HIGH INCOME SKILLS For Students to Learn in 2024 | Ishan Sharma
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful discussion, Bavik Mehta, former Uber executive and founder of DIY, shares his journey and lessons learned in launching Uber in India. He delves into the challenges of market entry, the importance of deep problem understanding, and the skills needed for success in tech. Bavik also discusses his vision for transforming engineering education through Scalar School of Technology, emphasizing practical learning and industry relevance.
Takeaways
- ๐ The importance of learning relevant skills for the tech industry is emphasized, as traditional education often lacks practical, industry-relevant subjects like data science and software development.
- ๐ Bavik, having worked at Uber, shares his experience of launching Uber in India, highlighting the challenges of introducing a new concept like on-demand, cashless rides through an app in a market dominated by traditional taxi services.
- ๐ก The significance of problem-solving skills is underlined, as Bavik explains how understanding and breaking down a problem statement is crucial for success in the tech industry.
- ๐ ๏ธ The necessity for a strong foundation in data analytics and algorithms is highlighted, as these are key skills in building and improving tech products.
- ๐ซ Bavik discusses the gap in the Indian education system, where outdated curricula do not align with the skills required by modern tech companies, leading to a low employability rate among graduates.
- ๐ He shares his vision for Scala School of Technology, aiming to reshape engineering education by focusing on practical learning and industry-relevant skills.
- ๐ผ The interviewee's entrepreneurial journey with his startup DIY is discussed, showcasing the skills required to build a product from scratch and the importance of understanding consumer behavior.
- ๐ Insights into the curriculum at Scala School of Technology are provided, including the focus on web development, data science, and real-world projects from the first year of study.
- ๐ The achievements of Scala School of Technology's students in their first year, such as winning hackathons and securing internships at top tech companies, demonstrate the effectiveness of the school's practical approach to education.
- ๐ฐ The discussion touches on the financial aspects of education at Scala School of Technology, including the total tuition fee and the availability of scholarships and financial assistance for deserving students.
- ๐ Finally, Bavik's perspective on India's potential to become a global tech powerhouse is shared, with an emphasis on nurturing talent and the importance of skills over traditional degrees.
Q & A
What was the initial challenge faced by Uber when it launched in India?
-The initial challenge was to change the consumer behavior that was accustomed to traditional pre-booking and cash payments for taxis. Uber introduced an on-demand, cashless, app-based service, which was a significant shift for the Indian market at that time.
How did Uber India approach the problem of having no marketing budget?
-Uber India started with a unique marketing strategy by launching Uber Black first, which used luxury cars like Mercedes, Jaguars, and BMWs. This created a buzz in the city without spending any money on marketing, as people started talking about the new luxury ride option.
What was the significance of launching Uber Black first in India?
-Launching Uber Black first was a strategic move to create awareness and generate excitement about the Uber brand. Although it was not sustainable due to the limited number of luxury cars available, it served its purpose in capturing the public's attention.
How did Uber tackle the issue of consumer preferences and the newness of the app-based taxi service?
-Uber conducted consumer studies to understand the use cases where their service could be most appealing. They identified Friday and Saturday nights, post-bars, as a prime time when people struggled to get taxis, and offered free rides to people leaving bars to try the Uber app.
What was the role of data analytics at Uber?
-Data analytics played a crucial role at Uber, as it was used to drive decisions related to operations, pricing strategies, and understanding consumer behavior. It helped in optimizing the supply-demand balance and in making real-time decisions for dispatch and dynamic pricing.
How did Uber India adapt its product for the local market?
-Uber India adapted its product by introducing an Uber light app for the local market, which had a lower bandwidth requirement due to the prevalent 3G network and a higher number of Android phones. They also introduced cash payments, as the credit card penetration in India was only around 2%.
What skill sets did Bavik Brar identify as crucial for success in the tech industry?
-Bavik identified deep understanding of problem statements, strong data analytics skills, and understanding of algorithms as crucial skill sets. He emphasized the importance of practical learning and the ability to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world scenarios.
What is the mission of Scala School of Technology?
-Scala School of Technology aims to reshape engineering education in India by focusing on practical learning, industry-relevant curriculum, and nurturing skills over just academic degrees. The mission is to produce employable engineers who can contribute significantly to the tech industry.
How does Scala School of Technology ensure students are industry-ready?
-Scala School of Technology ensures students are industry-ready by providing a curriculum deeply rooted in practical learning, offering company-sourced projects, organizing hackathons and coding competitions, and offering mentorship from industry leaders.
What was Bavik Brar's experience like when he transitioned from Uber to building his own startup, DIY?
-Bavik found the transition to be an eye-opening experience. At DIY, he had to make engineering decisions himself, including choosing the tech stack, designing the product, and understanding consumer behavior. This hands-on approach gave him a comprehensive understanding of building and scaling a product.
Why did Uber Eats not continue in India?
-Uber Eats' discontinuation in India was due to the timing and global outlook post-IPO. The pressure to offload businesses that required significant investments led to a partnership with Zomato, which eventually acquired Uber Eats India, rather than investing further in a market with strong local competitors.
What is the vision for India's growth to a $10 trillion economy?
-The vision for India's growth to a $10 trillion economy hinges on nurturing talent across all segments, with a focus on skills over degrees. The aim is to produce a large number of high-quality engineers and professionals who can drive technological advancements and business growth.
Outlines
๐ Education System Gaps and Real-World Skills
The paragraph discusses the disconnect between traditional engineering education and the practical skills needed in top companies like Zepto and Blink. It highlights the speaker's experience at Uber and the challenges faced in launching the service in India, emphasizing the importance of skills like data science, marketing, and product development that are often overlooked in academia.
๐ Launching Uber in India: Strategy and Execution
This section details the strategic steps taken to launch Uber in India, focusing on consumer behavior, competitive analysis, and the importance of understanding local market needs. The narrative describes the use of guerrilla marketing, pricing strategies, and the introduction of the Uber light app to cater to the Indian market's unique conditions.
๐ ๏ธ Skill Sets for Success in the Tech Industry
The speaker identifies key skills required for success in the tech industry, including a deep understanding of problem statements, data analytics, and algorithm knowledge. The paragraph also reflects on the speaker's experience building DIY and the importance of consumer preference understanding and technical stack decisions in product development.
๐ซ Rethinking Engineering Education at Scala School of Technology
The paragraph outlines the vision behind Scala School of Technology, which aims to bridge the gap between traditional engineering education and industry requirements. It discusses the school's focus on practical learning, mentorship from industry leaders, and the importance of data science and software development skills in the curriculum.
๐ก Emphasizing Practical Learning and Industry Relevance
This section underscores the importance of practical learning in engineering education, with a focus on computer science. It discusses the elimination of irrelevant subjects and the introduction of web development, data science, and real-world projects from the first year of study, ensuring students are industry-ready upon graduation.
