Founded in 2017, Talentnook was built with the vision of creating the world’s first neighborhood learning community. The company is creating an online community to help children capitalize on their time away from home. Additionally, it provides a platform for teachers who wish to assist students by sharing their knowledge. The company strives to make after-school learning stress less for parents, students, and teachers.
The idea behind Talentnook’s inception conceptualized to overcome the challenges of supplement learning at school with something for kids to do and stay engaged in the evenings & weekends like music, arts, exploring new concepts in math, writing help, etc.
The company enables its customers to find an instructor or a mentor for their children at the click of a button. With the ability to work from home or within the area of residence, it is single-handedly working to make learning fun and relaxed.
Prior to this, it was hard to find a convenient solution like this which was safe as well as affordable. The name Talentnook came from the idea of neighborhood based learning of any talent, subject, or skill and creating nooks or hubs of learning within the neighborhoods.
Talentnook helps parents find the right local tutor for their child to foster holistic skill development. It offers convenience of finding the best tutors as per the locality, saves commute & wait time. It promises to provide a high-quality and fun-learning experience at an affordable price. The company has an extensive screening process for teachers, which ensures quality, background check, and address verification before they start holding sessions. Talentnook guarantees hundred percent satisfaction; failing which, it covers for the lessons and helps in finding a new tutor.
Ever-Changing Roles of a Leader
Sumit Kumar is the Co–Founder & CEO of Talentnook alongside Rajiv Tiwari. Sumit has been an architect, a control freak on major CAPEX programs, and a chef before he founded the company. His journey of Talentnook started in 2016.
As a parent, Sumit wanted his two kids to explore new skills & talents while he and his wife were trying to balance things between hectic work schedules, busy social & recreational life, and the rising cost of after-school learning. His role varies based on the need of the hour. Initially, his job was more product-centric and now it’s more customer experience & growth-centric. Sumit’s strength lies in strategic thinking, planning, operations, and marketing. He believes, Talentnook will redefine the way after-school learning happens and bring a convenient & easy user experience for a parent.
Sumit has worked as a project controls manager at Burns & McDonnell, where he has managed control operations on a major capital program with USD 2.6 billion in planned spending and coordinated with clients and internal teams at both project and portfolio levels. He was also responsible for risk & opportunity identification and forecasting, capital budgeting, and development of five year, three year, and one year investment plans.
When asked about his opinion on a disruptive company, Sumit believes “the key is to be open to new ideas, experiments, and feedback. A disruptive company is a reflection of a disruptive founding team itself, which is ready to venture into the unknowns and figure things out.” According to him, companies like Apple, Tesla, Google, and Amazon, termed as disruptive companies, are very empathetic and deeply understand the problem of the user.
Industry Landscape
According to the company, the education industry is still very conservative and fragmented. There are many initiatives and forces that are trying to reform the industry but the change is slow. Technology has changed how kids learn, and with the proliferation of technology in literally every aspect of learning, children today have become dependent on virtual classes and parents support this shift due to increased convenience. However, the human-interaction aspect is getting lost gradually, something Talentnook aims to foster and bring back to the education scenario.
Full Measure
Talentnook is a community of learners and teachers and believes that safety comes first. The company takes great care in making sure that its platform is safe. The second most important aspect is quality of learning. Talentnook’s founding team interviews and gets acquainted with each & every teacher that joins the company. The company has kept the cost of its services, the lowest in the industry. Its goal is to encourage learning and remove or soften the barriers as much as possible.
Retaining Human Touch
Talentnook is the only tutoring platform that is focusing on a hyper-local neighborhood based in-person learning model. According to the company, everyone is running toward online remote learning as the company pays much lower rate to a teacher tutoring math from India. This may work to an extent for college students and adult learners but the kids in elementary, middle, and early high school need that mentor, teacher, and guide in person. The company is still building a well formed marketing team but it does have a very strong community experience team that takes care of its users.
Creating Awareness is Challenging
It’s been a roller coaster ride for the company and it has went through a myriad of emotions on a single day. The entire team has grown professionally and personally along with Talentnook. It is learning every moment and marching ahead. Yet the company believes that in a world where parents & children are hugely accustomed to virtual learning for ease of education, bringing awareness and spreading the word about Talentnook as a convenient yet transformative alternative was a big challenge. Organic marketing is slow, advertising is expensive. Consolidation of the learning industry will be a herculean effort and will take more than a village.
Aspiring Solutions for the Future
The after-school industry is fragmented and user experience is broken. Learning today is inconvenient and expensive. Talentnook brings in the convenience for parents of knowing exactly where to go when they have any after-school learning needs. Its second major focus is the user experience with a larger emphasis on ease of finding a tutor. Children can find a tutor with three clicks, one email, and one call. Moreover, Talentnook learning happens at home. The company is focusing on expanding the after-school learning market and the neighborhood concept. In the future, it sees itself as a leader of online learning community and a learning evangelist & supporter of deep tech in education.
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