Kullabs: A Digital Revolution
KUL Techno Lab and Research Center (KULLABS) was established in Chaitra, 2070 BS for the purpose of developing an e-learning platform, and discredit the belief that e-learning is too expensive for small private and community schools. Initially, KULLABS had only two members on the board: Sushil Dev Bhattarai and Adhip Poudyal. Now KULLABS has over 300 employees and its platform www.kullabs.com is one of the most visited educational website in Nepal which imparts a learning platform for students of any level and any subject. KULLABS has also established Research and Development (R&D) Department lead by Genetic Scientist Mr. ShuvaRaj Sharma.
We had a brief conversation with both of the co-founders about their journey and the future that KULLABS holds. Similarly Mr Shuvaraj Sharma shared his view about the role of R&D team in an Organization like KULLABS.
Q. Why Kullabs, How Kullabs, What inspired Kullabs?
As a student myself, I was not able to get much exposure. I could see the need of a place, where students and teacher would work together; students would expose whatever they have done and teacher would evaluate it right out. This brought forward the idea of digital education in Nepal. We wanted to have a free learning place for everyone and for that two years back in 2070 Chaitra, me along with Adhip created our own company. The first six months were spent on research. Last February, we launched the website. We have done quite a bit of work, but we still have miles to go.
Basic idea behind all of this is to replace the bulky textbooks and bags with a tablet. And finally, make Nepal fit in the twenty first century digital world using her own native resources.
Q. Regarding your vision, what is the progress till today?
Currently we are working on 7,8,9,10,11,12, Engineering and Management courses. We have already served 1.1 million users. Out of them, 1.7 lakhs are our regular users. Our service is easily accessible, having no need of installation or anything, just open Kullabs.com and immerse yourself in the treasure trove of knowledge available. Around 700 school (100 are community) have started using it officially. Shivapuri, Bansbari school are some of them and are completely digitized. We have even provided offline content but it doesn’t appear to be so practical.
Q. What would you say about public response to your work?
Overwhelming. (giggles a bit). We started with the two of us, (shares a look with Adhip) and now we are 300 people working for Kullabs. Investors are also convinced that the company will foster. Around 150 employees are in content development and 35 in R&D. Others are working in Kullabs Innovation Centre (KIC). Right now, all 35 R&D team members are working together for one single project — Kullabs Smart School.
Q. What would you say particularly about the government’s response?
We have been coordinating with the government for the last 7,8 months. We had a meeting with the Education Minister a month ago where we presented the proposal for digital education and now they are with us by amending the Education Act. We have their attention now, as we are the only digital education service provider in Nepal. We are working along with the Government and are trying to use the existing resources. It takes a lot to make new infrastructures, but both cost and time can be saved by using already installed infrastructures efficiently. We actually have developed the system but gradually government has to look after it. Private companies cannot run these sort of things forever. With time we will need big data centers and there is no way that we can do it alone. The work is only half-done without support from the Government. In other words, Government builds the infrastructures and we provide the system. Essentially the government determines the budget, laws and acts which are all the basic and most important aspects after all.
Q. Do you have any independent research arrangement?
We surely support independent research. You just need to bring your idea to us. We even call for ideas sometimes. I can say with confidence that we can act as a bridge between grand ideas and the investors.
Q. What do you have to say about the Technical Difficulties to take internet service to rural areas?
Actually, the infrastructures are already there. People in Mustang too watch television using dish-home. If that’s possible, then the idea (of taking our services up to there) is also possible — it’s all about engineering. Using the existing infrastructure we can drastically decrease the cost of the project. Recently, a 5 Arab (5 billion) project’s budget was brought down to 53 crores (530 million) when we suggested the use of existing resources. In case of our rural areas, we must use our own resources, rather than just trying to emulate what other countries do.
Q. What is the Idea behind the tablet?
Right now, we are sending these imported tablets with Kullabs app pre-installed into the market, especially to school principals as the prototype. Our goal is to make sure that students who are in 5th grade now carry only tablets to class by the time they reach the tenth standards.
Q. As a company what are your expansion plans?
Right now we are working on porting our content to many languages — 12 national languages and six widely spoken international languages. A team of 35 members,which includes some distinguished lecturers from language schools in Nepal, are working day and night on the language plan. Other expansion hasn’t been planned extensively. Recently, we moved to this new place just because we didn’t have sufficient space in our previous office. We act upon the demand of the project and time. Our marketing team also visits 5 to 10 schools everyday but it is not our prime strategy. We would rather have our product promoted through word-of-mouth and we are extremely positive that it will. We are also planning to host online training for teachers which is intended to save both time and money over traditional training methods.
Q. Being an internet platform, foreign students can also access your website. How is your foreign user base?
Apart from native subjects like, Social, Nepali etc. other subjects are common among students everywhere. Our users are from 17 different countries with most users from, India, U.S., Sudan, Myanmar, Netherlands, and other South Asian countries. We are also planning to open a branch in the United States of America, as it carries huge market possibilities and we don’t want to disregard that. Investors for it are particularly from the U.S. and we are going to franchise them.
We are thinking globally as Facebook and google did it in social media and search engine. This simply means we can also do it in education, even if that takes 5 or more years.
Q. What are the plans for Monetization?
Kullabs.com’s content is free and will be free forever. However, We can earn money from website hit, ads etc. Additionally, we are looking forward to launch our own custom tablet (to be assembled in China) designed with the unique geography while considering other specific factors of Nepal. So, we must work on Research and Development (R&D) if we want to be better. We have also opened KIC, where ideas are nurtured and will mostly work as passage for transforming raw ideas to reality. We are also working in projects related to Tourism to nurture the best source of revenue for Nepal.
ShuvaRaj Sharma, Genetic Scientist, Research team Head.
Q. How would you suggest turning an idea into actual research?
What you have I guess is a technical idea. You need marketing along with this idea. You will also need to engage with that aspect.
Methodology
The basic outline is from Problem to Idea to Objective. You start from there. Let’s take an example, if you have a problem with your pen, then you need to deal with the problem, the solution you assume is the idea. That’s it, a seed for a plant. Now you look for possible changes and during this process go for literature review, read articles, research papers and so on.
Now where Kullabs can support you is: after these steps you need to work alongside the business team as well. You can collaborate with Kullabs and we can provide you with mentorship, funding, team whichever required and whenever feasible.
If you could prepare a proper progress report till date and show the possible solution then it is quite obvious that investors would be interested in your project. Kullabs can provide you that platform which serves as pipeline for steps from Generation of Idea to its Execution. Technical and business team both work together here to make the work fruitful.
