I'm Varun, Co-Founder at Mesa School of Business. Ask me anything!

Glad you asked this @salt! India's GDP is predicted to triple in the coming 12-15 years, but this can't be achieved without a strong workforce that gets things done! The existing learning methods are flawed in many ways, and it's very exciting to see a lot of really smart, driven minds solving this. India requires more institutions of high quality - not 5 not 10 but 100s of them! We strongly believe the startup ecosystem will be a significant catalyst in India's growth journey. We are privileged to have the opportunity to nurture the next generation of startup leaders! Coming to the scalability of the business model, the flywheel is straightforward - a great curriculum & pedagogy on a great cohort gets us great outcomes, which in turn gets us a great new cohort the next time around. Pretty simple right? :)

@VarunLimaye I completely agree on that if done in an asset light way. best of luck🤞🏻

@Babel Great question! The startup ecosystem in India is growing very fast and if you think about it there are just so many learnings, knowledge and experiences that nobody has bothered to document and institutionalize. We believe this is a worthy enough problem to solve. [Think what Stanford did for the Silicon Valley] Furthermore, startups face a lot of issues in hiring the right talent. I have personally experienced this with Mesa. Startups don't care about brands but care about skills and that is great for an emerging new business school. It's also the right incentive for the entire higher education system to be more skills focused (as opposed to brand/degree focused) There are examples internationally of business schools focused on creating solutions for a smaller more focused ecosystem. And, that usually works really well because the a bschool then can really focus all its energy on delivering an experience tailored to a very specific employer and student.

Thanks Varun! Really appreciate your answer. Just one more question- any foreign B School brands that are focused on startups? Just curious to learn and understand more about

@Zacksharma 1. We call ourselves a new age MBA because we are thinking first principles about solving a learning outcomes/job outcomes gap for our students. For almost 100 years now business education has remained unchanged. Nobody has challenged it to understand whether a certain component of it is really necessary OR if something new needs to be added, that is why business education is so theoretical, classroom based and remote from reality. New age MBAs have this amazing power to questions everything, un-bundle offerings, add new interesting experiences and delete age old practices that add no value to the main user. 2. My list - Communication, basic business fundamentals, agile solution development (launch fast, learn, repeat), ability to understand customers and ability to work/manage a team. 3. Anybody who is ready to invest in personal growth and wants to get a large delta in their personal and professional life. People who feel they are plateauing in their current position and feel they need a jump to break the ceiling.

Thanks, all the best @VarunLimaye

@Pavi I get where you're coming from. It's a big commitment to invest a whole year and a significant amount of money, and it's definitely something you should take your time to think about. I'm glad to hear that you're reaching out to others and getting their perspectives, that's a great way to gather information! Let's be real, we're a startup. That means we're here to shake things up and change how things are done. We're working hard to redefine what higher education can look like in the coming years. We're incredibly fortunate to have the support of many leaders and stakeholders in our ecosystem and are truly a business school built by the startup ecosystem for the startup ecosystem. There's so much more I could tell you, but it might be a bit much for a message here on Grapevine. I'd recommend that you sign up on our website and come to one of our info sessions. It is personally conducted live by me. It would be a fantastic opportunity for you to get a more in-depth answer to your question. Looking forward to seeing you there :)

Definitely sir

Great question @proton! We recently started the INR 5Cr Mesa Startup Fund. As part of the fund, we've created clear milestones that students need to complete: ideation closure, customer research, building the MVP, hitting 100 paying customers, and so on. At each stage, students receive mentorship and guidance, access to early-stage investors and past founders, and valuable one-on-one time with my co-founder Ankit and me. We also support them financially and give them an opportunity to pitch to VCs!

@UndrSun Great questions. 1. Top of the Funnel was broad, but then both Ankit and I personally spent a lot of time with potential candidates. Understanding their goals, motivation, future plans, strengths and weaknesses. How rigorous we were with our process made students understand how committed we were to their growth. On occasions I also spent time with parents to take them through our plans for Mesa. It was always going to be a very personal and intimate sell and we were prepared for that! As for the CAC I cannot disclose the numbers. But here's what we can say that if we can build a really string flywheel - great students coming in - great learning experience - great job outcomes which attracts a great next cohort then at some point our CAC will drop to zero as is the case with most large b schools. 2. Our cohort is small and we will just need a minuscule of that pie (which btw is not shrinking at all!). Also being backed by a VC has its perks. We get unparalleled access to job opportunities at Elevation Capital's portfolio companies. The VC knows that success in getting jobs for our students is their success. 3. I worked with a large education non profit before going to the US and was always certain that I wanted to build for the Indian user. Coming back to India can never be a practical decision, its an emotional one. I truly believe in India's growth story and want to be in thick and thin of things when the rocket launches! 4. We are not thinking about growth right now. Higher education (when built right) is a slow build. We are extremely focused on our founding cohort currently!

All the best to your founding cohort and wish to success ❤️

Hey @TallTales69 , typically a startup transitions into a corporate during the late stages of funding / IPO, but if you ask me, the spirit never dies :)

Hey @Djoker, At Mesa we have primarily 4 career pathways for our students 1. Product 2. General Management 3. Growth and Marketing 4. B2B Sales

@VarunLimaye Noted. Thank you!

