Thread by @sajithpai

🧵

On @ClassplusApps, its recent fundraising round, and what we can learn from one of the most exciting B2B startups out there today.

A B2B startup with a consumer DNA, that any B2C co would be proud of.

On thursday, Classplus announced its latest fundraising round, toting up to $65m across Tiger, @gsvventures and existing investors Falcon Edge / AWI, @BlumeVentures

livemint.com/companies/star…

It is been a crazy 15 months for the company since the 1st lockdown - it has seen 3 fundraising rounds during this period - all preemptive.

From Feb20 to May21 it has seen a 6x growth in paid customers, 12x DAU (almost 7 figures now at zero CAC!), and 7x MRR. Phew!

Classplus has 2 rev streams presently.

1) SAAS - annual fees paid by tutors for the white label app

2) Marketplace - tutors sell content to their students on the marketplace. Classplus gets a share. Last month tutors sold 300k+ courses on the app.

Here is a really funny marketing message for a IAS course sold on Classplus.

"Let us remove the fear of GK (Gen Knowledge). Let us make it do Nagin Dance."🙄😀

It is not just education. Music classes are also sold, and some, err, unusual ones too:)

COVID tailwinds of course help.

Tutors need Classplus to run live classes, push value added content to students, and keep the home fires burning.

Students need Classplus to ensure they can access content + classes that will help them achieve their dreams.

But COVID alone can’t explain the sustained success it has had since their pivot into a B2B app for tutors 2.5 yrs ago.

It is the intense culture and processes at Classplus that underpins their success. Before we get into that, a quick look back.

Blume invested in them early ’19 when they were at <1k paid centres (they are over 10x that). The content marketplace had not even kicked off. (But they were running content sales pilots with a few dozen centres and those looked good.)

We liked Classplus given their unique B2B2C model (one we felt would be the EdTech Shopify to the Amazons in Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu); now ofc there are a dozen copycats but at that time it was an outlier.

In addition, there was the the intense founder bonding between @mukul_classplus & @bhaswat11. They had known each other from Class 11-12 Test Prep and stayed close.

Finally there was the huge downstream rev potential in assessment, financing, college discovery etc.

What explains Classplus’s success?

What can other startups learn from it?

I share 5 learnings, basis my interaction with Mukul & Bhas the founders, and observation of the team and culture.

1/5

A key reason for Classplus’ success is customer obsession. This is inbuilt into their culture.

You rise or fail in Classplus by staying v close to the customer (tutors / ‘coachings’), or by straying away from them.

Every person including finance, tech is expected to talk to 1-2 tutors every day.

e.g., Ayush, one of the business heads, in his first few days had to talk to 20 teachers and share their feedback - +ve/-ve on Classplus - in a presentation to his peers and founders.

Everyone in the co is expected to share certain actions / output basis their conversation with tutors in whatsapp groups. The entire co runs on a few 100 whatsapp groups:) (Meesho I believe has a similar culture of talking to their resellers.)

The more you speak to customers you more you are able to drive relevant output and rise in founder and peer esteem. The less you speak to customers the more you get shut out of convos, and fall out of the mainstream.

Very Darwinian:) Classplus is clearly not for everyone:)

No fancy tech is used for the above. Whatsapp + their own Classplus app are used for any customer interaction. Use what the user is using. Nothing fancy.

2)
Another distinct feature of the Classplus OS is quick decision-making.

Listen to feedback, take a decision and validate it via calls, surveys (in app surveys).

A product feature - where they pass on the leads of those customers who reach the payment screen but dont pay, to the tutor to follow up - was rolled out in 6hrs after they listened to a customer complain about it. ('करो', not Kano model!)

3)
As with customer-obsessed startups, there is an immense founder obsession with usage data. Various cuts &slices are always being studied.

Data-led insights are quickly validated by 10-15 folks calling teachers; & user-led insights are quickly validated by crunching numbers.

4)
Typically startup founders learn from customers, hiring and investors. One other group that Mukul and Bhaswat learn from is peers & senior founders; always operators than consultants or advisors:)

5)
Finally, there is a distinct insurgent culture within the co. Mukul + Bhas have created a company of Davids, out to defeat the Goliaths i.e., the unicorns who are hitting the business of the tutors & the ‘coachings’.

All great insurgent brands create the same thing - create a common enemy and rally the team.

A company of Davids or Robinhoods all fighting for tutors. No amount of vision / mission can create such a sense of alignment as attacking a common enemy.

Teachers / Tutors too feel the entire company as theis support mechanisms.

Come join the most customer-obsessed team in India - DM me or write to [e-mail] to join one of the ‘cultiest’ startups and amongst the most intense cultures in Indian startupland (yes, I am biased:) )

And finally congrats, Mukul, Bhas and the Classplus team.

This is just the beginning. The revolution has just begun!

🚀 Onwards!

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