Edtech is the leading industry these days, and the growing demand for venture capitalists in the education sector has given rise to numerous edtech startups online. Entrepreneurs are excited to start their edtech businesses with the help of edtech app development because online education is the new normal and the need of the hour. Business owners desire to be big as edtech startups like Byjus, udemy, Unacademy, Vedantu, Duolingo, etc., for a better slice of market share.
According to the statistics, the leading EdTech unicorn worldwide as of January 2022 is the Indian company named Byju’s at 21 billion dollars, followed by Yuanfudao, Zuoyebang, etc.
But a few mistakes sometimes lead to a business failure. Many succeeded for a few years and somehow couldn’t last much longer, and a few failed before launching their edtech business for one or the other reason. Entrepreneurs do not focus on a must to have a product, lack of budget, product-market fit, etc. One of the major challenges is distribution; thus, business ventures that can determine distribution have a long way to go.
Getting business success is not easy, nor can you expedite the business expansion process. But, avoiding the major gap holes and mistakes is what one can ensure to prevent failures in the edtech world.
Edtech Industry Stats:
The education technology industry is growing rapidly and is anticipated to surpass $377 billion by 2028. And the reason for the growth and rapid change is changing needs of students and the emergence of new technologies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the edtech sector, and its market was boosted by nearly 21% year-over-year in 2021. And according to the elearning market analysis by Technavio, the edTech market is expected to increase by USD 112.39 billion from 2020 to 2025.
It is expected to rise because of the increase in smartphone users, expanding internet usage in education, customized education experience, and a wave of online learning.
What is Edtech?
Edtech is a digital way to connect teachers and students to enhance teaching and learning. Edutech means the combined software, hardware, and theories to promote learning. It also refers to organizations that develop personalized learning methods tailored to individual learners with the help of the latest technologies.
Five common pitfalls faced by edtech startups and ways to keep it at your arm’s length
Flawed Market Research :
As an edupreneur, you may think you know everything about the education system, but unless you have worked in this industry, you may not be able to look out for the challenges and student needs.
Instead of getting knowledge, most founders are working hard to analyze educational app development companies to get their products into the market as fast as possible. They generally test the assumptions and launch their apps. On the other hand, successful startups take things a little slower; they will comprehensively analyze their impact on students before implementing them.
Thus, startups that jump into this industry with prior and thorough market research may develop an innovative possibility in the education sector.
But lack of homework, meaning competitive analysis and market research, makes you oblivious of students’ needs. And sometimes, you may overhype a fancy app development idea that is not worth it for a business to rise and fails to favor the ‘must-required.’
Solution:
Education is a diverse market, but startups fail because businessmen are unfamiliar with in-depth research regarding needs and competitor analysis. As a business owner, you need to develop an app that caters to your competitor’s business loopholes.
You need to take a step ahead toward lowering your risk of failure. Invest sufficient time in understanding the target market needs and requirements rather than focusing on app features. Don’t assume things; instead, take your time to acknowledge how your business will add value to your target audiences.
Try to dig deep into learning about challenges your target audience faces and how your business can overcome them and make the way to success in the educational and learning environment. Moreover, consider the impact of your solution on your target audience and the environment.
Ergo, allow room to test and make the required adjustments. With this approach, you will be able to identify how to resolve your customer’s problems.
Unclarity about your customers:
Many people download the app, or it comes preinstalled when somebody buys a mobile phone, and these are due to the app marketing strategies. But you need to understand that not all users are your customers.
Your consumers are the ones who pay for the services, which is not true in the case of edtech business. For example, you have developed an app for kids, but it will be their parents who decide to buy it or not. Thus, you can’t just market your product to a child, making sure they will buy it by letting their parents pay for an app.
That is why it becomes difficult to define whether you should satisfy students, their parents, or the education boards.
Because of this reason, even after so many users are on board, edtech companies fail to get enough revenue and the capacity to sustain in the market for a long period.
Solution:
Your app may win the race to get higher downloads, but if your audiences are not downloading your application, there is no use as your business fails to turn your users into your subscribers.
Thus, it is not the right decision for a startup, mainly edtech, to consider the download parameter key for determining app success. It would help if you considered various KPIs to maximize the revenue and success of your edtech mobile app startup.
And one of them is to focus on customers who have the authority to make buying decisions. So consider first, who will pay? Is the person who will decide the one who will use your product?