๐ Student Achievements and Industry Exposure
The paragraph showcases the achievements of students at Scala School of Technology, including participation in coding competitions, hackathons, and internships with top tech companies. It highlights the school's approach to providing students with industry exposure and the opportunity to work on real-world projects and startups.
๐ Curriculum Design and Degree Structure at SST
This section explains the rationale behind offering a BSc degree instead of a BTech at Scala School of Technology. It discusses the flexibility and industry relevance of the curriculum, the focus on computer science, and the various skills and experiences students gain throughout their education.
๐ Creating a Legacy in Engineering Education
The speaker shares his vision for Scala School of Technology as a leader in transforming engineering education in India. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of nurturing talent, the potential for India to become a global powerhouse, and the school's role in producing skilled engineers who can contribute to the country's economic growth.
๐ค Building a Strong Ecosystem for Student Opportunities
This section discusses the ecosystem at Scala School of Technology, which includes access to industry leaders, mentorship programs, and partnerships with over 1,200 employment partners. It highlights the school's commitment to providing students with the best opportunities for internships and future employment.
๐ผ Financial Accessibility and Scholarships at SST
The paragraph addresses the affordability of education at Scala School of Technology, detailing the total tuition fee and the inclusion of accommodation and mess fees. It also explains the scholarship framework based on academic performance, extracurricular achievements, and financial background, ensuring that talented students have access to quality education regardless of their financial situation.
๐ India's Potential as a Global Talent Powerhouse
The speaker reflects on India's potential to become a global talent powerhouse, emphasizing the importance of nurturing talent across various fields. The paragraph discusses the role of institutions like Scala School of Technology in producing skilled engineers and the impact of skilled talent on the country's economic growth and global standing.
๐ Market Dynamics and the Convergence of Major Players
This section explores the market dynamics of major companies in sectors like ride-sharing and food delivery, discussing why these markets often consolidate around a few dominant players. The speaker shares insights from his experience at Uber and the challenges of managing supply and demand in marketplace businesses.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กFore Engineering
๐กRelevance
๐กZepto
๐กMarketing Budget
๐กProduct-Based Company
๐กScalar School of Technology
๐กData Science
๐กAlgorithms
๐กSkill Gap
๐กInnovation
๐กEmployability
Highlights
25% of fore engineering program time is spent learning subjects irrelevant to computer science, such as biology, physics, and chemistry.
Lack of marketing budget at startups like Zepto and Blinkit requires innovative strategies for gaining attention without spending.
Traditional colleges often fail to teach the skills needed for modern tech companies, creating a gap in employability.
The importance of understanding consumer preferences and market needs when launching a new product or service.
Bik's experience with Uber's launch in India and the unique challenges faced due to cultural and infrastructural differences.
The significance of data analytics and engineering in building and scaling tech products like Uber.
Innovative strategies for launching Uber in India, such as targeting bar nights for initial user acquisition.
The necessity for a deep understanding of the problem statement and the importance of passion for solving it in the tech industry.
How traditional education often overlooks the importance of practical skills and real-world application.
The gap between the skills taught in college and the skills required by top tech companies like Google and Facebook.
Bik's journey from working at Uber to building his own startup, DIY, and the lessons learned about product development.
The vision behind Scala School of Technology and its focus on reshaping engineering education to meet industry needs.
The importance of mentorship from industry leaders and real-world projects in Scala School of Technology's curriculum.
How Scala School of Technology prepares students for top tech companies by focusing on practical learning and industry-relevant skills.
The challenges of competing with traditional colleges that have a legacy, and the unique approach of Scala School of Technology.
Scala School of Technology's commitment to providing financial assistance and scholarships to make education accessible.
Bik's perspective on India's potential to become a global tech powerhouse by nurturing talent and focusing on skills over degrees.
Transcripts
25% of your entire fore engineering
program the first year you're learning
things that are not even relevant to
computer science you're still learning
biology physics chemistry engineering
drawing mechanical filing things that
have no relevance to what you're going
to be doing when you join companies like
zepto and blink you have zero marketing
budget do you not have a single dollar
to spend I was able to cut the
this does not make any sense yeah one of
the most underestimated skills that we
don't teach in traditional colleges is
but was I qualified to even get
shortlisted for a product based company
like Facebook Google Microsoft
absolutely not I don't foresee a
scenario where like hey no one should
leave the country just come and build in
the country no that's okay go out in the
world we are producing the Sund p and
the Satya Nas of the world the biggest
Delta between where we are today to
becoming a $10 trillion economy is going
to
be if you're someone in 12th grade or
starting out your career this episode is
super insightful because here we learn
about the skills needed in the industry
and how can you stand out from the
majority of the people out there
bik is someone who's building scalar
School of Technology and has previously
built products like uber and Uber Eats
and he will give you a lot of
information about what is really
important for you to succeed in your
career out there in India bavik thank
you so much for joining me here how are
you doing there I'm doing really well
thank you so much for having me here how
are you doing aan I am doing perfectly
fine it's a it's a morning here in
Bangalore super excited to meet you and
talk about your journey so tell me tell
me about your experience of working at
Uber and then getting to launch it I
think I watched the super pumped TV
series which is about the Journey of
uber and Travis kinck launching it in us
all the challenges he faced and then
launching it in India we would love to
learn about your experience of that and
then what were the challenges you faced
and what did the whole experience teach
you sure um let's go back to 2013 and
this is when my conversation first
struck with with Travis uh this is
around May of 2013 when Travis and team
were contemplating taking Uber Global at
that point of time Uber was only live in
United States and a couple of foreign
countries one was Paris uh in France and
another one was Singapore in Asia and
there were conversations that were going
on of launching Uber in India um through
serendipitous discovery on LinkedIn I
happen to get in touch with Travis and
and team and learned about what they're
trying to build with Uber and then
Travis comes to me and saying hey we're
looking to hire the first leader that's
going to launch Uber in India and then
run the operations here on the ground
around and I was like okay that sounds
great what is Uber and he explained to
me what Uber was at that point of time
and he's like hey so Uber is going to
have these three things that are going
to be different than a typical taxi
that's going to work in India and that's
going to be that it's going to be only
on demand it's going to be completely
cashless and it's going to be only
through an app and I'm like hold on a
second all the taxi companies that work
in India right now at that point time
there was Mega there was meu caps there
was Ola caps also but the only way for
you to book them was you had to pre-book
them which means you you could not book
them on demand you have to book them at
least a day in advance or a few hours in
advance you could have to call a number
typically these easy numbers to call
right like 0 22444 something like that
and you have to pay back cash only I'm
like the three things that every
consumer is used to you're saying you're
not going to be able to do that you have
to download an application very few at
that point of time actually had uh
smartphones feature phones were still
being used in India at that point of
time you're talking about being cashless
MH and on demand as well so I'm like
how's this going to work in the first
place right but when we started going to
the vision of what Uber was supposed to
do and what was already doing in the
