From Local Giants to Global Leaders: Scaling EdTech to the World

Speaker A: This session was recorded live at the 2026 ASU GSV summit in San Diego.

Speaker B: Thank you so much for coming to this session. My name's uh, Joy, Joy Chen. I am a senior advisor at Stanford Accelerator for Learning and also I'm a senior advisor at GSV Ventures. Um, so on behalf of gsv, welcome to uh, our event. I hope you guys have enjoyed, uh, this summit so far. For the next 40 minutes we're going to talk about how to grow from local, uh, giants to global leaders. Uh, it is all about how to scale your education companies, especially edtech companies, uh, to the world. So I am very pleased, uh, and honored to share the stage with four wonderful, incredible speakers. Um, I think without further ado, I'd like to have them to do a quick introduction about yourselves and also tell uh, us a little bit more about your companies.

Speaker C: Okay? Hi everyone. I'm Jolene liang from Squirrel AI Learning. I'm um, the co founder and international CEO. So we have been in this industry for 12 years and building AI large adaptive model, very vertical, large model for K to 12 students. So the product is like an AI virtual tutor to diagnose the students learning, um, knowledge state and to do recommendation. And we do have the learning tablet and system and we do have the offline self study centers. So it's online offline combined together.

Speaker D: Hi everyone. I'm Zahra. Nice to meet you. I'm an investor and head of platform at Emerge Capital. We're a pre seed and seed fund investing in the future of learning, future of work, everything under Human Capital Development. Um, we have a venture partner group of 100 of the best founders, operators and execs in the space from OpenAI to Duolingo Kahoot that support our amazing community of founders.

Speaker E: Hello everybody. Uh, I am from uh, Turkey from Doping Technology. I'm m the CFO of Doping Technology, Arif Karakush. Uh, we are here. We have a booth uh, just in front of the stage X. So we are waiting, uh, just after the panel, uh, to see our new product Dopi Future, uh, our doping technology company, uh, based on turkey and founded 15 years ago by two high school students. So we are the leading edtech technology in Turkey and we have touched more than 5 million students in the past 15 years. So uh, thank you for attendance.

Speaker A: Hi. Hi everyone. My name is uh, Dipanshu. I've been a teacher and a school leader for 12 years now and I'm also the founder and CEO of Toddle. Toddle is uh, an AI first learning management system used by two and a half thousand schools, uh, globally. You can think of us as a teacher workflow platform which helps teaching teams with curriculum planning assignments, portfolios, gradebooks, all the good stuff that teachers do. Good to be meeting all of you. Thank you.

Speaker C: Great.

Speaker B: Well, thank you. And also welcome to this session and it's great to hear that all of you guys coming from different uh, locations like China, London, uh, Turkey and now Singapore. And also a little bit like uh, from India as well. So coming from different markets. Uh, and also you guys have done um, quite some things in globalization area. Um, so my first question is, um, especially like for people sitting here, I'm sure they are considering going globalization. But we all know actually I had a company, I was entrepreneur and I sold my company to tell Tal and we were also kind of like going through the journey of globalization. Uh, and the very first question, uh, actually uh, um, a dilemma is there are usually two choices. One is uh, you uh, want to look for a market which is big, lots uh, of opportunities. Ah, um, and uh, great potential. But usually it means you need to do a lot of localization. And uh, the choice two is uh, you probably can find a market which is a natural fit for your product or solution. But uh, that market could be much smaller or more uh, limited. Um, so I wonder how uh, have you guys done the thinking, uh process to make the decision about uh, what market to pick? So you want to start?

Speaker C: Sure. Um, so when we started our company 12 years ago, our strategy was go to global market, so market oriented and then we design our AI engine. So we need to make sure that the technology, the structure, the knowledge graph that we started to build this AI engine is going to fit the global market, Western Asia and everywhere. And then we will go to different countries. Like we started from China and now we are moving to North America and then Southeast Asia, Central Asia. We have to make sure the content, the culture, the knowledge graph can be relocalized to the local market. So the engine first we have to think broader way global market. And then when you come to individual market, we redesign or localized. So that's our strategy.

