EP 39: Bum Bum Bole with Shreyaan Daga

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to our podcast Taking Chances with me Soela Joshi and my co-host Anupama Bhalla.

[00:00:07] Our guest today is Shreyaan Daga, a 19-year-old entrepreneur and founder of OLL. OLL teaches

[00:00:14] real-life skills like entrepreneurship, AI, robotics to over 20,000 kids daily across 35

[00:00:21] cities of India. Shreyaan was the youngest pitcher on Shark Tank India and runs a TV show

[00:00:27] on CNBC TV18 called Skill Titans which empower students to pitch their business on TV. In this

[00:00:34] episode, he tells us about his Buddha moment of enlightenment. His vision is to have one billion

[00:00:40] students using his platform and he serves as an inspiration that ages no barrier to driving

[00:00:47] meaningful change. Welcome Shreyaan. Hi and I'm personally like very very happy to be here.

[00:00:54] I've always heard your podcast. So starting with I mean firstly you're making me feel very very old

[00:01:00] because you're just 19 and you know you're already a very successful entrepreneur so tell us a bit

[00:01:07] about you also about your company or you'd love to hear our listeners would love to know from your

[00:01:13] story. So in heart I'm a back bencher like I never really understood what was taught on the

[00:01:19] blackboard or in the textbooks 73% was my highest ever I scored and when I did score that I once

[00:01:29] went back home and it was a C in my school. So my mom she took the report card and she's like

[00:01:39] and that really hit me so the next day I went to school and I decided

[00:01:45] to become a very difficult so I started becoming a failure and I started learning how to love to

[00:01:50] fail and starting you know enjoying these failures. My first failure was you know I proposed to a girl

[00:01:56] and got rejected there was the first time I failed in life so this led me to learn you know

[00:02:02] skills outside of you know the textbook and I started learning things that were more than

[00:02:07] that and this brought me the passion of practical skill development and that's what OLL is about.

[00:02:14] I'm the founder of OLL, I started OLL when I was 15 today OLL teaches over 30,000 kids on a daily

[00:02:22] basis and no textbook no theory hands-on practical learning do and learn that's our philosophy

[00:02:30] so this is what we're doing across India in 35 cities. Wow that's really commendable you know we

[00:02:37] were just discussing and it's kind of difficult to wrap our heads around what all you're doing because

[00:02:41] you started doing stuff way before you were even a teenager I was reading up about the website

[00:02:46] you set up to sell your paintings so I mean it was way before you turned 19 so the question

[00:02:51] really is that you know you'll have friends around you who are well dating going out to

[00:02:55] nightclub doing all kinds of stuff that 19 year olds do and here you are working hard sitting

[00:03:01] in front of your company backdrop while we are talking to you right so you know what made you

[00:03:07] put aside what normal teenagers do and get into something like this and how did you know that

[00:03:13] you had a winning idea with you when you started out? So this is a very personal story like I

[00:03:20] don't usually share it but I will like when I was 15 on 15th April 2020 I was studying

[00:03:26] at Gautam Buddha in the history textbook and I was very inspired by him like how he is still a

[00:03:32] leader in many people's hearts so I was so inspired that I decided to leave home and I took all my

[00:03:38] belongings and I walked out of home a wallet, slipper, watch everything and on the way I started

[00:03:46] donating it so first I gave my slipper to a poor person then my watch then when I gave my

[00:03:52] cycle to this child his t-shirt was green in color he was his face was fully like Mela and

[00:03:58] he took the cycle and he said Bhaya mera sapna poora hoge and he smiled so wide I could see his

[00:04:04] crooked teeth so that smile and that feeling is what you know I've never been a normal child

[00:04:10] from the start I've always that feeling just keeps me going even today whenever things aren't

[00:04:16] going ahead or whenever example money doesn't come in the company that time this motivates

[00:04:21] me to continue growing and continue keeping it up so that's the story about me that's how I got

[00:04:26] into this and this the idea was always a hit because I knew it if there are many kids like me

[00:04:32] who don't really enjoy the normal current textbooks so that's what I wanted to you know

[00:04:39] pick up on and fight against and what about challenges I mean you're an entrepreneur which

[00:04:44] you know is difficult for anybody even with experience and you're so young so what are