United States and how that could
fundamentally change the fabric of the
city and every single city in India and
how it's going to literally make
Transportation as reliable as running
water that was the motto back then um it
just opened my eyes like this is
something that is a deep problem to
solve and really exciting for us to
solve in India as well and that's how my
journey started engaging with Travis and
team of building Uber in the country and
the first product I was given at that
point in time was the Uber 1.0 software
with the the application back then which
was all you had to do was press a button
and the car would show up but you had to
have a credit card linked on it it had
to be on demand had to be on a mobile
app as well uh really tough problem to
solve and we had to really go down to
understanding what the consumer
preferences at that point in time were
and what we were trying to offer was
fundamentally different than what the
consumer was actually used to at that
point of time but that's not a journey
started it's complex we'll talk a little
bit more about how you happen to crack
that but uh very excited about the way
the journey pned out out and this was
you know 2013 so talking about almost 11
years ago that Uber launched uh I still
remember the date we launched Uber in
the country it was August 29th wow in
2013 right here in Bangalore actually
was our first city that we launched in
magical no I remember uh when I was in I
think 10th or 11th grade 2016 I was
living in Mumbai and that's when my
father used the Uber app to actually get
a cab and he was like come I'll drop you
on the way to my office and that was
magical like the idea of a cab coming up
to you instantly that was insane that
was how I first encountered this this
app but I want to know more about what
goes on in the behind the scenes of
launching a product like what are like
the steps that go in place and what type
of skill set is required for the people
who are watching this for them to be
doing all of this executing this right
right see what was very evident was that
the problem that we were trying to solve
for was very deep already I mean if you
just look at everything that was
happening in most cities in India right
what are the typical consumer Behavior
either I'm walking towards my door when
I'm on my way to leave for office I walk
towards my door and have an option of
actually picking up a car key or a key
of my my bike if I ride a bike to work
or I'm going to go down stretch my hand
out on the road and hope for an autoa or
a taxi to stop and take me that was the
typical negotiate and negotiate then
right and some cities negotiate if
you're fortunate enough to live in
Bombay at least Bombay they come on on
on meters uh but City like Bangalore you
have to negotiate right uh and you have
to be disappointed because you're going
to have 20 Auto shars that are going to
just pass by and they will not stop or
imag being a woman and imagine being a
woman right so all those problems
already very real so when we kind of
went on the road to doing some research
problem stat are quite evident the
second thing we have to understand was
okay if I to solve the problem statement
what is really our competitor is a true
competitor another cap company but
that's actually a very shallow
competitor right if you think about it
even today 2024 when uh mobile apps like
blue smart olabs Uber and many other
that are exist today Rapido all of them
are currently in the ecosystem all of
them combined put together still account
for less than 1% of all trips in the
city insane right just imagine the
number of people commuting every single
day they're either going by buses
they're going by trains they're going by
their own cars or their own bikes and
taking Uber olola rapid Etc all these
mobile apps combined still account for
less than 1% of all trips in the day
right that happen in every city so the
problem was very large very deep um and
the consumer was looking for a solution
always there just wasn't any so what we
did was we did a lot of consumer study
understanding exactly the point of time
they're going to be using it we said
what's the first use case we have to
solve for what can be the use case that
can just make it really easy for someone
to try Uber for the first time and we
realized the first time that cannot be
actually going to work the reason for
that was because you're already running
Against Time right and at that point in
time introducing a new product in your
head was going to be hard so we said hey
what's another use case we can look at
and we realized when we were traveling
around Bangalore and we were doing this
you know for the entire week looking at
consumers all across the city we like
hey Friday night and Saturday night when
people are just leaving bars is when
they're scrambling to get an autoa and
they were not getting any it's late
night already there's dir of Auto Ras on
the road you're negotiating the charging
really high prices and at that point
time you don't have a car to drive so we
said why don't we attack that use case
first where we go after a bar night and
we address that first so what we did was
we actually went out to all the bars in
the city and we told all the people out
there at the bar saying hey you're going
back home today just try this new app
download the app called Uber here's a
free ride on us and try to go back home
this was Gorilla Marketing like going to
people EXA right so we went to uh all
the popular bars in the city and we told
them hey free ride on us go take it home
and what that did was they're like w
this is magical MH I download an app I
press a button the car just shows up and
I safely get back home no negotiating
with an autoa driver and now what
happens the next day I wake up in the
morning and it's since Monday morning
after to go to work I think about hey
this is what I did on Saturday night let
me try this again and then use starts
multiplying and now I start using that
to go for grocery shopping I go that for
other use cases I go to work and I go to
meet a friend I go for bar nights and
the number of frequency that he use the
app for increases substantially so we
did that which is the consumer study the
other thing that we did was pricing
right we had to make sure that our
pricing was not substantially higher
right otherwise obviously you have
consumers who are very price sensitive
in the country but we also had to make
sure that both sides of the marketplace
the drivers also make enough money and
the Riders also paying a fair price for
it so we worked a lot on pricing
strategies as well and we introduced
something which was very new at that
point of time we introduced something
that was pricing based on both per
kilometer and by time because you also
had an instance in the city where 2 kilm
can take you two hours especially in
Bangalore especially in Bangalore right
so we introduced both price and uh sorry
time and distance based pricing as well
that was new for consumers but made the
pricing very fair as well uh so we did a
lot of pricing study and of course we
tested the app thoroughly as well so a
lot of product testing happened our
Engineers had to be on the ground really
understand the network that will be
required the bandw that be required for
the application in fact in India was the
first time we also launched the Uber
light app uh this is very early back
then uh there was still a very large
number of Android phones the Apple
ecosystem had not exactly and the old OS
uh the OS and and network was still 3G
for most many had not migrated to 4G at
that point of time so you also had to
build an Uber light app which wasn't the
case in the United States right they
already had 4G and advanced phones and
in fact the Apple ecosystem was much
larger in the US and India was more
Android so we also had to introduce the
Uber light app the other Innovation we
had to do was in the US completely
cashless while we started cash lless out
here we soon realized that consumers
need to pay cash as well so we also
credit C people who have because the
credit card population the country is
only 2% only 2% of an entire country
actually owns a credit card so we could
not rely only on credit cards a payment
instrument if we had to go bigger and
the last thing we did was so this is all
the thing that went behind the scenes of
launching the product the last thing we
did was what's the first product we're
going to go live with that can create
buzz in the city and the director that
we had from Travis himself was you have
zero marketing budget right figure out a
way that everyone in the city is going
to talk about Uber but you not have a
single dollar to spend and we like how
are we going to do that and what we did
was we like hey we have uh competitors
like Mega meu Ola at that point in time
all work providing Swift desires and
eos's and hatchbacks and you had the
auto Reas we said why don't we actually
offer luxury cars instead the black the
black right so we launched Uber black
first and we actually had Mercedes
Jaguars and BMWs on the road uh and the
reason for that was not because that was
a great product to have it's actually
not sustainable at all I mean the entire