Speaker D: Well, um, I come from Europe, so if you're thinking of building a global edtech company, every European founder is thinking of the US market from day one. So that's the first point. But I mean if you have a product already, I mean I think the approach of like thinking of your market as you're building the product is useful. But if you have the product, you're like okay, shit, what do I Do, do I go product first, market first? Um, I think education has a lot of structural, let's say, difficulties that maybe most SaaS doesn't. It's very siloed. You have different credentialing systems, finance systems, cultural differences. Um, so we really think when you have the product, um, think about which market it fits into very well. Rather than trying to adapt your product to each market because of how different education is across markets, you spend a long time trying to localize. So if you can do what she mentioned about, thinking about it from day one. So you build your product in the way that it fits into your core markets you want to go into, that's great. Otherwise, um, yeah, think about where the product has that cultural portability already baked in.

Speaker A: So in our case, um, we have always played in very small markets. And uh, we started with a focus on International baccalaureate schools. There are about 5,000 of them globally. And our product in the early days was very, very purpose built just for IB schools, 5,000 of them. And as we started getting traction in IB schools, we also started feeling that, okay, this is a limited market, we need to expand beyond this. The way we approached this was can we think of other school systems which are actually very close to the IB so that we don't have to change our product much. So we figured that other independent schools which are not IB would be the next logical extension. So we tried to start working with those schools and we realized that, yeah, the product works. Uh, it required a lot of product, some product work, but it was not a lot of product work. And then once we started working with a lot of independent schools, then we said that, okay, this market is also small, now we need to think, uh, bigger. And we figured that some faith based schools in different parts of the world actually fit our ideal customer profile. So we started working with them. Then as we started working with them, we realized that, okay, this market is also not very big. We also need to expand beyond this. So then we thought, okay, U.S. public Schools is the biggest, uh, market in the world, so we need to start working with U.S. public schools. But U.S. public schools, like there are 50 states, each of them has a very different flavor. Which state has the flavor which is closest to the kind of customers we serve? And we realized that the state is New Jersey. Because New Jersey has a, uh, mandate where districts are required to plan and publish their curriculum in a certain way. We spoke to a few districts in New Jersey. We realized that there will be a fit. So our approach always has been that start with small Markets and then figure out which are the natural extensions. And then keep spreading your tentacles slowly but, uh, steadily. Uh, that's how we have been building this for the last seven years.

Speaker E: From our side. Let me add something. From our side. Uh, we are very keen on Turkish exam system and the curriculum. Uh, so that's why we cannot naturally extend to other markets, uh, easily. Yeah, we cannot extend to other markets easily, so because we need to fight with the curriculum, with the regulatory bodies, etc. So that's why we try to enter us with different type of products. So M. Why us? Because us is the center of the, uh, edtech, the technology and everything, and uh, especially the financial power. So that's why we are here and we are trying our chance here in us.

Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for sharing your thinking processes. And uh, my next question is, once you decide which market to go to, I think naturally next question is how much localization you need to do. Uh, as uh, ERA pointed out, uh, we all know education is deeply, uh, local, deeply cultural, and highly regulated at different places. So we want to make sure the product will be a good fit for, uh, different markets. But at the same time, from the business perspective, we also want to have, um, as much standardization as possible so that we can scale the business, uh, really quick, really fast, uh, to uh, have like, financial, uh, roi. So from that perspective, people are usually juggling two balls. They are balancing standardization and uh, uh, localization. Uh, so I'd like to ask you guys, uh, when you, uh, deal with these two things, uh, um, uh, what are the strategies and what are the things you have done to do a good balance? Maybe start from there.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So one thing that I would like to say is that the definition of market is not always geographical. It could be something else as well. Like in our case, we started with International Baccalaureate schools. There are about 5,000 schools spread across 100 plus countries. But they share a common characteristic. So that's how we define the market. It's not a geography cut, it's a curriculum cut. And then I think the answer will be different for different companies. But because we are a software company and we want our code base to be standard across all the schools that we work with. As we have started working with more and more schools beyond our core of International Baccalaureate, we have tried to keep our software to be the same. And what we do is whenever we go into a new market, for example, as we are starting to work with public schools in the U.S. whatever we are learning from here, we also take it Back to all of our existing customer base as well. Because good teaching learning is good teaching learning, uh, there is uh, global and um, for example, when we started working with New Jersey schools, we realized that they need to publish their curriculum in a certain way. We felt that that is a feature that will be relevant for all of our existing customers as well. So we built it as a standard product. We don't, as far as possible, we don't like to localize because being a soft, like if it's a services company it will be a different call. But being a software company maintaining different code bases just becomes super hard. So we try to keep it standard across

