TryMyTutor is NCR’s premier tutoring company that is transforming the way education is perceived and approached in our society. Founded by the visionary Sundeep Singh in January 2013, TryMyTutor is a marketplace of home tutors, connecting students and parents with dedicated tutors tailored to their preferences. With an ever-growing demand for home tutors in the Delhi NCR area, TryMyTutor has thrived, generating over 600 to 800 tutor demands every month. The success stories they have created, from students achieving better grades to tutors embracing tutoring as a full-time career, are a testament to the positive impact they are making.
Today on ConflatingVisions, we have the pleasure of interviewing Sundeep Singh, the mastermind behind TryMyTutor, NCR’s largest tutoring company. Let’s learn more about Sundeep and his co-founders as he shares their inspiring journey.
Hi Sundeep, welcome to ConflatingVisions. To start with please tell us a few lines about yourself and your co-founder(s) [if any] at TryMyTutor.
I started this business myself and ran it for quite some time before I was joined by Somvir & Mujahid. Although we have dedicated expertise in our team for every domain, however, it is a very informal setup in the office where everybody helps everybody in their work and reaching someone out is just a matter of text.
I am the founder and CEO of TryMyTutor.com, NCR’s largest tutoring company. I have over 6 years of hands-on experience in the Tutoring Industry as a visionary and strategic planner in leading, directing, advancing, and evaluating. My work goes to a core challenge of our times; the growing gap between students & teachers. In the macro picture over the years, I have identified some basic needs outside the radar screen of the Indian education system. My passion is to build a pan-Indian education company that helps students off campus through instant tutoring support with all means.
I am awarded for Employment Generation by Swarnim Bharat Nirman. I like reading literature, poetries & articles about the startup revolution in my spare time.
Mujahid is the tech and product guy. He basically takes care of what specific technology we are using and how are we using it, to build and scale better products. Somvir looks after our marketing. How we communicate to our audience and how we build our brand amongst growing competition is his area of expertise. Both of them have prior experience in handling businesses in the education domain.
Also, not to forget, we have an amazing team of 10 other people with varying responsibilities who actually are our frontrunners in converting this idea into something big. We are a small happy family.
Tell us about TryMyTutor. What is your working model?
TryMyTutor is a marketplace of home tutors for students/parents. We offer you a tutor at your home according to your preference. Simultaneously, the tutors are provided home tuition (more sales) near their location.
What invoked you to think of creating TryMyTutor?
It is a mix of a little experience and a lot of realisation. I actually tried to become a part-time tutor myself when I was in College but was unable to find an organisation which genuinely provided demand and an income opportunity. That’s it, it got me thinking and I decided to start something small for college kids. That led to the first version of the idea called The Education Academy, the second version was Tutorkart. A lot of hustle and then the result of our team’s relentless pursuit and steadfast commitment that joined the vision of my team, has led to what TryMyTutor is today.
Do you feel you have achieved all the objectives so far?
Not at all. I think we’ve just started on the long road of bringing about a lot of change in the way education is being seen and approached in our society. Moreover, the objectives keep changing and keep on becoming bigger every time we accomplish an objective.
Share the investment details.
Currently, we are bootstrapping our business but we’ll actively look out for funds really soon (our new product is in development). Meanwhile, we’ve had a few offers from some investors which we’ve turned down till now. We are actively shuffling through various investment options by different angel investors/groups.
How has the demand for your service grown since its inception?
Demand for good home tutors has always existed in the education market in India. With growing nuclear families in which both parents are working, the demand has really gone up in the Delhi NCR area. Initially, we were able to generate somewhere around 10 leads a month which has grown to 600 to 800 demand for tutors every month. The demand for female tutors has doubled in the last few years.
Share some of your success stories.
Personally, I don’t think I’ve achieved success yet. But there are a lot of success stories which our business has created. From students getting better grades to so many teachers having opted for tutoring as a full-time career with our help, making up to Rs 1 lac a month just by giving tuition. This is something which inspires us a lot. A lot of our tutors are college students and are becoming more self-dependent financially meanwhile developing their confidence and communication skills.
What makes you different from your competitors?
We actually have a lot of direct and indirect competitors and the only thing that makes us different and better than them is the size of our numbers. We currently have more active tutors registered than any other portal or bureau and every one of them is getting sufficient demand. Our detailed experience of execution in the market also gives us exceptional advantages over them. Our supply is so strong that we are even filling some of the demand for portals like UrbanClap in Delhi NCR.
This is not only limited to basic subjects like Maths and Science. We’ve carefully built our supply keeping all the subjects from KG to Post graduation in mind. Our better understanding of our user’s preferences and our ability to deliver on it really sets us apart.
What has been the most challenging part of your entrepreneurial journey so far?
The private tutoring (especially home tutoring) market in India is very fragmented and highly unorganised. The biggest challenge for a startup like us is to actually organise it in such a way that we create more entrepreneurs out of homes and at the same time provide an amazing experience to the user. The execution challenges of it have been the most challenging part. But as they say, it only makes us stronger.
How did you overcome the challenge?
By shifting our focus to technology to be true. We use a lot of machine learning and database empowerment tech to filter out demand and supply. This results in a better match between the student and the tutor. We are trying to organise this fragmented market by setting up better resource parameters to churn out a lot of execution challenges of the business.
What are your future plans?
Oh there are a lot of future plans but for now, we are strongly focused on bringing an automated product with a seamless experience. The product is in the development stage as of now and will be launched soon. From a geographical point of view, we are focused on strengthening our demand and supply from the NCR regions (which has 4 small cities) and afterwards, we’ll expand to other metro cities.
A distant future of TryMyTutor may comprise of strong use of tech to deliver better learning experiences to students. Products like online tutoring and live group classes are something we are eyeing in a 3-year window.
And one last question of this session, if you have had one wish…
Me and my core team strongly feel about the education system in India and even in the world. If given a chance we’ll love to bring about a lot of good change in it so that a better generation is developed.
