In pursuit of impact: entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala on startups, education, and upGrad
Entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala is at his candid best in an exclusive interaction with YourStory where he shares his views on entrepreneurship, Indian startups, his latest venture upGrad, and the opportunities in the education sector.;
- In my recent conversation with Ronnie Screwvala, the upGrad Co-founder and Chairman was his usual, candid self, as he spoke about his learnings in his first innings as an entrepreneur with UTV Group and the potential to create impact with his second -- upGrad.
- The potential to create impact is a driving force for Ronnie’s work with all of his existing ventures – be it online learning platform upGrad, NGO Swades Foundation, independent creative production house RSVP, sports business U Sports, and investment firm Unilazer Ventures.
- Just as with the entertainment and media sector, Ronnie believes in the potential to create impact through the education sector.
- To us, that was the market, where all working professionals need to understand that learning is now going to be a lifelong experience – almost equivalent of going back to college without actually going back to college,” Ronnie adds.upGrad, which offers online courses in entrepreneurship, digital marketing, data analytics, and more for working professionals, competes with other online education platforms like Coursera and Udacity, and Indian startups like Vedantu, Simplilearn, and others.
- However, entrepreneurs should focus on building sound business models, rather than attracting investors, says Ronnie.