Speaker E: um, from our perspective, uh, in 2022 we entered the US market and we have already learned with DOPI SAT with a different product and we have already learned that the localization is not just translating your content into another language. So uh, of course the curriculum, the regulatory body requirements, et cetera, those are also the headwinds. But we realized another surprising thing. In us the market structure is different here because the decision makers are uh, decision making is strange for us at least, uh, because the end user is the student. But you uh, have to sell the product to the school district. And there are also many intermediary companies, resellers, retainers, uh, consultants. So it's a little mess for the new company in such a big market. So in order to enter this market we have changed our strategy here. Right now we are trying to find a good uh, accelerator, intermediary company, whatever it is, and that's why we are here. We had many meetings in the summit, uh, so we would like to enter this market by using such an accelerator, of course, in order to build some uh, trust. Um, and on the product side we create another product just for the US part. So it is much more general product which is uh, universal we think. And our focus is to understand how children learn, interact and engage with. So it's much more universal and it's easy to make it local. So that's what we are using uh, right now in this context.

Speaker D: I'll double click on what Arif said. Actually I think one of the biggest mistakes we see that founders make when thinking about this is they think localization means the translation, maybe changing currency, maybe some images. Um, and I think there's a better 80, 20 to be done there. And I think standardize what compounds, right? It's your tech team, it's your data model, it's your pedagogy. Um, and when it comes to localization, education is a Trust based business, right? You're often selling twice because you're selling to your end user and you're selling to whoever has the budget holder, whether it's schools, universities, maybe you're selling to enterprise. And so I would say when it comes to like where do we spend our efforts on localization, I think AI can help a lot with the things that I mentioned originally. Um, but it's the trust, it's the relationships, um and really reinforcing the brand and things like that.

Speaker C: Maybe I'll just very short um anchor to your answer is for us our standard standardized two things. One is our AI engine, the tech, the platform and the other one is the business model. So franchise business model, uh after school program. This is the standard for any countries for our market but localization for the content. And also another thing is the localization of the student learning behavior. As an AI platform we can do the analysis and um, store all the students profile learning behavior data. So different countries students has different cultural background habit. So we do have 80%, 90% can be standardized but when it goes to different market it has to be 10 to 20% tailored for the current market. This is so, so so important. Same importance as the content.

Speaker B: I love how all of you almost um, uh all mentioned one thing that is localization is more than like trans translate into the local language. It is related to product of course, but also the infrastructure, maybe the data set architecture and go to market strategies and also business models. Um okay, my next question is related to online learning solutions. Uh, during the past like 1015 years we have seen more and more uh online solutions for education products. And I have heard many people saying ah, having the online education products or solutions makes uh globalization much easier than before. Is this the true scenario for the things you guys have gone through? Tell uh us maybe the truth or the stories you have had. I'll go first.

Speaker C: As AI company, online company, of course it can help us to scalability. But for education it's a different story. Our business model is to have the self study center offline physically. Even though our product is pure online, uh, we don't sell the product online. We still sell the product offline in the center. And we hope to gather the students who come to the center to interact with their supervisors, their peers, their friends. This is so important. Physical um, atmosphere can provide a very good environment for students to learn. So online is definitely the biggest strategy for all the companies. But when we come to online uh education we need to think what we want to teach what we want to train the student, what outcomes we want, if you just want the students to get an answer, feedback, you can just do pure online. But if you really want to train the student and educate a student and be a long term, um, um, to help the students to learn, I think offline is also very, very important.

Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. And I think education is inherently an emotional experience. Right. And so when we think about globalization, how what kind of role tech plays, I think often there's this, I would say like a bit of a false dichotomy between, okay, like are we going completely online, AI led or are we doing human stuff that doesn't scale? And I think what's really exciting at the moment is we're seeing the emergence of new categories where you can blend the two and you're using technology to really scale the human aspect. And so one example we've seen in the portfolio is called MyEDSpace. You can imagine them as sort of twitch for education. So they have distilled what it takes to build a celebrity teacher online. Someone who's really good at captivating people's attention over zoom over a webinar. They build up these celebrity teachers and they teach the core content. In the UK it's like GCSEs, um, and they teach it in a sort of one to many format and then the students learn from the best teachers in the country, they're excited to be there, it's interactive with the Discord server and then they get that one to one support from their AI tutors. But the actual learning happens from a human, it happens from someone who knows how to engage them. And there's the tech behind it that allows them to scale but also offer incredible tutoring at the cost of £5 an hour, where the average in the UK is £37 an hour. So suddenly it's way more affordable to people, way more accessible. So I think like, you know, tech can do a lot of things, but this blend of like the human and tech side is really, really exciting.

Speaker E: Uh, in Turkey we have 100% online business and our B2C model really works well and we are highly scalable. But customer acquisition cost is still high. But because of being market leader, being price setter, being the trendsetter in the Turkey, we have a stable business right now and generates high ebitda. But when we are looking to

Speaker C: global

Speaker E: scale, if you want to do that, you cannot do that easily because of the customer's acquisition costs. I, um, am looking at the financial perspective. And by the way, AI does not make everything it cannot solve everything for you. So you have to be physically in the, in the market so you have to touch people. And similarly in the education, the student I think should physically meet with the teachers and the others.

Speaker B: Um, do you have. Okay, so, um, my personal uh, take, I uh, think, uh, definitely online solutions. And especially with AI empowered, uh, online solutions can lower the barrier for education companies to go, uh, to another market. But at the same time I think it also uh, kind of raised the bar for the education companies to stand out, to win, to differentiate themselves to all the other online solutions or the other air power solutions. M and also another point I completely agree is, uh, no matter how much digital, uh, factors like things we have, uh, uh, to design developed education products, still there should be ah, a person there, human there, take care of the students, um, uh, provide emotional kind of support, uh, to help students to learn better, um, to achieve the better learning outcomes. All right, so now I have a question. All of you guys. Look back on your journey of globalization. I bet this is not an easy journey, right? So there are a lot of like setbacks, challenges and the difficult times. Name one. Uh, what is the biggest challenges? What is the biggest, uh, uh, the most difficult time you've gone through and uh, um, how have you dealt with it? Some learnings or some best practices you want to share with the audience here?

Speaker C: You guys can. Oh, that's okay. Okay, go ahead.

Speaker A: I think for us, um, as we scale to different markets, the biggest challenge has always been uh, the go to market and um, creating the right kind of teams, being able to inspire the right kind of people to join us. And uh, once you have that sorted, I think other problems kind of start looking small. So now whenever we are looking to enter a new market, the first thing that I try and do is that reform a really good team up front and then once you have that, everything else falls in, falls in place.

Speaker E: Yeah, um, from our point, of course, uh, I agree with you, the growth market strategy is critical. The, the challenge of convincing the market players, uh, is very hard. Um, so while we are creating our final, the recent product of the feature, we asked ourselves a hard question. Uh, why would people buy our product? Yes, we are confident about our product, but we need to convince them. We need some data in order to convince them. Uh, and finally we decided to uh, work with the academicians. Uh, we have very tight relations with the academicians and universities in Turkey and our headquarter is also in one of the reputable universities in Istanbul. Uh, so we have started a study with the reputable academicians, uh, two years ago. And the results will be published soon, I think next month in a Q1 science journal journal. And, uh, that's our method. The method name is the Way methodology and that's what we use in our new product, Topi Future. So it's like a commercial, but you can see that Topi Future after the panel.

Speaker B: Well, share with us later once you get results. We'd love to see how it is. Yeah.

Speaker E: But, uh, as a context, I would like to say that it's hard to enter the market. Uh, and we have a scientific proof right now. And uh, this is our strongest pillar. So, uh, we believe in that.