[00:04:50] the challenges that you faced and did you ever take any tough decisions or it was smooth going

[00:04:55] decisions have always been tough and yes challenges come in everyone's life it's not just mine

[00:05:01] everybody faces through it and yes there has been challenges like first year we clocked

[00:05:06] in a revenue of 1.5 crores 3-4 crores and we made a profit of 30 lakhs so that give my parents

[00:05:16] like you know he made a balance sheet and he made a mark sheet and now I have to pursue my balance

[00:05:20] sheet so then I asked them to drop out of school and when I did drop out the second year we were

[00:05:27] in losses and then I had to like you know explain my relatives and my friends and family that you

[00:05:34] know okay we're still continuing to grow and we'll keep going on it it'll fix itself

[00:05:39] so always not been a straight curve it's been like this and this and this so yeah

[00:05:45] that's in everybody's life but it's not just mine. So you know Aashiyan I have a 19 year old boy

[00:05:51] I mean and he is studying and I wonder what I would say if he came and told me that you

[00:05:58] know he wants to like drop out of school and go out and start something on his own

[00:06:04] so how did you get your family to support you how did you make friendships because at your age

[00:06:10] especially you know school is really the playground where you make deep lasting friendships so what

[00:06:16] happened how did you do that I mean tell us more about that. I was in 10th grade when lockdown hit

[00:06:21] so till that time you know my core three best friends which I made are still my best friends

[00:06:26] till now so that issue didn't come but all the college friends I did miss out on because

[00:06:31] I didn't actually go to college or university that's something I did miss out on and maybe later

[00:06:37] on in life when I do come back to learning the textbook that time I will get back to it and

[00:06:45] so I always believe that parents are our biggest investors for me they're 50-50%

[00:06:51] shareholders of mine so the biggest decision like if you want to make any decisions which

[00:06:57] really change your life I have to convince my shareholders first it's my parents so my results

[00:07:03] proved it in the first financial year and I didn't have to you know explain them that this is the

[00:07:09] idea or this is how it looks I had revenue and profits to show it so that's all that convince

[00:07:15] them to you know go forward and take it they've been very subtle. Yeah I agree without parents

[00:07:21] I mean you need their support and for sure. I also want to ask you on you know because we are talking

[00:07:30] about your business and how you saw immediate success of course there were challenges but what

[00:07:35] have you done specifically that has been effective in helping grow your business so that you know

[00:07:41] the people who are listening to this podcast really get some you know understanding of

[00:07:46] how one can you know start a business how one can scale up what are the ups and you know what are the

[00:07:51] news and don'ts will really help us a lot. First thing that we always kept in mind okay there are

[00:07:57] two R's which we follow the renewal and referral usually people focus on the other R which is

[00:08:03] revenue so our focus was renewal and referral from the very beginning so if people learn

[00:08:09] and they come back to us and they tell four other people about it those are the numbers

[00:08:14] we track not how much revenue we made today or not how much profit we made today these two numbers

[00:08:20] are like at the top of our mind at all times so this has really helped us maintain the quality

[00:08:27] this has really helped us grow you know we don't have a marketing budget at all so we don't spend

[00:08:33] anything on paid marketing no digital ads nothing like that everything happens word of

[00:08:38] mouth and organically so this has saved us a lot of money even our office it's in my house only

[00:08:44] so on the second floor we work and on the ground floor we stay so it's a very like

[00:08:51] cost-saving mentality I'm a Marwadi so you know where it comes from and I've always had

[00:08:59] relationships over money in mind so you know the team members that you build

[00:09:05] the teachers that work with you the schools that work with you everyone is working because they believe

[00:09:11] in the person more than anything so the people the people thing of our company is very good

[00:09:17] we believe in relationships tell me I mean just that you know I mean at 19 you know you're talking

[00:09:23] about you know all of these you know empathy you're talking about giving back I mean how

[00:09:30] does it come about I mean how I don't know you're gonna ask them

[00:09:37] no I also guess maybe it is your bent of mind because if you're talking about giving away so much at

[00:09:42] 15 and you know letting go of certain things so maybe maybe that is your nature as well

[00:09:48] but I guess your mom knows better absolutely you know so taking off from that you know the youth