@Micheal_Scott I joined Pratham Education Foundation not knowing anything about how the education space functions. But by the end of my 5 years there I ended up travelling to almost 300 districts in India often to rural government schools. I also built a team of 80 that built tech products for govt teachers, parents and govt officials. Watching them use products I had built to improve learning outcomes in young children was such a great feeling that I got addicted to it. Since then all I have wanted to do is build products/solutions for young Indians which enable them to achieve their deserved goals. I was always certain that I wanted to build for the Indian user. Coming back to India can never be a practical decision, its an emotional one. I truly believe in India's growth story and want to be in thick and thin of things when the rocket launches!

Really good question @MT_Ego, People who work in startups willingly sacrifice the comfortable life of a traditional job for the direct impact that they can create for the ecosystem and the country. Startups also enable a steep learning curve due to a high ownership environment and a disruptive mission statement. If this excites you, then startups are for you!

@RichFlavor27 1. Despite the bear market and a common belief that funding for educational startups has dried up, we managed to secure capital from one of the country's top VC funds. It's important to note that the funding market isn't dead. In fact, founders of promising startups with traction are actually raising larger sums than ever. However, it's true that less noise is being made in the ecosystem. Like in any other field, securing good jobs requires meeting certain standards. Our task is to ensure that Mesa students are raising those standards. It's a thoroughly rewarding problem for our team to solve :) We have a small cohort and have a great network with startups due to our VCs and angel investors. So we don't think jobs will be a problem. Also we are extremely extremely learning outcomes obsessive. We truly believe if we can develop the right skills, a student will get the best job opportunities and will also perform really well at the job that they end up in. (which by the way is much more important than getting a job in first place) 2. Watch us! (Sorry don't want to be pompous, but I truly believe we have great team, vision and philosophy. Ankit and I are extremely mission driven, so even if we can create a small dent in the world we will be happy) 3. It's extremely scalable if built right. The most important thing as in any business is creating a sustainable flywheel.

@VarunLimaye love the answer. Can you actually share more about the fundraise journey? Was it originally in the plans, or did it come about by chance?

Hi @Pavi , absolutely At Mesa, we believe in diversity as a key aspect of learning and hence intentionally aim to curate a diverse cohort of experienced professionals and freshers alike.

Hey @Doopermind, Glad you asked this question. Mesa is derived from "Mesopotamia" where the wheel was invented. Human life before the wheel and after the invention of the wheel was fundamentally different. Likewise, a student's life before Mesa and after Mesa will be fundamentally different :)

Delivering quality education is really expensive; great faculty, campus, and student experiences are big cost centers - hence, we are definitely a premium business school. Having said that, we also strongly believe that monetary constraints shouldn’t be a barrier to access quality education. Hence, we are very generous with scholarships, which has helped us build a very diverse founding cohort. The exact fees, etc., are easily accessible on our website, so do check it out there. Coming to financing, we have partnerships with HDFC Credila and IDFC Bank - both offer education loans with 80E exemptions at very competitive rates, a first for any business school in the country in its first year of operations!

Hey @TepidFanny11 , Great question, we are strong believers of "learn by doing" and hence each of our students applies the business fundamentals learnt in class by building their own businesses from scratch, participating in live projects with other startups and consulting local businesses to help them solve their business problems.

@siddi Best of luck for the admissions process. Zoho has proven that it is possible. I don't think I differentiate them basis how they are funded. Strong vision, strong understanding of the problem and a strong team is what makes a startup successful.

@Sabre While that is true Ankit and I hate that the entire higher education system revolves around placements. It makes b schools do things that are not beneficial for developing individuals into holistic individuals. We truly believe that if we focus on the right learning experience and outcomes jobs will come. Having a large VC as investors (with a large set of portfolio companies) gives us unparalled access to a lot of startups when it comes to job opportunities. Even if we end up beating the IIMs and ISB when it comes to job placements you will see us being low-key about placements in general. It is just one of the things that we provide and not just the only thing. Also we specifically say that we don't guarantee placements so that we attract only those individuals who are committed to their personal growth and not just the ones desperately looking for a job. I can go on and on about this. at the same time, our target placement range is 25-30L!

Hey @BoringIce , We dont let monetary reasons become a hurdle for a candidate to get into the Mesa program. So if make it through the applications process, we will ensure that money is not a hurdle for you to join us and become a startup leader of tomorrow :)

@holdencaulfield We want to focus just on startups. The startups are new recruiters in town - focusing on skills over credentialism which is great for higher education. We love that! Also our thesis is - every new company that will be born in India will be a startup OR it will at least be run like one. If that's the case then our target employer is only growing :)

@AlphaGrindset love the username man, haha :) Kudos to you, really good to hear! I believe the challenge comes in two parts - first, transitioning into the job and second, reshaping the mindset. It takes a unique kind of person to thrive here, and if we can nurture that, we're already halfway to our goal. These traits can't be taught in the traditional sense, they're acquired through experience - and that's what we unlock for the students who aspire to build the biggest startups of tomorrow.

Very interesting. Yep, I think there’s a very big gap between what colleges teach us and what is actually needed. All the best to you and the team