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How Byju's Became The Most Valuable Edtech Startup: By Pushing Expensive Education Packages To Parents Who Can't Afford Them

In my previous post, I wondered if we can make online tutoring go non-profit in India, which would help achieve education equality in India.  Now, Akanksha SIngh has written a brilliant expose of Byju's shady sales tactics and shoddy work culture.

A former Byju's salesperson says:

“My last sale was to a driver whose boss gave him a phone,” Ritesh, a former sales associate, whose name has been changed at his request, told Rest of World. The driver only had $9 (700 rupees) in his account when he signed up for a subscription for his only child. “[His] boss paid the down payment and deducted it from his monthly salary. … [His wife] said, ‘I’ll work 24/7 for this course.’ That was the day I resigned.”

Akanksha's article details other important things you should know about Byju's methods:

1. Byju’s has partnerships with local lending companies to help finance its expensive education products.

An investigation by The Ken, which analyzed 110 consumer complaints, found that 54 people were unaware they were being signed up for loans when they signed up for subscriptions. The average ticket size of the loans was $952 (66,000 rupees), and down payments ranged from $15 (1,000 rupees) to as high as $864 (60,000 rupees). Annual per capita income in India is around $2,000 per year.

2. Byju's sales associates are told to ask children tricky questions to make them look “bad” in front of their parents on field visits.

 “If their parents weren’t literate, we’d ask them questions that looked easy, like, ‘Which is bigger: one over two or one over four?’ … [A younger] child would say one over four.”

3. Byju's promises a mentor as part of the package, but parents complain of lack of proper mentoring.

(a parent) signed up for Byju’s mentorship program, where an academic mentor is assigned to each student but got none. She complained but got nowhere. Eventually, she cancelled the subscription.

4. Byju's pushes expensive tutoring services from its acquired companies.

(For example) When she mentioned that she’d been sending her daughter for tuition at a local institute, they instead pushed her to sign up for an Aakash Institute training center, saying a small institute wouldn’t cut it.

5. Byju's has made it hard for people to get refunds.

Parents find out that when they get to the end of the 15-day free trial they are unable to opt out. 

A quick Google search for “Byju’s refund scam” reveals hundreds of customers detailing trouble with getting a refund through the company. 

6. A Byju's sales associate has to meet their weekly sales targets of $2,700 (200,000 rupees).

Byju's sales associates are under immense pressure to make their weekly sales targets. As one employee put it: “As long as we met our targets, nothing else mattered.”

7. There have been multiple cases of mistreatment of sales associates by Byju's managers/ supervisors.

(In a video on Youtube) Several individuals claiming to be former employees commented on the video, saying they’d faced or witnessed similar verbal attacks from their supervisors. 

“My manager shouted a lot,” Ameer, the sales associate, told Rest of World. But he never reported the abuse to HR because he was threatened he’d lose his job. “My manager once told me that if I tried anything, he’d make sure I don’t have a career,” he said.

This is how you make a billion dollar Edtech startup.

Labels: online learning

posted by Pramit Singh @ 5:07 PM