city of Bangalore has about 50 yellow
plated luxury cars so you're not going
to serve the city with 50 cars anyways
you need thousands and thousands in fact
today when I last left Uber uh I'm not
sure the numbers today are but back in
2019 we had over 30,000 Uber cabs in
Bangalore alone MH so 50 we not going to
cut it but it just created the marketing
Buzz that we required initially by
launching with with Mercedes and and and
BMWs and everyone's in the city start
talking about Uber and then we launched
the sedans and the hatchbacks after that
very interesting now when you were
working at Uber this is a worldclass
product so you must be having some
amazing people working on it what type
of skill sets Did You observe that these
people have you just mentioned Skilling
and Engineering was required what other
skill sets did you notice these people
had which separated them and made them
the top 1% of the country sure um I
think I would say break into three parts
I think first part was a very very deep
understanding of the problem statement
right uh deep passion to solve the
problem and a deep understanding of the
problem statement itself that was really
important so understanding exactly how
rides happen how they initiate from
point A to point B what are all the
different things that happen from a user
opening the app looking for a car how
the dispatch has to happen from the
point the rider is to the nearest driver
the pickup has to happen the ride has to
happen theop has to happen and the
payment has to happen that was number
one number two really strong data
analytics skill right data science was
absolutely the most valued skill at Uber
at that point of time right everything
that we did was driven by metrics and if
you just think about the number of
databases that you hit with every single
trip that happens you hit the driver
database for every driver that gets a
ride the rider database that has to be
hit a trip database that has to be H
about the trip that happened cuz there
are trip rated metrics the distance the
time it took the price you know how many
times it's stopped in the on the way and
so and so forth right you have to look
at Maps right you have to look at the
transactions that happen uh and the
frequency that happen so number of
databases that get hit and the amount of
data that you get of every single trip
now multiply that by the millions of
users thousands of drivers and the
number of combination of trips that are
happening in the city across all
different products whether it's Uber go
or Uber premium or Uber green and Uber
commute and Uber Auto you just combine
all those the complexity of dat data
that's going behind the scenes you're
capturing millions and millions of data
sets per second so you have to have
really really strong data engineering
right that was really really valued uh
and the third thing that was really
important was understanding um
algorithms and that was not just for the
engineers even the people who join the
business team have to understand how the
algorithms work what is the most optimal
way for a dispatch to work in your city
is the most optimal dispatch is the
nearest driver or is the driver that's
on a particular of the road or is it
that if you're in a particular area give
the dispatch to multiple drivers and see
which one picks there was so many real
time decisions that have to be made
along with Dynamic pricing you must have
heard of search pricing or dynamic
pricing as well right so you have to
also understand the economics of how it
works in the city as well so you're
constantly working with algorithms and
every single person that joined the Uber
team whether you're an engineer or a
business leader had to go through an
analytical exercise that you had to
crack before you join the team as well
very cool so so while you just mentioned
all these skills I just was looking at
back my college time realized that I
wasn't really learning any of these I
was learning about what how how does the
brain really work biology in the first
year of college and then I went on to
learn about electrical engineering but
then never really focused on this
segment data engineering and then
understanding about how data yeah
exactly so I was never really taught
about this why do you think this happens
and how can a fresher who's watching
this video right now now prepare
themselves for this because I think this
is the biggest opportunity today all the
products that are being launched be it
blinket zto and and so many other
products this is where they can make the
most amount of money and have a great
impact in India so how can they prepare
themselves for this role particular sure
isan that's the reason why I'm here
today at scal of schow Technology right
we're shooting this podcast on campus
today and the reason why I'm here as
well is exactly this I'm an engineer
myself I spent four years doing
engineering uh in Mumbai and there's a
fundamental Gap in the education system
quite honestly right our educ education
system has not transformed itself for
decades unfortunately the curriculum
that we teach even the top tier
engineering colleges in the country I'm
talking about in the I and triple it for
that matter the curriculum still happens
to be very traditional and outdated and
what we're teaching our students versus
what the industry requires when we spoke
about these apps like zepto blinket uber
Etc the New Age Technology apps that are
fundamentally transforming businesses
across all segments there's a massive
Gap right imagine 25% of your entire
fore engineering program which means the
first year you learning things that are
not even relevant to computer science
now if computer science is a field that
you're interested in as a first year as
a student that wants to do engineering
and rightly so because computer science
is the fastest growing field today um
where the opportunities that uh students
have when they graduate are probably the
largest uh and most rewarding as well
you have a curriculum where the first
year your still learning biology physics
chemistry engineering drawing mechanical
filing things that actually have no
relevance AutoCAD AutoCAD right things
that have no relevance to what you're
going to be doing when you join
companies like zepto and blinket and
your aspiration is to build a zepto
yourself build a blinket yourself or
work in such fastpaced growing companies
in the in the world uh but here you're
stuck doing things which are not
irrelevant even as you graduate to the
next year or the second year of college
I've seen unfortunately traditional
colleges still conduct coding exams on a
piece of paper I mean and but that's the
dark reality of the education system
today yeah right you have over 5,000
engineering colleges in the country and
you have a uh ratio of only one out of
10 engineering graduates actually being
employable not employed employable right
right which means they don't have the
skill sets nine out of 10 don't have the
skill sets required to actually work in
companies like zepto blinket Flipkart
zomato and so and so forth uh there's a
massive Gap out there which is why
reason I'm here as well so when when I
see what I did at Uber and the skill
sets people had when they joined Uber
and I compare that to what I was taught
or comparing that to freshers today or
even fouryear graduates today from top
colleges they lack that they're not
taught that in school which is why we
actually went ahead and ideated on
creating this beautiful University that
we are at right now which is Scala
School of Technology to incorporate all
our learnings of what it takes to work
in a top tech product company like uber
zomato Etc Microsoft of Google for that
matter and apply all those into a
program that maintains the rigor of a
traditional program but brings in a lot
of practical learning that is really
important in this day and age if you
want to work with these companies so you
left 2019 Uber and then you built what
you're building right now so after 2019
Uber I did work in an ettech company um
I built my own startup called DIY how
was that experience like uh it was eye
opening quite honestly you know but at
Uber I was on the business side of the
pro of of the um you know of uber and I
had an engineering team working out of
San Francisco and also out of Hyderabad
and Bangalore that was building this
beautiful product and my job was to make
sure I get a lot of drivers a lot of
riders that use the application every
single day and we grew our Revenue so I
was in the revenue side of the business
um when I went to DIY I had to build the
product myself right so I had to start
engineering the product myself uh think
through product design think through the
softwares that we going to be using the
layers that we going to have the
database that we going to use as well
are we going to build some react are we
going to build this on uh you know on
flutter or which Tech stack we're going
to be using to to build this lot of
engine decisions had been made for
myself so it was it was amazing learning
for me to build the product and also
then look at the user and how they're
using it as well um DIY did pretty well
we did have a library of over 5,000
videos uh 170 plus skills that kids
