The EntreprenHer Tour
Rajashree Krishnaswamy career was deeply linked to science. From research, she went to strategy in biotech. When she became a mother, she decided to go back to school and started a PhD, to have more flexible schedules and deepen her skills. She then discovered her passion for passing on academic skills.
Her father always used to tell her "you have the mindset of an entrepreneur and you are good at teaching, you should do something about it".
In 2008, she founded Catalyze Center for Learning which is an online platform connecting students with tutors. All the funds used to start her business came from her savings and she believes it provided a real sense of freedom . At the time she created the platform, it was not a widespread concept.
Founder - Catalyze Center for Learning
Now, it is changing. Digital has revolutionized the way people work and learn. Besides, over the past 2 years, because of the difficulties to find jobs young graduates turn to online tutoring , it has become a growing opportunity. Also, people who want trainings, for a matter of convenience, prefer it from home.
One of the obstacles she still faces is the fact that some people rely more on home tutors. She deals with it by pushing people to have a demo session.
Today, her company has 50 tutors. The tutors have 3 or 4 students each and are also in charge of administrative tasks. Total, there are 100 students using the platform but a more representative figure would be the 18000 hours of tutoring done over the last 3 years. Now, she wants to reach international markets. She contemplates Europe as a big market for teaching spoken English.
Rajashree recently won the digital woman award.
Her message? Dream, do not stop. Do it for people with a higher sense of purpose.