At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the unique and compelling stories from the start-up ecosystem. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur Dr. Anjali Thanawala for an exclusive interview with us. Dr. Anjali is a Leader, Mentor, Educator, and Entrepreneur. She is the Founder of OurMEETOnline. Her startup is an Ed-Tech Non-Profit Organization, serving the K-12 sector in India. OurMEETOnline is a K-12 digital learning & management platform, which brings students and teachers together. Let’s learn more about her inspirational journey, her background and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Dr. Anjali:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I am an Educator, Researcher, Mother and an Entrepreneur. And it is not easy for me to be all of them. Sometimes I feel, I need more than 24 hours in a day to finish everything with the perfection I expect of myself.
I have been in Higher Education for more than two decades now. I started my career as a College English Lecturer in a Fine Arts College in Jalandhar, Punjab. After teaching for about three years in India, I realized that there is a big achievement gap for students when they enter College.
English is one of the required subjects for all undergraduate degrees in Punjab and mostly for entire India, however, there is a vast gap in college readiness for the subject for students. This diversity mainly occurs based on the school boards, socio-economic status, or rural or urban dwelling. I came to the US in the early 2000’s to work on my MAT in Urban Education Teaching English as Second Language.
I happened to stay in the US as I got married here and continued my journey in the Higher Education Industry in the NJ/ NYC area. I realized that the achievement gap that exists in India also exists in American Students. I pursued my Doctorate in Education, and my research was on similar lines.”
After working for about 17 years in the higher education industry in the US, I still was not satisfied with what I was doing. And by then I was a mother of a 5-year-old and my 9-5 jobs were not giving me the work-life balance. I had the opportunity to leave and take a break for 6 months and I availed it. For the first three months, I enjoyed being a mother and after that my intellectual self was quite unsatisfied. I still did not want to go back to my 9-5 pm.
This led to the conception of OurMEETOnline.org. OurMEETOnline is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide digital support and teacher training to schools in India. OurMEETOnline is an asynchronous platform that provides ready content, videos, assessment, practices, and quizzes for various topics in Math, and English. It is a skill development tool.”
OMO is teacher-directed and student-oriented, the assessments are based on micro topics in a chapter, which leads to skill-appropriate practices on the given topic and hence bridging the gap, if there is any for a student. Teachers can communicate with the students via OMO, can generate reports, and students can compete with each other using an inbuilt leaderboard tally.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
It is the idea of giving back to the community; the community which has helped you become who you are. The startup is helping me change “how we do things in education, which are not effective anymore with changing times”, especially in times of the pandemic.
Almost all students in India have not attended school for more than a year and a half and Board exams have been cancelled for two consecutive years.
I believe I have a solution that can help schools and teachers to provide uninterrupted learning and assessment support that the students need during and after the pandemic.”
‘OurMEETOnline’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving?
Yes! It is a unique name and it is true to its name. ‘Our’ represents teachers and Students who are in a MEET (Math English Education Technologies) Online.
We are providing a Supplemental Instruction tool to students, which can be used by them as needed and as per their convenience.
It helps teachers provide differentiated skill-building opportunities to the students without extra effort.
What does your company specialise in?
We are an Ed-Tech Non-Profit Organization, serving the K-12 sector in India. OurMEETOnline is a K-12 digital learning & management platform, which brings students and teachers together.
OurMEETOnline can be used as part of the school technologies to resolve much needed differentiated learning needs of a classroom. OurMEETOnline can be integrated into the daily schedule by a school and can be used for diagnostic assessments and quizzes as well.”
In addition, OurMEETOnline can be used as a supplemental instruction tool by the teachers for any of the boards such as CBSE, Cambridge, ICSE or even custom curriculum.
OurMEETOnline provides an “out of the box digital learning solution” with original content to meet the needs of a board curriculum and to provide additional learning student support.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
Since it’s an Ed-tech company, we all work remotely. Pandemic had no effect on the development and outreach of the company. In fact, we have teams in India, California, Texas and New Jersey.
However, since the schools are not in session and even most of the administration and faculty is working remotely, it’s a challenge to reach out to various stakeholders.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
Even on the ‘not so good days’ or when I get exhausted solving issues, the idea of ‘Making a difference in someone’s life’ and ‘leaving a mark for the next generations to come’ motivates me.”
My family and my friends have been very supportive of my idea. My both brothers are in IT. Once I told my brothers about my idea, without any doubt or question, they started helping and working to bring my idea into reality. My husband and my daughter supported me a lot as well.
Friends helped me in all possible manners, whether it was helping me find talent or taking care of my groceries or my daughter when I am working. The biggest support I got from all of them was believing in me and my idea.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
There are a few:
1) Being consistent
2) Setting up my priorities
3) Working hard on them
4) Enjoying and celebrating every little success
5) Never forgetting those who have helped me
6) Not letting personal issues interrupt my professional life
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Diligence and Investing in good talent
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
That’s not actually true. We all have our days. We should know how to balance that. I never let my moods come into my work. When I am working, I leave my personal issues behind.
My daughter keeps me going. She is my energy source. I enjoy cooking and walking to destress myself. Having a weekend is always welcomed, but it does not happen mostly.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
I believe in transformational leadership and I lead by Emotional Intelligence. It is important for leaders to understand their own emotions first, and then learn to harness these emotions for effective leadership and results.
Learn to embrace change, it is vital for success.
The integrity of character helps you build long-lasting relations, which is important for success.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
You should have high goals and a vision to reach these goals should be clear.
Things don’t always go the way you anticipate them, so be prepared to reroute your path to reach your goals.
Take your chances and don’t hesitate to ask for help.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
I will say it straight that there are many factors but if you really have to have the key elements then to me these are the ones:
(a) Taking Responsibility for everything I do.
(b) Not worried about failure
(c) Resourcefulness and Networking
(d) Positive Attitude
(e) Risk-taking
(f) My Expertise in Education
(g) Pursuing my dreams despite the family responsibilities that I have and thinking big
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
I am a researcher and I have been working with young college students for the last 2 decades. One of the suggestions that I have for them is that they should learn “How to Manage their Time well?”
Learn how to organize yourself between academics and extracurricular activities, both are important, can’t ignore one or the other. The initial hard work in life always pays off at a later stage, if you don’t work hard as a student then you work hard later in life.
They should be learning more than one skill at the same time. The Gen Z kids will have more than 5 careers in their lifetime. If they won’t learn different skills and trades as students and young professionals, it’s going to be tough to establish themselves as successful professionals. Public Speaking skills are the most important skills needed to be a successful professional, no matter what industry you are in.
Put your best foot forward and work hard to achieve your goals, no excuse should exist between you and your goals. And stay humble of your achievements, as you “don’t know, what you don’t know”.
Develop the attitude to always learn from whatever situation you are in, even during the rainy days of life.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
