Unluclass provides an opportunity for fans to access e-learning classes by top celebrities, says Vipul Agarwal, co-founder, Unlu.
The idea of unluclass was more from the concept of connecting dots and creating a platform for individuals to hone their talents. We are thrilled to see how unluclass has successfully reached out to millions of individuals across India and how it has been applauded for the services it has to offer. With the ongoing pandemic, most educational institutions are shut and learning has largely shifted online; non-academic EdTech platforms are offering extra-curricular courses to engage people both children and adults to make them future-ready. The EdTech industry is at its peak currently and is playing a huge part in helping individuals achieve an overall development. The Sunday Guardian spoke to Vipul Agarwal, Co-founder, Unlu, on several topics. Excerpts:
Q: What is the concept behind the platform unluclass?
A: The focus at unluclass is to make creative learning easily accessible for the masses coming from credible sources (top influential people in every category). The idea has always been to create a platform that makes it possible for everyone to learn from celebrity experts. The e-learning classes for students will help them take their career to new heights and encourage them follow their passion.
Q: As serial entrepreneurs, what led/motivated you to focus on this segment of the market?
A: As serial entrepreneurs, we always wanted to build a platform that bridges the gap between celebrities and fans. Unluclass is an e-learning app that has been launched in India for fans to learn from their favourite celebrities. It has been meticulously developed, following our in-depth research to understand the present sentiment and demand-supply trends in this space. We have always been re-defining the way of doing business, leading to customer delight and watching it grow. We firmly believe in empowering people and work on the principle of developing intrapreneurs so that business objectives can be achieved efficiently.
Q: What is the strategy and vision behind this non-academic EdTech platform?
A: The platform has been built to give fans across the country a unique personalized experience by engaging with top celebrities and influencers like Manoj Bajpayee, Ruskin Bond, Shashank Khaitan, Johny Lever, Monali Thakur and Sania Mirza across diverse fields like cinema, sports, music, art, comedy, health and lifestyle. Its various service verticals cater to different categories of end users. It is also for those people who are interested in knowing the journey and stories of these celebrities and looking for inspiration. The platform is also for those who want to learn these skills out of choice as a part of their extracurricular activity. The platform is also a new age solution to making social media endorsements and celebrity interactions much more enterprising and exciting.
Q: How have these industry experts/celebrities helped the Unluclass concept gain momentum?
A: Most of the celebrities were always keen to discuss about these kinds of initiatives for students, wherein they can help them learn and explore from their very own success and failure stories. The only hurdle was, they never had sufficient time or anapt medium to deliver learning sessions. With the launch of Unluclass, they are quite excited and also make it a point to post the content on social media on a regular basis to promote unluclass and to encourage people to learn from their respective journeys.
Q: What differentiates or sets apart Unluclass from its competitors in the market?
A: In Unluclass, we focus on the journey of the mentor and the technicalities of the domain. The next thing we focus on is–the continuous learning, everyone who joins the platform will be a part of the fellow creators’ community and can have lifetime access to the courses/sessions available on the platform. In Unluclass, we focus more on the inspirational/aspirational content and artistes who have a meaningful journey.
Q: What is the business model and expansion plan of the company?
A: We have a fixed platform fee for every booking that happens through our platform. However, we have extended a couple of options to users to buy one particular course session or take an annual subscription to use the platform. The pandemic has changed the business in different ways. Everyone is shifting towards a digital environment. We are hoping to expand by partnering with more number of instructors for the platform in coming years.
Q: How has Covid affected your business?
A: Covid has adversely affected most of the customer engagement platforms whether we see it from a user engagement or revenue standpoint. The best part about Unluclass is it is helping fans/learners to engage with the celebrities and absorb positive knowledge from within their homes, which is a value add when it comes to mental health balance amid the current restrictions.