, Grey Matters, Capital Calibrator, and Google Launchpad. So these were very hands-on intense acceleration programs, and two were the non-hands-on but supportive kind of acceleration programs. One was by AWS EduStart, and the other was by Amazon, AWS Oglia. The second was
01:17:42
Speaker
Now, MongoDB started FbStart program, three actually, non-intensive for three. So what these three programs did, these three gave us support in terms of credits to their services, right? In fact, I'm so sorry, we were a part of the fourth program also, which is not so intensive, but credit-oriented program, which was Google Cloud program.
01:18:06
Speaker
So we have immensely benefited out of these four programs because as a young startup, Akshay, if you didn't have these resources, our tech expenditure would have been humongous. We would have run out of money too soon. We would not have been able to experiment with so many ideas.
01:18:25
Speaker
So I really am really grateful to these programs and I think all entrepreneurs should try to get an access to such programs. Obviously they have some selection criteria, they make you go through a process but they're totally worth the effort.
01:18:53
Speaker
So ladies and gents, that was Andrade talking about her venture Multibashi.
Conclusion and Call to Action
01:18:57
Speaker
If you wish to learn English in your mother tongue or if you are looking for translations and transcription services, log on to Multibashi.com.
01:19:23
Speaker
If you like the Founder Thesis Podcast, then do check out our other shows on subjects like Marketing, Technology, Career Advice, Books and Drama. Visit thepodium.in that is t-h-e-p-o-d-i-u-m.in for a complete list of all our shows. This was an HD Smartcast Original.
01:19:55
Speaker
log on to hdsmartcast.com to listen to more such podcasts