across the world were using we had users
from over 170 countries uh we won
multiple Awards like for example we won
the kid screen award for the best
website and the best learning app for
kids in that category um but we did
struggle a little bit with product
Market fit at different parts of the
world but we did do really well in
United States and Canada specifically
and what type of skills were required
for you to build something like this I
think a really strong combination of
again consumer preferences understanding
how consumer Behavior works the business
part of it understanding Tech stack and
making those decisions on what stack to
use and what are the uh pros and cons
and implication of each as a product
skills was important data one of the
most underestimated skills I think that
we don't teach in tradtional colleges is
data engineering and data science and I
think data analytics and uh is is just
extremely extremely important and some
something that we teach right in the
first year of our program at SST is is
DSA uh just because of how critical that
program is and that that course is uh
for every single job you're going to do
in a product based company um so so that
was DIY and then when I was building DIY
I got in touch with our amazing folks
that are building Scala which is anuman
and ABI Manu um and we spoke about
building this offline university called
scal SC technology and we said hey we're
going to fundamentally reshape
engineering education in the country
yeah I got to meet him last year you did
okay great amazing folks and I sat down
with them and I learned about their
vision of building this institution and
I'm like I've been there I've been there
where I've gone through four years where
those four years were not the most
productive I did my be or equal to a
btech all I got College uh I did from
University of Mumbai oh and uh I'm like
all I got is a piece of paper but the
piece of paper meant I degree but no
skills and was I employable no right uh
I learned a job with atos origin at that
point of time which was an IT services
company but was I qualified to even get
shortlisted for a product based company
like a Facebook Google Microsoft
absolutely not so you had like a typical
projectory like of someone who through
the IAT didn't even get into an I then
went to the typical degree and to
absolutely typical typical one and when
I got in touch with these guys and
they're like we're going to fundament
reshape the education system in the
country especially when it comes to
computer science I'm like let's talk
more this this is absolutely required in
the country and we need to work on this
together to do this so I have observed
that in the traditional education for
computer science right they only teach
the science part of it a lot more and
less the software development part of it
right so for example I had the senior at
my college called mayh MH if you're
watching this video in based in
Bangalore he's building his own startup
so he was very hellbent on building
websites that's all that he knew he
probably probably did not get the best
scores in like algorithms and like data
structures and like commerative coding
but he was very good at building
websites and launching those so I feel
like and that skill helped him build his
own startup as well why do you think
this happens like the traditional
education system the they only teach you
the science part of computer science but
not the applied part of it in which
you're actually building you're
launching you looking at all the user
retention and then working towards
building it into a worldcast product I
think it's a problem with the attitude
um they're stuck in this idea of theory
and cracking exams and if I crack exams
that I score well I get my degree so
that's all they're going for right what
they're not solving for is the skills
itself and what is actually going to be
applied in the industry um this thought
process that if I belong to a top tier
college and if I just get through my
four years I could be bunking college
for four four months of the six month uh
semester that I have I just study and I
crack my exams and I make it to next
semester and so and so forth and I
graduate I get my piece of paper in my
hand I'm
done that thought process itself is the
biggest problem right and this is why
the stats are so terrible right if I
just talk about again 1 out of 10
employable not even employed that should
be alarming for us as a country and
again we're a country that takes pride
in our engineers and the fact that we
export so much talent to around the
world we ourselves are producing Talent
which is not employable in the first
place uh fundamentally changing that and
that's what we do at SST also from day
one you're taught webdev you have to
start building your own websites and
which is why if I just look at some of
the accomplishments of our students just
in the first year of their college mind
you this is 202 24 July that we are at
right now our program started July last
year for our first batch of 2023 within
the first year of the program we have
students who learned web dev already
they learned data science already
they've already have competed in coding
competitions like the ICPC which is the
Olympics of coding they' cracked ICPC
and qualified for regionals typically
done in third or fourth year of
engineering colleges in top tier
colleges within the first year they
already qualified for regionals we have
students who contributed to projects
with the government of India if you
heard the bhashani project which is
using artificial intelligence for
language translation languages and all
right our students have contributed
which is life and being used by users
today right uh to the to the project of
bashini as well we worked on projects
with Urban company and Zolo we actually
used for for example Urban company we
used the Vision Pro where you can
actually visualize the wallpaper on the
wall I just got to try it in Singapore
exactly right our drone Club on campus
has actually built a drone
right from scratch that can actually fly
around the campus and detect fires and
then go and address the fire and uh
diffuse it right so these are
firefighting drones that are first
students have already um worked upon our
students are already competing in
hackathons and winning hackathons in
fact one of our teams parts from the
space hackathon and came first wow again
they're competing with students who
belong to second year third year fourth
year colleges right and these are first
year students that are cracking such
competitions uh we have students within
the first year of the engineering have
already cracked internships with top
tech companies we can talk a little bit
more about that as we go forward in the
segment but they already cracking
internships tell me which college will
you crack an internship in the first
year in a top tech company that's insane
right and this is no rocket science all
we've done is fundamentally changed the
curriculum to how it's required to be
for the modern times give me examples of
how is it different what does it look
like really I mean you firstly Focus
only and only on computer science you
only teach subjects that are relevant to
the program of computer science and what
you need to learn from the industry
number one is that right so we take away
all the jogon that's not required you
don't learn chemistry you don't learn
physics you don't do biology you don't
do engineering drawing or mechanical
filing AutoCAD none of this required so
when you take away all that noise you're
focusing on subjects that matter we
teach you web dev and you know data
science from the first year itself as an
example um we make you participate in
hackathons and coding competitions we
Source projects from from real companies
real projects that you work on so you
also get practical experience of what
you learn in classroom and applying that
to the real world so when you actually
graduate you're not surprised what
happens typically for an engineering
graduate today when they graduate the
massive gap between them graduating and
joining a company and when they reach a
company they just lost like where am I
what am I supposed to do now and that's
why companies have to invest 6 months
and now training this graduate again on
the job so they're ready for the job in
the first place huge liability imagine
that you already went through a
four-year course where you've learned
nothing at all now 6 months the
company's resource are being spent to
teach you so you can actually be
productive on the job itself uh so we do
company Source projects we have this
amazing place that we are at right now
called The Innovation lab where students
get to work on their own ideas in fact
two students on our program on in our
first year program have already launched
their own startup the app is live on
Play Store and the App Store and it's
already generating Revenue oh wow right
um so we also encourage entrepreneurship
and then what we do is all our students
how do you do that so in the Innovation
lab what we do is our students who have
ideas they pitch the ideas to us we help
them refine the ideas then they get to
