Edustripe is a School Management Software helping schools and parents manage school fees, access educational loans, monitor grades, track educational activities, and create custom teaching plans.
Name: Edustripe
Website: https://www.edustripe.com/
Product/Service Offering: A management platform for educators and parents using the very best technologies
Co-Founder Interviewed: Babajide Esho, Co-founder & CEO
Other Key Management Team Members: Tolu Odueke, Martins Obayomi, Chukwudi Ngwobia, Adeola Adeyemo, Pelumi Aleshinloye, Emeka Ofe, Samuel Oyegbemi, and Joel Stanley
Tell us about the history of your startup, founders, and goals.
We kicked off in March 2019 with a two-man team of Tolu Odueke (now Co-CTO) and Babajide Esho, who is CEO. Our Co-CTO had joined tech giant, Andela, and sold the Edustripe dream to us, his team members. This led us to expand our founding team with three additional founders: Martins Obayomi, Co-CTO; Chukwudi Ngwobia, Director of Engineering; and Adeola Adeyemo, Engineering Manager. We also had Pelumi Aleshinloye as a Ui/Ux Developer; Emeka Ofe, Chief Information Officer; Samuel Oyegbemi, Project Manager; and Joel Stanley, C.O.O who have all been playing strategic roles. The expansion of our team and affiliation with many brilliant minds at Andela allowed us to solve a talent gap that was lacking in the team.
Edustripe was born out of our desire to be changemakers. Our founding team aspires to change the world with the belief that it is possible to live in a world where all children can succeed through access to high-quality teachers. We also believe that all teachers deserve to work in environments where they are well-trained and have empathetic leaders supporting them. To achieve all of these will be a herculean task, but we aim to do our small part by providing educators and parents with great tools and a community that supports growth, learning, and progression.
What is the one thing that sets your startup apart from its competitors?
Our ‘secret sauce’ is that our solution cuts across Finance, Learning and Lifestyle. This means that we solve problems relating to the daily life experiences of our users. Our product offering appeals to, at least, three tiers of users, including schools, teachers, parents, and students. Our impact is proof of our ability to create value for different classes of users.
What challenges, if any, are you grappling with?
Access to data was a huge challenge when we started. For instance, there wasn’t sufficient relevant information on key figures such as the number of student enrollment over the last 5 years or an updated number of privately-owned schools in Nigeria. We have also witnessed some reluctance from some school administrations, especially in digitizing learning in their schools as they seem to be more comfortable with manual systems.
What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other entrepreneurs just starting out?
One key advice I would like to share with other entrepreneurs is to focus more on executing their ideas instead of romanticizing the said ideas. There is no such thing as a great idea without actualization. Additionally, in executing their ideas, new entrepreneurs should focus on providing unique solutions as this will ensure the survival and competitiveness of their startup.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your startup?
We were privileged to be invited to the 2020 Founder Institute Class of Businesses. We are also graduates of the 2019 Startup School program by Y Combinator, where we got strategic AWS Funding of up to $3,000 and other key resources. Edustripe has also completed workshops on Data Privacy Reviews facilitated by Global Partners Digital, Paradigm Initiative, and Co-Creation Hub.
Our team pitched our solution to over 2,000 parents and partners at ‘The Avenue’ Parent and Teenager conference by Edusko.com. We have directly and indirectly worked with over 500 parents on beta testing of our School Fees Cooperative Programme.
Additionally, 50 students graduated from the first cohort of our TechTeens Summer Bootcamp, where we introduced teens to various technology concepts. During the Bootcamp, we worked with partners such as TeamApt, Imisi3D, Facebook Nigeria, and Venture Garden Group.
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