You must remember that if there are more stakeholders, your product sales process will be harder, the positioning will become unclear, and you will end up promoting a product that tries to satisfy students, parents, and the board of education norms but end up not satisfying any of them.
Thus, remember that the key to business success is knowing about your customers.
Edtech startups lack transparency and teacher Collaboration.
Another key reason is the lack of valuable input from teachers and transparency. Startups are concentrating on replacing teachers with elearning app development ideas. Because of this, owners do not mind getting valuable inputs from teachers nor disclose the modules’ working.
Eduprenuers knowingly do not try to understand the edtech pedagogy, what students want in their learning process, and how classroom technology impacts student outcomes, leading to a development of products close to zero.
Solution:
Teachers and institutions are part of a learning system, and before hiring an edtech mobile app development company, you must consult them. They have been well-versed with the changing edtech market needs since the evolution of the edtech industry. Communicate with them about the challenges you think need to be overcome and your solution.
In such scenarios, you make a companion who can guide you better and help you uncover the directions you never thought to make your mobile app worthwhile to the audience and later successful.
So, look forward to it! Connect with teachers and educational institutions. Dig deep and try to understand the edtech pedagogy, how students learn, what they expect, and more.
This is how you will easily discover your goals and vision. Further, you can accomplish your idea by consulting a top edtech app development company that has developed a lot of different types of learning app projects.
Also, educational institutes do not have the time and energy to test your startup; instead, edtech startups can also look for teachers to test products and provide valuable feedback.
Unnecessary technologies and app features:
Advanced technologies are captivating people, and due to this, many businessmen implement new technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, the internet of things, augmented reality, and others; with the help of such technologies, new startups assume to engage customers and bring in more sales.
Also, adding too many features to their mobile learning app makes it a complex application for children and parents, leading to a lower user experience.
But these technologies and excess features somehow end up confusing the app users. And eventually, it turns out to be another reason why most startups fail.
Solution:
As a startup business, you must develop a user-friendly and simple mobile application without focusing on developing a complex and big app. It will affect your development timeline, budget, user acquisition, and retention rate.
Also, it will become a daunting task for you to break new grounds and rule your audience’s hearts, especially when you have a defined cut-throat competition in the market.
The best way to get an edge is by investing in the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The edtech mobile app must be simple with essential functional features. And the right approach to get benefitted from state-of-the-art technologies, you must contact a professional app development company and discuss with them which technology will suit your business needs and be a perfect addition to your education app project.
Thus, it will save your development cost and time as well.
The expectation of business growth right from the start
Education business requires patience as, like other business startups such as e-commerce, food, etc., edtech industry growth is slow. If you want to grow your edtech startup, you have to consider the long haul, i.e., atleast 5-10 years.
Hypergrowth is possible in most cases, but in the edtech industry, no single business has seen it. It takes time for the education industry to get its model, strategies, and pricing right. So, before diving into the edtech startup, you need to be friendlier with a word called patience, and the focus must be on surviving in this industry for a long time.
This might disturb entrepreneurs and investors who wish to succeed in a shorter period. But rather than giving time to business, they lose their hope. So be patient, as the longer you survive, the higher the possibility of a win-win situation.
Solution:
The revenue generation process in an edtech business is quite slow. And the only solution to start earning from this business is to prefer a business model to support you to remain in the competition. There are four different monetization strategies.
Freemium
Freemium model allows customers to use the app free of cost but helps businesses make money by introducing a few paid features gto get a better experience.
Only Pay when using the app service
In this business model, users have to pay for edTech app services when they use it.
Subscription Model
This business model charges a subscription fee for accessing the product or services monthly, weekly, and yearly.
Enterprise Sales
Enterprise sales is considered when the product requires more integration, training, and customer support services.
What can you do about this?
Proper research before entering into the industry does not kill you but makes you stronger in making potential business decisions.
Being an edtech startup means you need to be skillful in this sector. Identify what niche will be easy for you to work upon, and build a prototype before the real one. Understand your business and its consumer, and then slowly, with a long haul, look for success and profits.
Remember, opportunities are always up for those who know the dos and don’ts of the edtech world.
Wrapping up
The growth of the education industry and hundreds of startup failures are lowering entrepreneurs’ confidence. They are now in a dilemma of entering the elearning industry.
But it’s the right time to implement these five solutions and pave the way by offering an improved learning experience. Create a roadmap for the development of your business. It would help you avoid failures in your Edutech business venture.
And if you encounter any challenges in developing an edtech business, you can consult with our edtech development team.