Speaker D: From an investor perspective, um, I guess you guys have the really hard job. Right. Um, but I think if we think about challenges from our side, like EdTech is a really hard market to do venture scale in. Right. Like if you're selling to schools, you're doing really long sales cycles. ACVs are relatively small. So there are some natural challenges that emerge from the two. And I think one of the things investors definitely need to be aware of is this pressure that you put on founders, I guess, to hyperscale, which in many cases has killed a lot of great ed tech companies. So I think it's finding the right balance between if you invest in an ad tech company, you believe there is venture scale available, um, in the market. It's like, how do you balance, um, kind of pushing your founders to be aggressive enough to really grow fast, but not too fast because you encounter also a lot of these localization challenges where you grow to new markets and you think, hey, I've just translated all my content. But actually you haven't been able to spend the time to deeply understand the market and figure out is this the right market for the product that we have. So I'd say that's probably one of the core tensions investors are navigating. And I'd say for founders to also think about if you're raising venture money, understand the venture model a little bit and whether that's something that really makes sense for you and where you want to take your company.

Speaker C: Um, yeah, I just had a thought about when we found this company, when we wanted to launch our product to the market. That was in 2016, 17, everyone didn't know what AI was, especially in education. How did we convince franchisees to join us and parents to pay for the product? And it's actually similar story now when we want to enter a new market. Everyone knows squirrel AI has really strong AI. We have got over 20 billion learning behavior data, blah, blah, blah, blah. But they don't buy for that. So what they buy for the results. So we started to do the efficacy studies, which is kind of AI versus human teaching competition. And so this is very good solution marketing strategy to convince franchisees and parents to actually pay money and purchase the product because they like to see the result. Okay, your AI is so strong, right? But how can you use this AI virtual tutor to teach my kid how the result is going to be? So all the results, efficacy studies and show that AI teaching won. So that's really, really convenient and promising result. So this was our most difficulty thing and we had a solution.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's good you guys have the solution. I have seen so many education companies, they're struggling to show, um, it works, meaning like the learning outcomes, like it does help students to learn better, better learning outcomes, et cetera. So congratulations on being able to do that. Uh, next question. So you probably have heard a word, maybe you are tired of this word AI, right? At this conference or even before coming to this conference. So I have to bring this up because now we are in the AI era and AI has changed how we learn, how we work, and uh, of course, um, uh, how we live. Um, so, um, I bet it has changed, uh, the playbook of how we go. Globalization for sure. So I like to have you guys to share some of the strategies and uh, principles you think in this AI world. Uh, this new, uh, globalization, uh, playbook should have whoever.

Speaker A: I think for us, one of the things that AI has truly enabled is just the speed at which we ship. And uh, it has, uh, helped us, um, gain a lot of operating leverage internally. So we are currently a team of 200 developers at uh, and um, we have a pretty expansive roadmap going ahead. And six months back we had predicted that we will need about 350 or 375 engineers to be able to deliver on that. And now we are actually finding that just with 200 engineers we should be able to do that. So what it enables is the speed at which you ship. And um, when you are entering a new market, you will always need to understand the product nuances there, the kind of changes that you want to make to your product. It just makes super, super fast to build something first at a prototype level and then at a deployment level as well. So when we are approaching a new state in the U.S. districts in new state in the U.S. we show them the product. They'll be like, you know, it'll be great if Your product could do this thing as well. Earlier it used to take about three to four weeks for us to design something, build a prototype, take it back to them. Now actually our product managers can do that on the fly and just uh, build it out over four to five hours, take it back to people. Is this something that will meet your needs and then you go into production much faster? So that cycle of taking customer input, building prototypes, validating it and then actually deploying it, that has really fastened which just enables you to enter newer markets at a much faster pace. That's what we are seeing internally.

Speaker E: Yes, similar like the pantry has um, for example in our job right now compared uh, to 2025, uh, our product, we can create new product layers faster than last year and with half of the people maybe. And on the other hand, uh, on the marketing side we have a huge marketing cost budget and we spend our marketing budget uh, smarter by using AI tools. And finally on the managerial side we are spending our time on the strategic

Speaker F: uh,

Speaker E: perspectives and the new investment models instead of spending our time daily routines and operations. But uh, everybody should use that time very effectively because in the short period of time the followers will use the same path and then they will compete with you, maybe better than you. So it's very critical uh, and that's what uh, we are using right now. In Turkey.

