Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru)
Yashovardhan Poddar (right) and Akshay Rampuria:
Yashovardhan Poddar is the Bengaluru-based co-founder of edtech start-up Openhouse Technologies Pvt. Ltd (estb.2018, head count: 100) that offers K-12 children a rich menu of curated after-school learning programmes including academic support, public speaking, theatre, dance, entrepreneurship, community service, chess, robotics, data science, and music.
Initially based in Kolkata, in 2020 Openhouse moved its head office to Bengaluru where it has established six well-furbished 5,000-6,000 sq. ft learning centres with modern infrastructure, art studios, dance and music rooms and maker spaces. Primary and secondary school children can enrol as members (Rs.36,000 per year) and receive high quality co-curricular education of their choice after school hours.
Newspeg. During the pandemic the company launched Openhouse Clubs, under which the same menu of co-curricular activities is offered to partner schools online. In this venture, the company contracts with schools to enable their students to access high-quality life skills and co-curricular education offered by carefully chosen faculty from around the world.
History. While he was a student at the top-ranked Stanford University, USA, Poddar acquired valuable experience of the Indian marketplace during a four-month stint in the economics wing of the PMO (prime minister’s office) in India, providing economic policy formulation inputs. This was succeeded by a three-month internship at Reliance Jio.
After he was awarded a Masters in economics and public policy by Stanford in 2016, Poddar began his career in the mobile caller ID startup Truecaller Inc, USA. A year later, he returned to India and together with Akshay Rampuria, a fellow student at Stanford, promoted Openhouse in Kolkata with an initial investment of Rs.70 lakh from their personal savings.
Direct talk. “Openhouse began with a vision to reimagine vitally important life skills and co-curricular education which is not given enough importance in academics-focused Indian education. Therefore, we established our neighbourhood learning hubs which students could visit after-school hours to learn a variety of co-curricular subjects of their choice. However, with the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 and children confined to learning from home, we went online contracting with schools to enable their students to continue their co-curricular education dispensed by skilled professionals from around the world. Students with similar interests are grouped together into online Openhouse Clubs with membership not exceeding 20 students per club. Every three months, Openhouse organises a performance or competition to enable students to showcase their talents,” says Poddar. Annual subscription Rs.15,000 via schools.
Future plans. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response to Openhouse programmes, Poddar has drawn up an ambitious blueprint for the future. “We are all set to increase the number of learning hubs in Bengaluru to eight. By the end of this year, we intend to establish 50 bricks-n-mortar learning hubs in the major metros for which we have raised adequate funding. Moreover, we intend to sign up a minimum 100 schools across the country to enable their students to access our online clubs. There’s rising interest within young students in life skills and co-curricular activities. So the future of Openhouse is bright,” says Poddar.
Right on!
