Episode 4: Revolutionizing education with Pulkit Agarwal
Pulkit is the co-founder and CEO of Strive, an EdTech company teaching math through code.
Pulkit is a rising star. But don’t just take it from me, Business Insider also agrees! In true star fashion, Pulkit’s startup Strive has recently been accepted into Y Combinator.
In this interview, we’ll hear how Pulkit found a co-founder halfway across the world, why students love his classes, and what it means to be joyful at work.
Jesse: Pulkit, great to chat again! Could you start by telling us about your journey and the skills you’ve gained in your career thus far?
Pulkit: I’m an expat child — I was born in India but I grew up in France for 11 years, and for 7 of those years I went to school in Switzerland. High school in Shanghai, and then I went to undergrad in the US while my parents moved to Singapore. So I grew up around a lot of different cultures and languages which is a key part of who I am.
At Georgia Tech where I went for college, I was a mechanical engineer major. A regret I have is not majoring in computer science! But I still taught myself how to code, and through that skill, got a data analytics job at Palantir.
After Palantir, I started a company in the blockchain space in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I had to learn basically everything that goes into starting a company.
Then business school. Lifechanging. Business school gave me the confidence to come back to Singapore and really focus on what I love doing. I love teaching, mentoring, education. So I started Strive, my edtech company, and now I wake up every day loving what I do! And lucky for me, edtech is booming in Southeast Asia.
Jesse: That’s awesome to hear. Has business school helped you in other ways?
Pulkit: In business school we learn that when startups fail, 33% of the time it’s because of co-founder dynamics. Business school has been very helpful for me on that front: I’m much more mindful of the culture of feedback I’m building, conflict resolution, and other managerial skills. And now that I’m hiring and managing employees, those skills are really useful.
Another thing is that the GSB community in Southeast Asia is quite powerful — they’re well connected and always open to helping me out. I’ve had some very great conversations that have been facilitated through the GSB network.
Jesse: Fantastic. And since you’ve started companies in both Singapore and the US, any interesting comparisons?
Pulkit: Starting a company in Singapore is so much easier than starting one in the US! Getting it started, filing taxes, hiring, regulations, etc. is so much easier. Singapore is years ahead of US in terms of ease of entrepreneurship — everything is streamlined and automatic.
Jesse: Wow, good to know. Okay, so let’s talk about your journey of founding Strive! First, what’s the story of how you met your co-founder?
Pulkit: I went through a program called Entrepreneur First — it’s an accelerator where you apply as an individual, and then you get to meet other founders in a speed dating-like format. Then you come up with an idea, pitch it to the EF board, and if they like the idea, they give you seed funding.
When I applied to EF, I didn’t have any expectations of finding anyone. But when I met Tamir in my third “speed dating” conversation, we hit it off immediately: we were both passionate about education, both young and hungry, both very similar values. So we officially linked up and Tamir moved to Singapore (from South Africa!) to start Strive.
I will say, EF can be a bit expensive. They take 10% of the startup for S$75,000 which is steep. But if you find a great idea and co-founder, it’s definitely worth it.
Jesse: What specific criteria did you have in evaluating co-founder candidates?
Pulkit: Values first and foremost. It’s important to ask “why are we doing this? Is it for fame and money or for impact?” Tamir and I consistently met eye to eye. We had a lot of deep conversations about these values, about our motivations, even about our religious beliefs — and at the end of the day, we are fully aligned in the mission of making education affordable for everybody.
A personal example of why values alignment is so useful: during EF I actually considered dropping out because of the 10% fee. It was Tamir who put my head on straight and helped me remember that we’re not starting Strive to maximize our financial outcomes for that last 10%, but rather to help students.
Values first and foremost. It’s important to ask “why are we doing this? Is it for fame and money or for impact?”
Jesse: He seems like an awesome fit for you!
Pulkit: Yeah, I certainly got lucky.
Jesse: So tell us more about the startup — what’s the grand vision, and how’s it going?
Pulkit: The vision is to dramatically improve math education globally. In classrooms, math is taught on paper; but in the real world, math is nearly entirely done on computers. So what we’re doing is teaching the same principles of math that are taught in school, but through code.
And that has 3 key benefits: first, students enjoy learning math more. We’re seeing that the the immediate feedback loop enabled through our curriculum gets kids to fall in love with math. Second, the students are more engaged and learn better. There’s research from UC Davis that shows our approach to teaching math increases learnings by 30%. And lastly, they’re learning what is arguably the most important skill in the 21st century — how to code! Today, learning computer science is not easily accessible to everyone which is unfortunate; computer science should be as accessible as math.