Speaker D: AI is very much double edged sword as we've seen. It can enable your teams to work so much faster, ship faster. You can build things internally that you could never build before, which is amazing but so can your competitors. And so the gap between what you're building and maybe the closest competitor you have is just shrinking every day. And so I really don't envy your job as founders. Um, but you know, I think like one of the key things that we've seen are the teams that move fastest and are taking the gains from this AI revolution are the ones that have really prioritized AI fluency within their teams. Now that could look like you hire very AI native people, digitally savvy people. I think for the first time time I'm m seeing within our uh, LP and venture partner base people that have built unicorn companies scaled like public companies, they've gone on to build a next one and they're like hey, actually one of the biggest mistakes I made was hiring the CMO that worked for me at my previous company and built a unicorn in the pre AI era. And it just, the playbooks just are not the same anymore. And so they're like hey, I actually fired my whole C suite team and replaced them with 20 something year olds who um, built a really cool thing at a hackathon that I saw a month ago. So I think everything is changing very fast. So you can find people that are uh, great at what they do. I recognize that that's really hard. So the second part is how do you upskill your team? I think that's the core thing that I would say to all founders. How are you setting time aside? And I know everything is on fire and you're like oh, we don't have time. But it is so, so critical to put time aside to make sure that everyone on your team understands better. How do I use AI for my role for this company? Um, what are our principles as a company on how we use AI, what we use it for, what we don't. Um, but there is a big gap in teams that are all pretty AI savvy and are using AI in their job and even teams where 90% of the team are using it and you have that 10% that are a bit hesitant or saying they're using it, but they're just using it to brush up some emails. So that would be the main takeaway that I would share.

Speaker C: Okay, um, uh, I think AI help educators not only okay, um, not in the ways of generating content but in the ways of kind of transform the roles and responsibilities of educators. Like it's really hard to educate and train a good teacher. It takes many, many years. And there are many people who want to enter this education industry but they are not a teacher. Right. They don't have teaching uh, experiences. So with a we build engine and then the teachers roles can be transformed to supervisors and data analysts. They don't have to have the academic teaching background to be able to be a teacher. But the title of the teachers might be changed to supervisors, instructors or data analysts. They can read those learning behavior data pattern from the system and understand the student and then to learn maybe something psychology, uh, emotionally to help the students. I think this is the future for educator. It doesn't have to be academic teachers. I think this is a strength of AI.

Speaker B: Great if I give you the opportunity to name one, but only one most important things which will determine the success um, of uh, the globalization for your company or any other education company. What would that be?

Speaker C: Uh, probably a measurable outcome by this product or platform.

Speaker A: Engaging deeply with customers in new markets that you want to enter into.

Speaker E: Uh, insights from the market and it's changing rapidly.

Speaker D: Agility. So speed of learning in your team and execution speed as well.

Speaker B: Super important in the AI era. Agility. I love that too. Okay, so we still have, like, six minutes. I'd like to open it to the audience. I know you probably have thought about globalization or you are already in this journey. So if you have questions, this is the best time to ask the experts here on the stage. Anyone have questions?

Speaker D: We answered all the questions already.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker B: Oh, go for it, Carlos.

Speaker F: Thank you for your panel. My question is, you said there's chances where, like, venture capital and venture scale comes in the way of actual, maybe educational outcomes and the base you should be building to ensure you're getting the, uh, education you want, but also the skill. And I wanted to ask, like, whether other alternatives are out there to maybe fund businesses that might be more suitable to the particular circumstances. And if you've seen good examples of people maybe mixing both.