[00:09:54] today are very conscious environmentally you know they don't buy products which are like tested on

[00:09:59] animals things like that and you know there's a lot of talk about work-life balance is very different

[00:10:04] from when we guys were in the workforce in the beginning and at the same time you also spoke about

[00:10:09] you know you had 30 lakhs on your bottom line so there is a profitability side to having a company

[00:10:14] as well you know so how would you you know or how do you see the whole art of managing

[00:10:19] the whole need for profitability but as well as trying to make a positive and conscious impact

[00:10:24] in your generation and people who work with you and who are influenced by you

[00:10:29] so the biggest like if you think of it as a marathon for a company like there are many people

[00:10:35] running the same race but it's a person who runs before this survives the most not the one

[00:10:41] who you know runs fast and gets tired and then sits back down so many of our competitors

[00:10:48] have tried to run fast they spend a lot of money get a lot of ad space get into the minds of people

[00:10:54] and then after that the stage today is not so pleasant our focus has been you know play the

[00:11:00] long game make sure that every child that we teach we give like a guarantee that if you're not

[00:11:07] satisfied we will take back the entire amount of money and that much level of belief we have

[00:11:13] on our educators a curriculum and our content that we are so focused that we want kids to learn

[00:11:20] practically we want them to learn hands-on and we'll want them to deliver outcomes not just

[00:11:25] you know memorize it and keep it in the brains so this is the level of commitment that we're giving

[00:11:30] so when you started out Shreyaan did you expect you know that all the experience that you have

[00:11:38] of running your business did you expect that you know you will be successful or just like you just

[00:11:44] did as and when you know things just you know panned out for you how sure were you of all the things

[00:11:50] that you were doing not really as sure however like whatever things that we tried it's like

[00:11:56] an experiment in the start it's test try fail until you find product market fit where your

[00:12:02] product is acceptable by the market and people are liking it people are telling other people so

[00:12:08] until you get that for the first two years we found it in the cobit period in online classes

[00:12:14] after the cobit period got over we had to find it again and that how we found it through schools

[00:12:20] so you have to test try and fail companies pivot companies change companies expand I wasn't

[00:12:27] like sure about how much you know revenue we'll make how much profit we make but I was like even

[00:12:32] I still am sure that we're gonna teach a billion daily learners and that hope is what keeps us all

[00:12:39] alive so you know that hope that you know one day there will be hundred crore kids learning

[00:12:44] on OLL on a daily basis in every part of the world so that's where we want to take it to

[00:12:50] excellent hopefully maybe you change the education system a lot to be said about that

[00:12:57] so you know you are doing so much Shreya seriously I mean what you did before with your website all

[00:13:02] now then there's a CNBC show you're a painter all of that right hands in a lot of pies but what

[00:13:08] of all of these things excites you the most and why when I go to a classroom and I see positive

[00:13:15] disruption where you know it's not like a standard class and you know you enter a class

[00:13:22] if you've seen Thare's I mean Per and that Bumbum Bole song that is something that really excites me

[00:13:28] like whenever I want to go to a school where everywhere these kind of classes are going on

[00:13:35] our kids are crazy in love with learning they want to have fun they want to enjoy and they want

[00:13:40] to practically do it and it doesn't feel like a class this keeps their child like smile in me

[00:13:48] so you know I've been seeing you smiley through this entire podcast and you are talking like big

[00:13:52] numbers and so many children being educated that's a happy place to be but what about fears and doubts

[00:13:58] you never had any and I'm not saying just because you're young and the world is all there

[00:14:03] in front of you but practically while you were setting up your company or doing other things

[00:14:07] did you doubt your decisions did you fear that it won't go the right way or you were like hey

[00:14:12] it's okay because one lives and learns how did you look at it how do you approach it

[00:14:17] no I didn't have any doubts from the start I still don't have any doubts like even when I took

[00:14:21] the decision of dropping out I did like a pros and cons more of a numbers and facts guy not so

[00:14:28] like I'm I'm an introvert I don't think that your night I'm a test I try to hide that a lot

[00:14:34] but yeah I'm a numbers guy and I try to get down the pros and cons for every decision get

