EdSense: An AI-powered cloud-based platform, which is focussed on student’s achievement and teachers

 

EdSense is a Hydrabad based startup founded by Sunil Sathyavolu, Kiran J, Vijay Pothula and Vivek C.

Our core strength are, Determination to bring change in education system, market understanding, technical expertise and hands on experience on sales & marketing function. Besides this our unique blend of Academics and Psychology brings greater value to everyone in the ecosystem to achieve more, says Sunil.

We at Bangalore Insider had the opportunity to catch up with Sunil, the c0-founder of EdSense to know more about the startup, read his inspiring story.

 

 

Give a brief info about your startup?

At EdSense, through extensive applied research relevant to the domain, both in India and the United States of America,we have developed an AI-powered cloud-based platform, which is focussed on student’s achievement and teachers’ effectiveness and brings in all the stakeholders into a single platform. These stakeholders would include but not be limited to School Management, Principal, Counsellors, Teachers Parents, and Students. Our platform recognizes and celebrates the individuality of the student, as the fulcrum of the process. We have developed and deployed a refined process to understand the students’ 360-degree profile. This process features a Psychometric evaluation that provides indicators on habits and dispositions among other aspects. Content to fuel the learner’s interest, and provide support in areas of concern, is personalized and delivered to the learner.

 

What made you start your startup and what problem does it solve?

In last few years of digitalization in the education sector, technology has been predominantly limited to ERPs, Digital Content, Smart Class boards or GPS Tracking systems but the fundamental problem of “Personalisation of Education to each student & Teacher Professional development” still stands unaddressed. This is a huge problem that needs to be addressed. We have right skill, experience, exposure and most importantly passion to transform this.

 

Tell us about yourself, your previous jobs/ventures? What were you doing before this startup?

Sunil Sathyavolu holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Applications from Osmania University & Post Graduation Certification in Business Management from XLRI Jamshedpur. A passionate IT Professional and enthusiastic towards field of education who strongly believe every individual is a student throughout his life.

He has strong determination and desire towards making positive impact to the society, he strongly believes technology can improve human’s lives immensely if it’s used and limited to its purpose.

Over 17 yrs of Insightful and Enriching experience in IT Services industry in both product based and service based organizations and opportunity to work for start ups to industry leaders in services and software domain positions him a strong leader. It is a strategical move from organization to organization in the thirst of acquiring knowledge on diverse domains. His understanding on BPOs, Banking, IT Services, Manufacturing & Supply Chain Business & Software Development domain on IT Side of the business helped him establish a deeper knowledge on each of these domains.

Being a customer obsessed IT Professional Sunil thinks every problem in life is an opportunity and inability to use a skill spontaneously is more than illness.

He is social and talkative, his friends call him entertainer, music and movie freak. He hails from 400 yrs old Historical city of Hyderabad and this also happens to be his all-time favorite city. Besides his work he is a Lake Conservationist and Eco Activist, currently he is working towards remediating a 90 Acres lake in Hyderabad for its remediation.

 

Where is your startup based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?

Our headquarters is in beautiful 400 years old city of Pearls. Hyderabad being our hometown, it gives us enough kick to get to work and be super productive. Every startup needs constant motivation and strong determination to stay focused. And its same with everyone, nothing can give this more than our home town.

 

As a startup founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?

I think of scale up all the time, how can I bring consistency in terms of user experience at every stage. All 4 founders of EdSense, we have a clear vision about what we want to do, how can we ensure this is executed by all employees and how can we perform consistently at scale.

Quality and consistency is something that I look for in anything as a customers, how can I offer the same to all my customers.

Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?

Here are few names, but these are not direct competitors as they have diverse focus besides education management.

Pearson – MyPedia

Managebac

Next Education

Our core strength are, Determination to bring change in education system, market understanding, technical expertise and hands on experience on sales & marketing function. Besides this our unique blend of Academics and Psychology brings greater value to everyone in the ecosystem to achieve more.

Some of the innovative offerings from EdSense include Student information system, Behavioural Tracking, Education management system, Personalised Learning with AI, Flipped Classroom Platform, Project based learning, Content Generator, Aggregator & Integrator and Online Assessment & Analytics Engine.

EdSense offers comprehensive 360o learner profiles not limited to academics but covering the entire gamut of academic performance, behavioural and personality skills, health and nutrition, strengths and areas of improvement, and, goals and interests. This helps teachers and parents to understand the academic and extracurricular preferences of the student thereby enabling the school to provide customised learning methodologies based on student’s preferences and skills.

 

How hard is it to have a work life balance as a startup founder and how do you manage it?

Currently we are having to wear multiple hats, and at times nature of work demands us to travel too much and work for late hours. I think the moment you sign up to become entrepreneur you are expected to perform various stretch roles. Thanks to my better half, sorry my best full for taking full charge of my work life balance. I make sure the weekends are dedicated to family and my son don’t miss me too much, I feel if your family is not happy with you and your achievement, your success mean nothing.

 

Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you are looking to raise.

Not yet, We are self-funded and are looking for strategic investors who just don’t remain as investors but actually become our strategic partners in business expansions. Yes, someone from Education sector.

 

What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?

People think I’m very social, but in reality I am very reserved and inhibited by nature. But thanks to my acquired social skills, people find this hard to believe.

 

What gets you excited about this company?

People who spread incredible happiness through great ideas exhilarate me. It can be through an innovation, service or just volunteering. The world needs more people who are doers, and also more energy from positive people in influential positions.

When it comes to Education, its not just about teaching or learning its nation building. I’m super thrilled and excited that I’m taking part in this via EdSenes.

 

Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.

I usually plan things at least a week ahead, however my day starts with taking a look at my calendar to determine how my day would look. I finish all the strategical part of my work in the first half of the day, say before 11 AM, and then have my meetings with the team and customers. I plan my week to assign Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for customers, and Thursday, Friday for my own self. Although this schedule isn’t rigid, I like to make the demarcations for better productivity.

 

Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?

We have studied together and known to each other for more than 20 yrs now, that gets it easier for us to be transparent with our frustrations, be true to our angers and most importantly get shameless about our mistakes. Actually a perfect blend that is needed to give our best to EdSense. Here are individual details:

Kiran J – Founder & CEO, A Computer Science graduate and a technology geek, with over 15 years of vast experience in building such solutions in US. Kiran also holds the CTO badge, not as a responsibility but as passion.

Vijay Pothula – Co Founder & a Computer Science graduate, Vijay holds a Post-Graduation degree from Osmania University. He has over 15 years of experience in Operational excellence, SDLC & Quality Assurance.

Vivek C – Co Founder, a Computer Science graduate who brings in rich Project Management experience with great knowledge of Education Domain. Vivek has over 15 years of rich experience in building similar solutions.

 

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