work in the Innovation lab whether they
want to work in the Drone lab if it's a
drone based idea robotics lab it's a
robotics B idea they can work on the a
ml lab if it's something to do with that
or if they want to just incubate
building a new application or a software
or a mobile app and our team we have
people like Naman Bala X Google right we
have Sai we have of course anuman and
ABI Manu whove built Facebook Messenger
working directly with Mark Zak at
Facebook AB Manu who worked at fab.com
very prolific engineers and Business
Leaders guide you Mentor you every
single day every single student also has
a mentor from the industry so they can
get mentorship from people who are
currently working at Google Microsoft
Amazon Etc that guide them every single
day as well and we also bring in
Industry leaders that come on campus and
do fir side chats or provide mentorship
to our students on an ongoing basis for
example we had the co-founder of Duan
subash Chri come down
talk to our students we had AJ Gore who
is the CT ex CTO of goek the largest
tech company in Indonesia and Southeast
Asia come down and talk to our students
Rajan anandan right who was earlier the
the person the man behind the scenes for
Google and Microsoft in India and
currently the Venture Capital leader at
Serge Ventures uh seoa or now Peak 15 uh
these are just some names among the many
amod malva sir amod Mala sir he's the
co-founder of Udan he was the ex CTO of
Flipkart he conducted lectures year on
campus and this just first year imagine
I mean imagine getting a chance to learn
from a tech co-founder of a unicorn
company who's coming giving lectures to
you in the first year itself so when you
have such amount of exposure right and
so much of mentorship being provided on
real world application building students
are bound to do amazing work and that's
when in the first itself you see
students who are doing absolutely
incredible work that you can't even
imagine sometime in some colleges even
happened the fourth year or the fifth
year of the of the college yeah what
does the whole degree look like give me
a more light about that yeah so we know
we get this question a lot that uh why
are you offering a BSC and not a btech
um you know that's a stigma I want to
talk about it Sean honestly I got a be I
know many people have spoken to have got
a bch in the past as well I was about to
get a be then I dropped out okay right
um and honestly that's a stigma because
if you're just solving for a piece of
paper like I mentioned earlier and no
skills um go for a bch but you're likely
not going to land up anything
extraordinary at a product based company
right um we also had a choice to offer
btech as a institution when we were
working on this uh a couple of years ago
we had this proposals in front of us
saying hey what degree should we offer
bch also was an option for us but
problem is with bch there are
fundamental regulatory block blocks that
restrict you from providing the kind of
curriculum that we provide here and the
skills that we can impart here and the
flexibility that we can provide to our
students to specialize in different
areas they want to work on industry
projects get the kind of mentorship
allow for a one-ear paid internship as
part of the program as well all of that
can't happen so when we looked at the
degree structures our fundamental thesis
was we have to solve for two things one
was make sure that our students when
they graduate have the option for all
the possibilities in the future for
example if they want to take the gate
and do the mtech they can go ahead with
the BC with honors and still take the
gate if they want to take a cat do an
MBA they can do that as well they want
to take another master's degree in the
future they can they want to go abroad
and apply for a Visa they can do that as
well they want to go for a PhD abroad
they can do that as well they want to
immigrate abroad for a job they should
do that as well or get jobs here in the
top tech companies they should do that
as well we looked at all the websites
and spoke to leaders at companies like
uber Google Microsoft IBM Amazon just
look at all the job descriptions from
all these companies on LinkedIn on the
website none of them mention that I need
a btech degree only so when we like okay
if all the possibilities are open which
means they can graduate and do whatever
they want to do in further studies or
work with any company that we desire for
them to work at or they desire to work
at as well and the second thing is
allowing us the flexibility to create a
curriculum that is deeply rooted in
Practical learning which allows them to
learn the skills really really well that
lands them the best outcome possible
with some of these top tech companies
that was actually a BC degree can you
name like three to five skills which are
really important for a fresher who
watching to get to succeed sure um I
would say there soft skills in their
hard skills right I think when it comes
to hard skills I think data science um
and and algorithm I think is really
really important so DS is really
important webd is really important of
course so full stack learning backend
front end systems engineering is really
important I would say those are the hard
skills which are very critical when it
comes to computer science I think comes
to soft skills really really important
to have the attitude that you're
learning to build right you're not
learning to crack exams if your attitude
is only that I'm going to pass an exam
going to get a cgpa score and I'm done
that's not going to cut it right um so
attitude of of learning to build really
important the other one is understanding
how problem statements work in the first
place in fact this part of problem
statements the reason I emphasize so
much upon this is because this was my
experience interviewing graduates also
when I was at Uber I to interview a lot
of engineering graduates and my biggest
issue with them was they not understand
the problem statement itself so if I
present a problem to them and say give
me an answer the biggest issue was not
the fact that they could not reach the
answer they were just stuck in the loop
of what this problem really means they
could not decod the problem statement
itself they couldn't break it down into
pie they could not break it down into
pieces because that's not taught in
college right you're not taught that at
all uh so I think just understanding how
to break a problem statement down how to
solve for that is really important and
and last Innovation like constantly
thinking of creative ideas being
creative questioning being curious is
really important as well so one thing I
wanted to know more about is it must be
really challenging right you are
competing with colleges which have tens
and tens of Years of Legacy and how do
the parents react when when they come
across the idea of scaler School of
Technology and how do you compete with
that well to begin with honestly I I
don't see so much as competition um I
see us as hopefully being the Front
Runners and bringing a
revolution um India Today requires
thousands and thousands of engineering
colleges it's not a winner takes all
market right I'm not building an Uber
again I'm building institution that has
to last decades it's going to outlive me
right and it's going to become a
institution that people are going to
call as a new age Stanford of India
that's what we're trying to build out
here uh so it's a legacy that we're
building and it's going to outlive you
and I when I think of that perspective
and the fact that you have 16 lakh
Engineers graduating every single year
they can't all graduate from just one
Institution so you need thousands what
you need is institutions that constantly
innovate bring in more forward-looking
curriculum that's more in line with the
industry bring in transformation I'm
hoping that we become the Front Runners
in that and that as a result Legacy
institutions that unfortunately not
adapting to The Changing Times take
inspiration from us and also make
changes to their curriculum I would be
really happy tomorrow if an IIT
replicated a curriculum of SST and and
offered that to the students out there
as well which would be great cuz we
doing this for the country right India
needs this and our future Engineers need
this we are just playing a small role in
that I can graduate today a few hundred
maybe tomorrow a few thousand but we
need millions of high quality Stanford
quality engineers in the country because
software is all around us and the future
business every single business a tech
business so you're going to require
millions of software Engineers to work
on that which means collectively as an
ecosystem we have to work on
transforming the education we just want
to be the Front Runners and I think
today we are this this is the problem
why India doesn't have a Google or a
Facebook absolutely so it's only infosis
and V yeah and if I start looking them
as competition honestly then I'm going
to be very myopic in just constantly
keeping this information to myself and
hopefully get a few hundred students
that graduate but that's not going to
cut it for the country either mhh how do
you allow for opportunities for for
students because uh when I was in second