[00:14:41] things done and I don't doubt my decisions but I play like a carefree risk person and I enjoy it

[00:14:48] tell us a little bit about young India and how they look at education and because I think where you

[00:14:55] pivoted towards is bringing you know fun way of learning and you know somewhere where people

[00:15:00] study with a smile so what do you know about young India and education what would you tell

[00:15:05] teachers and the education system as a way so personally like today like there's a lot of competition

[00:15:15] in kids they're all fighting for the same thousand two thousand seats that are available in say

[00:15:21] GE or NEAT or you pick up the top exams so examinations are good however the format of

[00:15:28] examination is what I would want to change first and most priority so if I assess a kid on a

[00:15:34] definition that means the child will learn the definition because they want to pass the test

[00:15:39] so I want to make sure that the assessments across our country change to the right format of

[00:15:45] assessment because then accordingly the learning will change so that's the next motive of mine

[00:15:51] however what I have seen is that you know kids today they don't really love to go to school

[00:15:57] they only go to school because they're getting to meet friends and that's their only incentive

[00:16:01] to go there today the incentive should be that I'm going to school to learn and I'm going to

[00:16:06] the school to enjoy that should be like you know the incentive the motivation is changed

[00:16:12] and it's a force or it's a push method more than a pull method so I want to get that pull

[00:16:17] method added in education where kids are like wow today I can't miss school because this

[00:16:22] period is there like you know how they do for physical education P you know you could love

[00:16:28] exactly they don't want to miss that day it's because it's hands on it's practical it's fun

[00:16:33] they don't want to miss that one day like that this should be for every day

[00:16:41] so how many times have you seen

[00:16:47] over like 100 times plus for sure

[00:16:51] so Suryan you told us a bit about OLL in the beginning you wanted to understand this system

[00:16:58] of OLL so to speak that when a child gets into that education system then what happens are you

[00:17:05] taking him through step by step through the classes and then he affiliates to a particular

[00:17:10] board examination is it supplementary education so tell us a bit about that what happens to

[00:17:15] child under this system of education so we partner with schools essentially and we don't want to you

[00:17:22] know not go through schools we don't have a set barrier and directly reach out to the parents

[00:17:28] and students because education comes with a lot of trust when a parent is putting their child

[00:17:32] somewhere to learn something they have to really trust that place or that person who they're

[00:17:37] putting them to because it's their responsibility to get it right so that trust is what schools

[00:17:43] have already built so we partner with the schools and we introduce new subjects in the school that

[00:17:48] the school can't do itself so skills like entrepreneurship is something that we're

[00:17:53] teaching across a lot of schools as a workshop or a boot camp and inside the subject you know

[00:18:00] like how there's in a timetable there is arts there is hindi maths same way there is a new

[00:18:06] subject added like entrepreneurship or robotics and artificial intelligence so these few things

[00:18:13] we're doing in the schools where we're introducing new subjects as well as introducing boot camps

[00:18:19] and workshops after that once the child and parent has built trust in us they come on to

[00:18:25] ull.co directly and learn skills on their own and basically give them a good offering like you

[00:18:31] know this is our menu card we've got over 100 skills we've got arts we've got languages we've

[00:18:35] got life skills we've got technology so you can choose whatever you want click on it learn it

[00:18:42] and then after that you know practically give assessments and then you're certified so obviously

[00:18:48] if you have upskilling as part of your system because all of these are non-curricular you know

[00:18:53] subjects so to speak so is there an age limit to which a child can enter or can you know somebody

[00:18:58] who's probably even in the workforce come and join it because he wants to learn robotics

[00:19:03] because he wants to learn something that you're trying to teach currently like the way we are

[00:19:07] reaching out to the market is through schools so we don't push towards any other age group

[00:19:14] however yes we have got a lot of individual students who are in the working professional

[00:19:20] we have we also run this really interesting initiative every sunday called a senior citizens

[00:19:25] skilled school so our same school gets transformed into a senior citizen school where the

[00:19:32] grandparents of that school come and learn skills so we teach them whatsapp instagram youtube

[00:19:38] we teach them self-defense and dance and zumba so this is a weekly activity which we're

[00:19:45] conducting in schools and it's a very fine way so our focus is skill development and practical

