Believe in the Idea

InOpen is an IIT Bombay based educational start up with focus on developing high quality academic content through intense research. The company was co-founded by Rupesh and Dr. Sridhar Iyer in October 2009. It began with the belief that there is an urgent need to simplify solutions and present them in an effective way which should be a part of the core curriculum. “Already we are offering products and services to government and private schools. Our products and services have been chosen by students in India across 300+ private schools and government projects, and have served more than 600,000 students directly through its products” said Rupesh Shah.

Success for InOpen has largely been credited to their passion for providing schools a memorable learning experience–be it the Computer Masti Curriculum with its customized content, or the unique handholding visits to schools during the course of the year, or availability of content in multiple languages. Rupesh affirms, “At the end of the day, it is about the commitment to continue offering the highest standard of content now and always.”

JOURNEY BEGINS

Rupesh Shah’s entrepreneurial journey began from his college days.  It was in the last month of college that he started a company with his college chairman in Alwar itself. The experience piqued his interest in exploring other avenues of computer science training. Following which he found himself at a related research project at IIT.

The idea however clicked when Rupesh was planning project under Dr. Sridhar Iyer who was already working on developing content of what is today known as Computer Masti.  It was over a discussion that they realized about the gap that lay between getting computer education by learning application skill superficially, and not through a grasp of the underlying concepts and principles. That primarily gave the idea to make computer education a part of primary curriculum.  He said, “We could see the potential in Computer Masti to disrupt the status quo. In August 2009, Dr. Sridhar and I decided to draw on our combined experiences to start a company together, which finally took off in October that year. InOpen Technologies was thus born, a natural next step of this partnership was taking it to the market.”

INITIAL DAYS

Believing on his conviction, Rupesh refused a high-paying job offered to him after graduation. He knew these jobs might satisfy his monetary concerns but will not satisfy him in the long run. Pressure was from all corners yet he chose two-three years instability over a job. He said, “I became increasingly attracted to the idea that a mere two to three years of instability (as a result of pursuing the less sure path) would hardly make a dent in the long line of years to come. I could afford to give my real inclinations a shot.”

For Rupesh, InOpen always made more sense than anything else. Adding to his belief was there were no affordable technologies and solutions in the education sector. Adding further he said, “That was it, to be honest!  (When I began, I wasn’t even aware that a word called ‘startup’ existed. Till date, I get the spelling of ‘entrepreneurship’ wrong!)  I felt that if I was able to build a support system and provide sales services that would carry my research to the market, it would be fantastic. Why? This was primarily because it had the potential to touch the lives of many students, and present a great opportunity to capitalize on synergies like job (creation), consortia, and so on.”

ACHIEVEMENTS

In a small span of time InOpen has managed to leave an imprint because of its quality and dedication. This was proved by the “Best Educational Supplier Award 2012” which it won in private sector awarded by SOE Global Education awards.

So far the Computer Masti program has been used by 600,000 students across 300+ schools across India and is available in 8 Indian languages and 2 foreign. Likewise e-books have been downloaded in 130 countries. The tree of knowledge has become a network of 4000+ teachers trained in CM methodology along with piloted the program in schools of Tokyo, Japan, and Paulo Alto, USA.

“We consider the tie up with Homi Bhaba Center for Science Education (a national centre of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) to take their strong research-backed science curriculum called ‘Small Science’ to schools as another milestone in our growth”, said Rupesh.

CHALLENGES

Like all even for Rupesh, the journey has been full of many ups and downs.

He said, “Numerous times I have come to the verge of giving up. In those times, stay calm and move ahead. Like many I also faced challenge of low cash flow, office space, setting up a team, maintaining quality while expanding and increasing the capacity to churn out content at a faster rate etc,. My failures have taught me one thing: In those moments, I don’t have anything to lose, but everything to gain.”

“We all face difficulties as individuals the key is to just hang on as there is a common pattern involved. A ‘big’ problem of the past becomes ordinary in the present. Likewise, the ‘big’ problem today will become an ordinary issue in the time to come. So Just hang on!”

FUTURE PLANS

Technology is just an extension to quality content. E-learning or any technological advancement is just an extension to the content. It’s not the other way around. Good letter leads to writing good emails, similarly it’s the content which matters the most. Rupesh firmly said, “If the content is of quality then it wouldn’t matter if you want the content to be presented as apps (across mobile as app stores) or as web based learning.”

However, InOpen is working to add iOS and Android platforms to existing books along with making our content available for Smart Classes. Rupesh Shah said, “I want to personally build an impact around computer science education happening around the world and also to build value for stakeholders at InOpen.”

We are on our way to spread InOpen smiles to 1 mn students!