year right so there's this program that
happens in my college in which you have
to pay the college to get access to a
unpaid internship no ways yeah and uh
they call it practice school and uh
because of that everyone pays for that
two-month internship and they do a free
internship they don't get paid for that
I was able to cut the I was
like this does not make any sense and I
was like I'm not going to sign up for
this and and the way they build it is
that if you do not say yes to that
unpaid internship you don't get the
actual internship after fourth in the
fourth year for months long so there's a
huge problem with people in which they
either get like shitty internships or
the one that they want to get into they
are not able to access so how do you
make sure that people who are studying
in this program at school scaler School
of Technology they get the best
opportunities yeah sure I actually break
this into two parts right what do a what
does someone require when they coming to
an institution to actually get the best
outcome they need to build their profile
and they need to have access what is
required to build a profile you need a
very good curriculum which is what we
offer here at SST you need to make sure
you're working on Innovative projects
either you work in the Innovation lab on
your own projects or you work on company
Source projects right you work on
practical projects as part of the
curriculum itself all that helps you
build a profile you're obviously
learning the latest skills in the
classroom as well um your profile
becomes stronger and stronger so what's
happening is that your resume is now
standing up right and it's it's cutting
the crowd among thousands of rumes my
resume stands out because I've among all
the other first year students I've got
the latest skills I've got projects I've
worked on which no one else has I've
worked on Project the government or the
companies like Urban companies Zolo Etc
that no one has worked at I've got
mentorship from people from the industry
and exposure to people like subash Chri
and you know Ajay Gore and Rajan and
many others that no one else has so my
profile stands out what do I need now
access I either need access to Industry
leaders which basically means I have
access to people like subash Chri from
dukkan and many other
who are building top tech companies or
whether it's dender from zamato or
you know bny bunel from flip cart this
is what the ecosystem at SST looks like
we have people like these who are coming
on campus and talking to our students
you have access to Industry leaders or
you have access to companies name one
college in the country that has access
to over 1,200 employment Partners in
India and globally a typical placement
cell in any college will work with about
100 200 companies that's a typically
three four member placement cell and why
are they able to get get to this number
well one because they don't have the
share volume of students they work with
we have when we combine all our programs
of scaler Academy where we have 40,000
Learners that have been graduating from
the academy program we have scaler
School of Technology as well we have
scaler data science and machine learning
program we basically have already worked
with over
1,200 employment Partners along with
that because these employment Partners
have already laid their trust on scaler
because of the kind of curriculum and
the graduates we've given them right so
they're like hey all graduates come out
of scaler are performing really well
they didn't really a company want to
hire more from there in fact if you look
at 2022 Amazon hired more scaler
graduates from Academy program then all
the IIT is combined right so they're not
only hiring from scaler they're hiring
from scal in bulk so now a student has a
great profile and access to Industry
leaders and 1200 plus employment
Partners I mean that ecosystem doesn't
exist in any college today yeah and this
is why our first year
students um I'm talking about just a
very recent start 19 students of our
first year students and we have about
200 students in our first year program
so far who've joined in 2023 about 10%
of them have already been hired by Duan
for internship within the first year of
the program this is for what role uh
this computer science right this is
always software engineering so this is a
uh internship program for for Duan um
the fact that Duan even agreed to come
on campus they typically don't go to
anyone who's not in third year fourth
year they are interviewing of first year
students
and then they made offers and 19 of our
students secured internships within the
first year we have six of our students
who qualified for interviews at Google
Now mind you I mean the interviews are
still going on and I'm pretty confident
that a couple of our students will end
up getting a Google internship as well
but in first year imagine in first year
six of our students already been
shortlisted for an interview at Google
that by itself is a big milestone and
I'm pretty confident one or two of them
are actually going to qualify and make
the internship as well results will come
out soon but within first year their
profile has become so strong and there
have such strong access that they're
already cracking amazing internships
across the country very interesting how
does the the tuition fee look like and
how do you make sure that access is for
everyone yeah yeah so our total tuition
fee is approximately 22 lakhs over a
4-year period this includes everything
this includes your tuition fee as well
as your accommodation and your mess fee
as well all included together
approximately 22 laks is what you end up
paying depending on the uh accommodation
type that you go after whether you go
after Double sharing which means two in
one room or triple sharing or three in
one room so you provide hostels as well
yeah we have an hostel as well which is
not too far from the campus it's walking
distance from our main campus which is
where we are right now uh main campus is
where all the classrooms happen The
Innovation lab is the cafeteria is we
have a Turf outside where students can
play Etc and the micro campus is where
the hostel is where there's also reading
Loom Library the mess uh and also spaces
for them to study as well as stay as
well uh so all combined between 2 22 and
23 lakhs depending on the kind of
accommodation they go after however we
understand that for some students this
could be a pretty large number uh while
we believe this is important for us to
charge as a fee because we want to
provide the highest qu of Education
remember even our teachers our
professors our instructors who come our
mentors who come on campus are people
who are from the industry right these
are director of engineerings or VP of
engineerings or senior Engineers from
Top tech companies that come and teach
here so these are instructors also from
industry they're coming and teach
teaching here so very high quality
instructors that obviously demand us to
also charge a fee that's providing us
you know this high quality experience
for our students as well Mak sense that
Vision Pro don't come cheap Vision Pro
don't come cheap this Innovation lab
don't go cheap right so you to make sure
we provide experience which is
unparalled we have to charge a fee that
also is to some extent manageable for us
as well uh but what we do is we provide
scholarships so if students come from
worthy backgrounds uh we do provide
scholarships that range anywhere between
10% to 100% of the entire tution fee uh
we look at several parameters for these
scholarships we look at their academics
of what they scored in their 10th and
12th we look at if they've actually won
any olympiads um or participated in any
big you know coding competitions uh we
look at their score in our Entrance Test
which is the endet uh or any other
competitive exams they may have taken
across the country we look at that as
well we look at any other
extracurricular achievements they may
have uh and we also look at their family
income and their financial background
all put together we have a objective
scoring that we look at for our
scholarship framework and basis that we
also award scholarships that like I said
range from between 10% to 100% the
scholarship also comes from our impact
foundation so we actually have something
called scaler impact Foundation where we
are contributors also from the industry
so for example one of the contributors
out there is uh patm Foundation vij
shakar Sharma I mean one of the largest
tech companies in the country PM is also
a contributor at the scale impact
Foundation we have people like prasana
Sankar Who is the co-founder of ripling
ripling is now a $15 billion company in
the Silicon Valley in fact prasna
Shankar came down last year to speak to
our students during a commencement day
he's a contributor um in the program as
well we also have bavan turaka who's the
co-founder of Zeta Titan radic a
billionaire himself also actively
working with us in improving the program
and a contributor in the impact
foundation so all our scholarships are
given from that additionally to ensure
that we are rewarding bright minds and
making it more affordable able for them