[00:19:51] learning that's what we niche in and mostly today in the age group of first to tenth grade

[00:19:57] so let's get down to something a bit more interesting i haven't seen a shock tank episode

[00:20:02] i don't know sohila you've seen it so we want to know what happened with you at shock tank

[00:20:06] what was it like what did you feel what did you get asked and so on so first thing that you know

[00:20:12] shock tank like when i went it was like a dream come true because you know i'd been watching

[00:20:19] those episodes again and again once i got that email that okay you've been selected

[00:20:25] i watched literally every episode that is on shock tank to find out the best the FAQs and

[00:20:32] filtered it out to the best question and made the answer is enough so i thought i was 100%

[00:20:38] prepared and i was very prepared although when i did go on the show what you saw was 12 minutes

[00:20:45] but it was recorded for over 1.5 hours and for 1.5 hours i was standing and giving answers

[00:20:53] on the toe at every second not even one second was like a break and the best part was the first 30

[00:20:59] minutes went in my story of just leaving home the sharks were like unopened self was like

[00:21:06] kee tume mujhe abhi tak life ka nirwana ya purpose nahi milayate tume yoghante me kese

[00:21:13] milyate they were surprised and they were like kee how were you found and then i was found

[00:21:18] with the police and all i was brought back from maheen to home so all those exact details they wanted

[00:21:24] to get into so this was very very like you know it was diverting against the conversation of what

[00:21:30] we really wanted to have was like this is my business and this is what they want the first 30

[00:21:34] minutes they were in shock kee ek kahaise aaya kithne sal kaaya yaa kya kaya hai that story

[00:21:40] is what they really want to dive into first and one line of mine that went viral was that kee

[00:21:47] mujhe buy juice or an academy kareem oh yeah so like benitha singh asked me that if a buy juice or

[00:21:55] an academy asks you that they want to buy you out what will you say so in return i said my

[00:22:02] milestone is to buy buy juice and academy and that went so viral it got over 440 million views

[00:22:09] across all platforms oh excellent yeah i i did see that online that's so many views that was

[00:22:15] spontaneous a bit yeah and uh every newspaper covered it that this 80 in a rule wants to buy

[00:22:26] juice so that was wow you are a marketing boy just i mean this is like the best line and you

[00:22:35] know it definitely got everyone's attention i want to talk a little bit about edutek okay because

[00:22:40] we've seen two years back you know the rise of edutek and in the last say a quarter a little bit

[00:22:48] more than that we're seeing and hearing about edutek which is not all good so knowing that you are in

[00:22:54] this field what is your thought on edutek because it's definitely one of the big you know sectors

[00:23:01] so what would you tell us right now what's happening in this category so i don't know much

[00:23:06] about the edutek startups i call myself as education startup only because 90 percent of our classes are

[00:23:14] offline we go physically in the schools and conduct them so that is one thing that yeah

[00:23:20] we don't qualify today as edutek because most of our work is offline however in this

[00:23:26] space what i personally feel there were many startups in our sector of skill development

[00:23:32] for kids that came but trust me today there's not even one standing except of us the only way is to

[00:23:39] build that trust not just through marketing but also through your quality of education let your work

[00:23:46] speak let your teachers speak for you let the curriculum speak for you and that the retention

[00:23:51] rate the average retention rate of this industry for video courses is three percent okay that means

[00:23:58] if a person purchases it three percent people complete it okay there's a retention rate of

[00:24:05] live courses of around 30 percent ols retention rate is 97 percent hundred people buy it 97 people

[00:24:13] repurchase it okay because it is so great like like i love the quality of education that you

[00:24:21] deliver so it all comes down to that the processes the support the quality of education it's not

[00:24:28] how good your sales people are it's not how good your marketing and your branding is so yeah which

[00:24:33] is the hat you wear often at all what is your hat my hat is product i work on the curriculums i work

[00:24:41] on the each and every ppt is run through me they teach me first before teaching the kids

[00:24:47] so every single session that is being taught today i have gone through it myself that's a good

[00:24:54] thing to do so you know you made headlines trying to buy buy juice etc so let's get another headline

[00:25:02] from you what is your future template what do you want to do okay it's done so much already and

