Impact Enterprise Showcase
Dialogue with Supriya Paul, CEO & Co-founder, Josh Talks
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Supriya Paul
CEO & Co-founder, Josh Talks |
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1 Can you tell us the story of Josh Talks from your perspective, including its founding, evolution, and key milestones that have led to its current success?
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Back in 2014 when I was in my final year of college, I met my co-founder, Shobhit Banga who was in his second year. He & I connected over our conversations on how the traditional education system did not equip young people to discover their inherent potential. There were many problems that existed such as lack of access to role models, lack of effective career guidance and widespread skills gap. The resources available weren’t accessible nor were they affordable. We wanted to build something that would help the youth, particularly those living in Tier II cities and beyond, gain access to information and give them exposure to make informed career choices.
So we formally incorporated Josh Talks in January 2015 with a mission to unlock human potential. Shobhit felt that such a strong mission could only be achieved through spreading ‘josh’ in the life of every Indian, and hence the name was decided. We started by showcasing stories of relatable people from the grassroots — entrepreneurs, administrative/army officers and people from the LGBTQ community, who inspired and informed the youth of various career choices. From then, the platform has now evolved into an ecosystem of upskilling, counselling and learning.
Today, Josh Talks is India’s largest regional content distribution network available in 10 regional languages and 8 content categories, states and districts. In 2020, we launched the Josh Talks English Speaking App to help Bharat speak in English without hesitation. The course has generated strong user feedback with industry-leading retention rates, unlocking new employment opportunities for users. As of June 2023, our content has garnered over 2.5 Billion lifetime views with an average of 270+ Million monthly views across platforms. The Josh Talks English Speaking app has more than 8 Million downloads with 360,000+ paid users.
Because of Josh Talks’ hyperlocal reach, we have also been partnering with organisations such as Omidyar Network India, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Meta, Amazon and more to scale new solutions and mobile the next half-billion to create a SDG-realised future.
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2 How does Josh Talks measure the impact of its educational initiatives and the effectiveness of the ideas shared during the talks?
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The metrics and approach to measuring impact differs for us at different levels of stakeholder engagement. For our Talks, we focus on delivering compelling content centered around advocacy by going beyond mere impressions to measure the time spent by a viewer engaging/watching a Talk. Our goal with our content is to design it in a manner that is not only inspirational but also actionable, effectively encouraging behaviour change and empowering individuals, especially young people to make a difference in their local communities. This in turn, creates a ripple effect that extends to societies as a whole.
For example, in one of our recent campaigns with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ‘Mission Samarth’, we curated a story of a medical practitioner, Dr. Jay. He and his team have been working tirelessly to eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) from Katihar, Bihar. One of our biggest achievements in this campaign was when Dr. Jay informed us that after his talk, the coverage rate of the medicines in Katihar increased from 70% to 75%, which means 1,70,000 more people received preventive medication!
Similarly, for our Android app, our focus is to help our users become confident with english-speaking. For this, we measure completion rates of our course, which continues to be one of the highest across the industries and well as daily usage of the course. We also have a feature on the app that allows our users to practise english-speaking with other users. To measure its effectiveness, we calculate the number of minutes a user is spending practising on that feature and the level to which he’s progressing after every practice session. The average time spent on our app per day is 40-50 minutes and we’ve had users who have spent as much as 10 hours on the app in a single day!
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3 How does Josh Talks ensure that the topics and speakers featured align with the evolving needs and demands of the education and skilling sector?
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Our team regularly assesses and collects such insights by engaging with key stakeholders such as viewers, app users, educators, industry professionals, policymakers, through direct interactions or surveys. We have gathered data over the past 8+ years and identified content consumption patterns across regions in order to address the content needs and future demands of our audience.
For example, in northern India, specifically states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where the majority of young people are preparing for competitive/govt exams, they prefer content related to those topics. Similarly, in Maharashtra young people prefer consuming content around entrepreneurship whereas young people in states like Punjab/Haryana prefer consuming content on studying abroad.
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4 The increasing internet penetration in India presents an interesting opportunity for education and skilling startups. What is the on-ground impact that Josh Talks is witnessing as more people gain access to the internet? Keeping the advent of AI technologies in mind, how do envision this changing enterprise in the future?
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A trend that we’re now seeing is that more people want to consume content that is for educational purposes and in their own language. There’s also an increase in the amount of user-generated content. People are sharing their own stories, challenges and successes, adding to the rich tapestry of educational narratives.
With the rise of generative AI and the accessibility of tools, giving personalised feedback on learning has become incredibly easy thereby actually creating a space to teach students across all socioeconomic backgrounds. The first internet revolution that democratised learning was the Jio revolution when content started becoming more accessible and we saw the problem of exposure getting solved for the masses. It’s what led to the rise of Josh Talks across tier 2,3,4 cities and 10 languages today. The next revolution is today where there is a real opportunity to drive learning outcomes through low cost tech intervention made accessible to all.
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5 Could you discuss Josh Talks’ financial sustainability model and how you plan to grow the enterprise in the future?
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Over the last 8 years, we have successfully built a strong content distribution network on YouTube in 10 regional languages and 8 categories of content, states and districts. As of June 2023, this content machinery generates over 270 million views on a monthly basis and has allowed us to experiment and launch new offerings for our audience.
This content distribution is leveraged by brands such as other private and government organisations to strengthen their brand presence. Through these branded content partnerships, we help organisations create deeper impact and generate meaningful change at the grassroots level, especially in Tier 2+ markets. The partnerships ensure that we’re able to maintain regular inflow of resources and also expand our content reach.
Our content distribution has also helped us create different offerings and gain valuable feedback from our audience, particularly regarding their desire to learn English and how it posed a barrier to their learning and career advancement. In response, we developed the Josh Talks English Speaking Android App which today has over 360,000 paid users and 8 million downloads. Our Spoken English course is priced affordably at Rs. 499 for a lifetime access and has generated strong user-feedback, which allows us to scale.
Building on our experience with the Android app, we have recognised a similar trend among our viewers' interest in government exam prep, specifically for exams like UPSC. As a result, we are currently developing a counselling business to support users in their UPSC journey. This unit will provide guidance, coaching, and access to top-notch institutes at affordable prices. By tapping into this market demand, we anticipate further growth and diversification of our revenue streams.
By introducing offerings like counselling and the English course, we're not only creating new revenue streams but also enriching the value proposition for our users. In FY 2022-23, we did a revenue of 21Cr, driven by our diversified model and I believe that our future holds the promise of greater impact and more direct user engagement through offerings like the english-speaking course and counselling. Our diversified revenue model ensures stability while allowing us to make learning accessible and affordable for all.
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6 Could you share a success story of a Josh Talk beneficiary and the impact it had on their lives?
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A story that is extremely close to my heart is that of Amruta Soni, a trans woman who faced rejection when applying for a government job. However, after her story went viral through Josh Talks, she finally received the job she desired. Her story not only shed light on the challenges faced by transgender individuals in society but also showcased the power of advocacy in creating positive change.
Another story is that of Manish, our Android-app beneficiary who used to work in a private sector job but faced challenges due to the requirement of communicating with clients in English. Despite attempting to quit jobs, he encountered rejections during interviews. Through 5 months of consistent effort of practising his English on the Josh Talks English speaking app, he has cleared 6 interviews and is now working in Jio as an ASL.
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