Speaker D: Yeah, happy to take a stab at that first. Sorry. Maybe a hot take as an investor. Like, we're not always the answer. Um, no, I mean, I think in many cases, VC is great. Um, my point was more make sure that you're not going after VC money because everyone thinks to build a hot company that's successful. VC is the only option because it's not. It's one of many. And actually, um, if you know Transcend, um, Alberto Arenazza, founder of Transcend, wrote a great piece on different funding options for edtech startups. So definitely recommend reading that. I could pull up the link, but, I mean, there's everything from, like, grants to patient capital. Uh, even within vc, there's a lot of different models. And so I would just say take the time to learn about what those are and reverse engineer, like, okay, for my business goals, what is the best fit? Because, you know, your investors, it's kind of like a marriage, right? You're in it for the long run, so don't jump into it for sure. Uh, do your due diligence. It goes both ways, you know, like, we spend a lot of time looking at founders figuring out their backgrounds and going deep. Go the other way as well. Ask the difficult questions to investors. Um, look at their backgrounds, speak to portfolio companies. Um, but there are a lot of other options out there for sure.

Speaker A: And I think that it's not just the kind of capital that you raise. It's also about the amount of capital that you raise and at what valuation that also ends up mattering, like, for. I think that genuinely in. If you're building a new age ed tech company in the world today, you could actually just raise a seed round and Then not raise money for a very, very long time. Your seed investor will still be in the green and they'll be happy with what you have accomplished. Problems happen when people raise a lot of money at crazy valuations which then they are not able to grow into. And that is where, you know, it's said that most companies die of indigestion rather than starvation. So don't be like, it's better to be starved rather than, uh, eating so much that you can't digest it. So raise like, if you can raise, I would definitely say raise first. Raise your seed round. Be like, patient with that. Spend that money wisely, get to a place where you can then raise a bit more to um, like raise wisely. Like, just don't raise for the heck of raising it. Yeah.

Speaker B: I hope those answers, um, help you to think through your, uh, ideas and uh, the plan you have for your startup company. Um, okay, go ahead. Um, you can just shout out loud. Yeah.

Speaker A: I actually had a question for dipanshu. You described your market to be a couple of thousands of schools across 100 countries. What does that imply in terms of

Speaker E: the go to market efforts?

Speaker A: How do you manage actually engaging stakeholders in different cultures? Yeah. So it's a balancing act. Always. There is no one perfect answer. And you keep figuring things out. But the reason why we structurally have customers in so many countries is because we started with a focus on International baccalaureate. And International Baccalaureate is itself spread across so many countries. So there is no wisdom on our part. We have customers in so many countries. It's just that IB schools are spread across so many countries. And I have this concept of watering holes. I keep talking to my team all the time that you need. Whenever you are trying to enter a market, identify the watering holes. Watering holes are places where the people in that market naturally get together. And if you can show up at those watering holes in the right way, then you will win customers in the IB school space. The space where we start IB hosts these really wonderful IB Global conferences in three regions across the world. We show up, uh, in our best possible way in those. And that's what has helped us build customers in so many countries. We are also just a pure play software product. We are not delivering any kind of services along with that. So for us it's relatively easier than if you were also delivering services.

Speaker B: Great, go for it.

Speaker E: Similar question for others besides. So when you are targeting going into new markets, are you making like specific bets on certain geographies or do you let the product just go wild and see what kind of reactions are coming from different markets. I just want to see how your process is going.

Speaker D: Depends what stage you're at. Right. If you're not sure which markets might be a fit, you might want to do some experimentation and see where you're getting pulled and then double down on those markets if you already know. I mean ideally you want to figure out the markets that already could use your product as close to as it is right now. Right. It makes your job a lot easier. But there are a lot of other factors you want to consider like how lucrative the market is, how big it is, um, in terms of strategic priorities, what makes sense. But if you're not sure, do a bit of rapid experimentation at first. Get feedback from the market.

Speaker E: Uh, for example we have a Dopiverse, uh, we have a product which called Dopiverse. It's a game and we are using marketing uh, tools. We are working with the TikTok, we are working with Meta Google and we are using their tools in order to analyze the details, what it works in which country, in which region, etc. That's a good tool.

Speaker B: Well, hope you are satisfied with the answers and uh, I think we are almost uh, at the time to close the panel and it is wonderful discussion and uh, I hope our conversation will carry on uh, even after the summit and uh, uh once again really appreciate your perspectives, insights and the sharing of your stories and uh, uh, for the rest of you guys thank uh, you so much for being here and enjoy the rest of the conference.

Speaker A: Thank you. Thanks everyone.