[00:25:06] you're only 19 so what next if you have such plans or you're just going to let things come

[00:25:11] and do something that strikes you next i want to from the start even now 100 crore daily active

[00:25:19] learners like i just want the feeling that you know one billion kids are i wanted to like visualize

[00:25:27] like when the one kid is going to school and the school is converted into you can say like a mall

[00:25:33] where they can shop for what we learned first and each mall is like each shop is so you know it's

[00:25:39] like the vibe is coming out of that shop key are you jaga moji jaanai jaanai it's attracting

[00:25:45] me into it when i get inside it it's like a maze i don't want to come out 20 so i want to convert

[00:25:51] all our indian schools into that and i want to make sure that every child is learning practically

[00:25:58] on a daily basis so 100 crore daily active learners that's my good and today we all will

[00:26:05] manifest it for you together and we hope you i mean we are sure you will get there this

[00:26:12] brings us to the end of our first piece which is our conversation with you and we have in our next

[00:26:18] segment something called quick takes where we will ask you like quick questions and we are looking

[00:26:23] like anu said for some headlines hopefully which can set you up to get to go viral again so i'll

[00:26:30] start yeah please so i have actually two rolled in one question one is uh one company that inspires

[00:26:38] you and one entrepreneur that you believe you know you would label that entrepreneur as successful

[00:26:45] zero the inspires me and steve jobs is my role model tell us a little bit why no so uh zero the

[00:26:54] because it's been zero marketing zero investment completely bootstrapped and a lot of profit obviously

[00:27:02] that's good people use it on a daily basis daily active users are high so that's one steve jobs i just

[00:27:11] love the guy it's he's he's just like the stories that i've heard about him the movies that have come

[00:27:18] about him i just love the personality the person it's like i get a vibe from him so you've done

[00:27:24] crazy stuff and you're just 19 so what is the something that you really believe in which

[00:27:29] everybody said my god that's such an insane thing is now going to happen starting up and earning money

[00:27:35] before 18 most people think it's illegal to earn money before 18 because it's illegal to drink it's

[00:27:42] illegal to drive it's illegal to like take drugs but most people think it's illegal to earn money

[00:27:48] i feel it's not illegal to earn money before 18 starting a company before leaving school

[00:27:54] that was something that people were just against like you know focus on your work studies act your age

[00:28:00] that was the entire storyline against me that your age is just this

[00:28:06] can't do anything else in life quick top three tips for new entrepreneurs i'm not so old to give

[00:28:14] tips i would suggest like maybe just focus on your ask your customers talk to your customers

[00:28:21] ask them what they really want why are they coming to you and what did they like about you what did

[00:28:27] they not like about you and change those things fast and be profitable survive and thrive not just

[00:28:34] thrive and then die so that's my philosophy so what's your take on pocket money you know we all

[00:28:40] in college were like oh the pocket money is already over and we're just in the second week of the

[00:28:45] month right our lives revolved on pocket money but i don't think your life is revolving around

[00:28:50] pocket money so in your situation what's your take on pocket money i'm against it when i was small

[00:28:57] my mom used to like not my mom i used to grow i grew up with my nani okay so uh when i grew up

[00:29:03] with my nani and nano they never gave me money to do anything we're like we're like we're giving you

[00:29:09] clothes, food, cars, so why are you doing this so that's when i thought how do i earn money

[00:29:18] so that's the whole thought like you know you should not give kids money like if you want to buy

[00:29:23] anything for yourself earn it for yourself and buy it then the child starts thinking oh

[00:29:27] s a pesa kamate okay thank you so much rehan that was very very interesting and very very

[00:29:34] refreshing and we wish you all the best for your plans and we wait to see that hundred

[00:29:39] karo number am i right absolutely thank you so i've been to many podcasts but never really

[00:29:46] you know had that like this much of a smile on me i just felt like i was talking to my friends instead

[00:29:53] of you know like i'm on a podcast so you really made me feel like i'm at home with me so sweet thank

[00:29:59] you so much thank you so much thank you and all the best once again thank you so much take

[00:30:07] we hope this podcast encourages you to follow your dreams listeners we will be back very soon

[00:30:13] with more chance takers till then have a good day and do like and share this podcast