The students are more engaged and learn better. There’s research from UC Davis that shows our approach to teaching math increases learnings by 30%.
Jesse: So are you working with schools, or is this a standalone program?
Pulkit: At the moment, it’s an afterschool enrichment program. One-on-one, live, online classes. We have teachers around the world who use the curriculum we’ve designed to teach our students.
Jesse: Cool. And how did this specific idea come about?
Pulkit: It came about naturally, since I’ve always been into education. Most recently, last year during the lockdown I hosted a free online SAT class where 300 students joined. Through that I gained an insight: that students are taught to think too procedurally. They can memorize 50 digits of pi but if you change up a math question a little bit, the students get stuck! I wanted to encourage real learning, and one day I had the brain flash to combine math with code.
We quickly ran 20 classes with a prototype curriculum, iterating and improving between each one, and it was working! Kids loved it and outcomes were great. We then designed our first boot camp of 33 students, then worked day and night to design a full curriculum (since we were scrappy and sold the product before actually having it!). Tamir and I taught every class of the boot camp, where we quickly learned what worked well and what didn’t.
Now, our biggest challenge is balancing teacher growth and student growth as we prepare for our next phase. Classic chicken and egg.
Jesse: Congrats on the journey so far! What’s been the most personally satisfying thing and also the scariest thing about entrepreneurship?
Pulkit: As educators, Tamir and I have taken on serious responsibility. We feel very accountable for the success of our students. Not only that, we’re convincing people to leave their high paying jobs to come work with us, and it’s scary that if Strive doesn’t work out, we could potentially have set back their careers. That’s the scariest part.
The most exhilarating part is watching kids’ eyes light up and enjoying learning. The most common feedback we get from our classes is that they’re too short! It’s so fulfilling to see kids loving our classes and saying “oh I get it now!” One middle school student who had never taken coding classes before Strive just told me that she loves our classes so much, she’s going to take Computer Science AP next year.
In fact, several of our parents have approached us to invest in Strive just because they see the value we’re delivering to their kids — we could fill our next funding round purely with parents if we wanted! It’s that kind of direct, personal impact we live for.
The most common feedback we get from our classes is that they’re too short!
Jesse: That is so so great. Students themselves suggesting longer classes… that’s unheard of! That’s an incredible metric of success right there.
Pulkit: Exactly. Our north star metric for success is student enjoyment, which we track each and every class. If the students enjoy themselves, the learning happens automatically; very few educational institutions prioritize this as much as us. And what parent is going to say no to their kid wanting to take more math class?
Jesse: It’s apparent how much all this is giving you energy and satisfaction, it’s awesome. Now, to go a bit more broad, what’s something about Singapore that you wish more outsiders knew?
Pulkit: There’s a lot. Government process wise, everything in Singapore is so smooth. There’s an app called Singpass that gives you convenient access to basically any government resource you might need. I can pay all my taxes through the app, I can see my vaccination status, get my driver’s license, etc.
But another thing I’ve noticed is there is very little creativity here. It might sound a bit crazy, but even something like complimenting students when I’m teaching is new to the kids — they’re used to teachers being robotic. Or another example — we have a website where students can schedule class time online, and that’s revolutionary to them. Even the concept of Strive, combining two subjects together when they “should” be separate, is totally new. It’s quite easy to stand out here by thinking a little different.
Jesse: That’s interesting, would have never guessed. Final question for you: what is the best life advice you’ve ever gotten?
Pulkit: Don’t work in pursuit of happiness, but work as an expression of your joy. If I’m joyful, I can make a lot more impact in the world. If I’m truly happy at work, I can extract more learnings out of it. If I’m teaching a class, in pursuit of happiness, and a student doesn’t show up or doesn’t like the module, I’ll be sad; but if I establish my inner joy and then show up to class, then I am energetic no matter what happens, which has a positive impact on the class. As a company, we focus on a culture of joy because that’s the only way we can maximize joy for our students.
Don’t work in pursuit of happiness, but work as an expression of your joy. If I’m joyful, I can make a lot more impact in the world.
Jesse: I can see how that mantra has flowed through everything you’ve done — how you’ve built Strive, how you think about your impact on your kids. It’s so refreshing to hear, especially in a world where people feel stuck in their jobs, myself included sometimes!
Pulkit: In Hinduism, they say that the amount of money someone makes in life is fixed. Might as well enjoy what you do!
Jesse: I feel excited for you and for me, knowing you’ve been able to find success so far pursuing your passions unapologetically. Thanks for the time Pulkit, always a pleasure!
Pulkit: Thanks Jesse, chat soon!
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