to join this program we also recently
committed 15 crores uh to anyone who is
in the top 100 of the Indian national
mathematics and informatics Olympiad uh
so if you're within that which means
you're a really bright mind in the
country we want to make sure that the
financial reasons doesn't block you from
joining a program so we do offer
scholarships that help and for those who
don't qualify for scholarships or Beyond
scholarship require more financial
assistance we also have Partnerships
with uh Banks and nbfcs uh where we
offer different kind of you know
financing products to help them pay off
for their loan CU what we're confident
of is that when they come here the
education they going to receive over the
four years and the skills they're going
to gain internship they're going to have
where they're going to get paid during
the internship like they did you know
example of these 19 students who going
to get paid from the con for about a
year of internship that they're going to
do and these are all paid internships
paid internships right and then they're
going to graduate and land outstanding
opportunities with product based
companies like the ones I mentioned
earlier uh um the
ROI for these students is going to be
really high right so when I multiply
that over a 5 10 year Journey right the
investment they're making over four
years actually pays off very handsomely
for them uh at this institution so we
make sure that we don't compromise on
the quality keeping the fee that we do
provide them with scholarship and
financing options and then an outcome
that easily pays off for the program as
well this all is very fascinating now I
want to close it off by talking about
your vision for India and the T
right like there was some stat which
said that the India's biggest export is
actually its Talent yes people who
actually go out provide all the talent
that they have right so what do you
think India can become and what are you
working
towards um see India is going to become
a Powerhouse I mean you're talking about
a country that's already on track uh to
become I mean we have laid our vision to
become A1 trillion economy right uh over
the coming decades and I think we're on
track to do that but to the biggest Del
between where we are today approximately
3 trillion in economy to becoming a $10
trillion economy is going to be Talent
right if we ensure that our education
system nurtures the right Talent across
all segments computer science is one of
them whether it's business or different
types of engineering programs or um you
know Commerce and any others for that
matter computer science is going to play
a significant role and the talent that
we create is going to play a significant
role in Delta between a $3 trillion
economy and a $1 trillion economy so for
India to become a global Powerhouse we
have to nurture Talent we will continue
being a talent exporter that will not
stop and that's something we should take
pride in right I don't foresee a
scenario where like hey no one should
leave the country just come and build in
the country no that's okay go out in the
world ultimately what you're doing is
you're making a nation proud right we
are producing the Sund p and the Satya
Nas of the world and we're hoping some
of them come from this institution also
let them go abroad let them you know do
amazing stuff uh for the world for that
matter but for India specifically it is
really important that the stat of 16 LH
Engineers graduating but only 10% of
them actually being employable has to
change dramatically our talent
Powerhouse has to be really really
strong for us to take this from the
economy that we are to the economy we
want to become um and I think we are on
track to do that if we have more and
more such institutions coming up in the
country uh that follow this General
ethos of skills over degree as long as
we do that as long as we break the
stigma that all I want is a piece of
paper but actually no I want actually
build the the right product I mean you
have engineering graduates in the US
that have done so well being dropouts
they don't have a piece of paper what
they had was the attitude and the skills
required to build that company that's
all I talk about on my channel skills
over degree yeah on a side note I want
to talk to you about Travis and what did
you observe about him like he is an
anomaly founder he builted and he got
oued yes what is different about him she
intensity of attacking a single problem
statement what what I've not seen with a
lot of Founders and what Travis did uh
is
focus uh lot of Founders get very easily
defocused on saying have reached a
certain level now I start doing many
things together right and they start
defocusing thinking that the problem
statement that they had has already been
solved and it's not big anymore right
this would happen the same with with
Uber as well if Uber felt that the
competition was only another right
sharing company if Uber fell the
comption only Ola and mean meu we could
have just been complacent by now and and
and and you know sitting and maybe
trying to do 10 different things Uber
continues to do only one thing and one
thing only in India right now which is
right sharing and his laser focused on
just becoming better and better at that
every single day the intensity of
solving one deep problem and what did I
tell you earlier all the apps combined
account for less than 1% of trips in the
country which means the problem
statement is just so large the depth of
the market so what he was really good at
is picking a problem statement that is
enormous right food delivery and right
sharing combined together are extremely
large problems I mean just but but why
didn't Uber Eats work in India um I
wouldn't say didn't work what what did
not work for us is the timing U mind you
in 2018 Uber was already preparing to go
IPO and in May 2019 we went IPO post IPO
you had tremendous pressure to offload
all those businesses that require
Investments right uh I would not say
non-performing assets that require quite
significant further Investments to keep
growing and you had local competitors
like swiy and zamato that were raising
large funding to grow the business here
locally as well now if we are to stay
competitive in the country and grow the
business along with them and create the
category along with them we have to
invest significant amount of money and
post IPO the pressure was too much from
investors to allocate those many dollars
and as a result it was more prudent for
us to partner with zomato and then zato
acquired uberit rather than investing
the billions of dollars required uh to
grow the business AIO so it was more to
do with our timing and our Global
Outlook rather than I think suggesting
that didn't work in India yeah why do
you think there's like a Dooly Market
everywhere like it's it's Ola and Uber
it's zato and swiggy it's yeah I mean
it's quicker and you know uh OLX and uh
Amazon and flip cart why why does this
happen it's just most Marketplace
businesses work on liquidity right you
have to constantly manage supply and
demand um and you know in case of food
deliver you have to manage three sides
of the marketplace you have delivery
Partners you have customers and
restaurant Partners comes to right
sharing your drivers and Riders you know
and so and so forth uh sellers and
buyers in case of uh Flipkart and Amazon
any Marketplace that requires um
balancing Supply demand constantly you
have to make sure that both grow
simultaneously which means you have to
keep investing in both to keep growing
it and hence the number of dollars
required to grow the business is very
large you can't have a lot of drivers
and very few Riders it won't grow the
vice versa also won't work right which
mean keep investing on both sides of the
marketplace for it to grow that's what
happens with Amazon and flip cart you
keep investing in sellers also and
consumers also when that happens very
few are able to build a product that can
sustain the amount of investment require
both of the marketplace to grow and
hence you eventually in almost all parts
of the world there's not just an India
thing look at every country and look at
any Marketplace business at best you
have three players mostly two players at
Best three players and eventually two
will succeed and they'll become really
large and have a distant third um and
that's true for every Marketplace
business simply because of dynamics of
how the supply demand matching has to
happen across all sides of the
marketplace fun thank you so much bavik
that was his experience at building
products like uber your experience
building DIY and his focus on building
scaler School of Technology if you want
to know more about scaler School of
Technology check out the link in the
description they have an entrance test
coming up which can also get you some
scholarships so check out the link in
description if you are interested I hope
this was insightful let me know if you
have any questions in the description
below in the com comments below thank
you so much bik my pleas thank talking
to you thank you have a good day thank
you so much for watching as well thanks
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