1. Describe about your Business and founders
I'm Piyush Teli, founder and CEO at Magzigo Techlab Pvt. Ltd.; Magzigo is an education-oriented platform that uses augmented reality and virtual reality and provides both hardware and software with preloaded content to educational institutions on a yearly subscription basis. We are incubated in Supreme incubators delhi.
As of now, our education has yet to evolve from, black/white board days, 2D texts on paper and no practical exposure or understanding, which causes students to lose interest and motivation more quickly. Do you remember your old school days? Studying with blackboard and white chalk and understanding things with the pictures that you saw in books!! Is it really good enough for today’s generation who is born in this internet era? Well, it might be good but not enough. Now it’s time to upgrade our approach towards understanding things.
In this covid lockdown, we have seen many multi-million-dollar EdTech start-ups. They are doing great work and they are targeting informal market of education. Unlike them, we would like to help the formal education sector. We want to upgrade the traditional way of education system. We want students to learn things in more interactive way. Instead of reading same text books again and again we want student to feel the realistic use of textbook concept in real world.
Big EdTech start-ups of India are coaching classes, start-ups that bring technology to education with their animated videos. They provide better understanding and solving the weakness of the traditional education system. Their animated videos generate interest in students and allow them to study after their school day.
But, is it really necessary? Why do the students require additional instructions even after school hours? Are they not able to clear all the doubts in the school? Or classes are not just engaging enough at schools? Why is this? Maybe because of a lack of learning tools or less interest in traditional education!!
Well, we are the right solution for them. We plan to empower schools by providing state-of-the-art technology that will assist teachers and work as a learning tool. This will improve schooling quality at such a level that their students don't need to rely on tuition classes and they can use their after-school time pursuing other interests and hobbies along with removing the extra burden of tuition fees.
Currently, the evolution of augmented reality can help expedite our vision of bringing education and key concepts in front of students in a more interactive and interesting way. If a student sees education concept/(s) as a game on AR device, they are more likely to spend more time on education as much as they like to spend on gaming. Also, the grasp of the concept would be better as they might remember it frame by frame like a video and will be able to understand practical nuances of the same. In augmented reality, all the small details can be studied from every angle with more clarity. Augmented reality in classrooms is going to be the future of education system as interactive nature of the technology makes it an ideal fit for the classrooms of the future. An augmented reality device or program can scan materials like books, worksheets, or flashcards and provide additional information and resources for students as per their choice to keep them engaged. Interactive games and activities can also be designed to reinforce key concepts and help students learn more effectively. The technology can also help students with disabilities to overcome challenges in the classroom, making education one of the best use cases for AR.
In the year 2017, I left my engineering college along with some great memories and friends. Now, why I left it? That’s another story altogether. Simply, I just didn’t fit in there. The studies were boring, there was no practical experience and I always felt that this isn’t what I am supposed to be doing. So, I decided to opt out of it. Then, I started taking coaching for UPSC (Union Public Service Commission). There I came across a very huge problem: NOTES. To study for UPSC, you need to have notes. You can’t possibly read everything and read it again and again to revise it. The main problems were;
a) I was too lazy to make my own notes,
b) I could’ve borrowed it from other people but they didn’t have complete notes
c) I could’ve bought books but they were pretty expensive. Then an idea sparked inside my head. You see, throughout my life, I always seem to get ideas to start a business that solves a common problem. But this time, I decided to act on it. Here comes Magzigo! Magzigo was supposed to be a site where students from any class or pursuing any degree could get their hands on notes related to their subject. I thought this is a great idea (I still do think the same!) but it ultimately didn’t prove to be successful. Only around 2k users joined and then the covid pandemic made us to cease the service.
I have always been interested in technology and always the first one to know any latest technology that has come up. And on one fine day, I came across AR/VR technology. It fascinated me, it had numerous applications and the idea of being the pioneer in this field in India couldn’t get out of my head. But I was hesitating because I knew my family wouldn’t be able to support me financially. Still, I wanted to pursue my dream, so I decided to give it a try.
The company got registered, I got an office, hired employees and works started piling up. Still, I was happy. I finally felt like I am in the right place, doing what I was meant to be doing. We got incubated in Supreme incubation and now they are helping us in our journey.
2. What is the biggest challenge of being a CEO and how do you overcome it?
Registering a company and calling yourself a CEO is quite easy but honestly, you have way more responsibilities than claiming yourself as CEO. While, to start a company, idea is not important but a plan of execution is.
Hiring your first employee is the first challenge you face. You can throw money into the market to hire an IIT guy as your employee but only if you have so much money in your company’s account. But in the early days, you have almost no access to big funds so you should hire only the one who believes in your idea and on the amount of salary you offer.
As a CEO you are responsible for maintaining Cash in your company’s account. You should be a 360-degree person. From developer to tester, accountant to the salesman. You should know what are you going to do, why you should do and how are you going to do.
3. Where do you see the company in the next five years and how will you bring about the change?
We want to equip the schools and colleges with technology so that they won’t stay back in this technology era. Everything is moving online with the help of technology except schools. They ate still using white chalk and blackboard to explain things and we want to improve the traditional way of Education. We have the vision to create content and make this way of teaching popular for all ages right from K-to-12 and going to colleges in multi-disciplinary fields like medical to engineering to aerospace, architecture, etc. In the next five years, we want to create an ecosystem where students can have hands-on experience with every concept. We want to become a complete one-stop solution for even to students of rural areas to have the experience of every experiment in a very affordable manner.
4. Did you ever feel like giving up on being a CEO and what motivated you to pull this off?
After becoming a CEO, you have to take the responsibilities of your employees and their families too. So, you have to make sure that you hire only the right people.
It’s hard to survive when you are not from a very rich background. I have spent days eating a samosa a day to save money so that I can pay my employees. I started this business even after not having enough funds because the idea of doing this business didn’t allow me to sleep at night. I have seen days struggling for one-time food but never thought of giving up on doing this because I know why am I doing this. Founders usually love their solutions of doing business but in my case, I love the problem I'm going to change. So, the problem itself motivated me to keep going.
5. Describe your biggest achievement
My father used to say “You need to be rich to become richer”. Even after hearing all this, I started my start-up and I have successfully started this business with almost no capital.
6. What was your aim to start the company?
I never wanted to establish a start-up. But I started this because on one else was doing this. The only thing I wanted to do was to give people solution to the problem. AR/VR technology is around us for around 1 decade. But in India, this technology is still at an infant stage. The reason behind this is the lack of technology and affordability. Usually, this service costs around 1 Lakh INR (1200$), and people can't afford it so we are here to provide this service to students at a very low cost which is lower than your monthly telephone recharge plan.
7. Tell us some of your failures
My biggest failure is not being able to complete my graduation. I always dreamed of becoming an engineer but due to financial instability I had to quit it.
8. What is the role of your family in your successful career?
My family and my friends are the first people who supported me in my journey. Behind capital you need motivation and guidance too. They might not give the right advice but they might help you to avoid making wrong decision. There is always an angel in everyone’s life and in my life, I have my friends who always stand by my side whenever I need them.
9. What is your message to the young generations and to their parents?
Parents have priorities these days. Especially in India, parents tend to spend millions of rupees in their child’s marriage but when we talk about launching a start-up, they hesitate to give money. This mentality needs to be changed. You never know if your child is going to be one of the next trillionaires of the world.
For young people, who starts something to create wealth, I would like to say, don’t run behind creating wealth, but run behind skill; and wealth will run behind you.
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