Shillong based teacher turns entrepreneur, starts educational startup Edify
By Shankar Kumar Turha
SHILLONG:
Teacher turned entrepreneur Hanif Syiemlieh founder and promoter at Edify has been recognised by PRIME Meghalaya as one of the top entrepreneurs from Shillong, who is working hard to bring online education to the masses.
Hanif, who worked as a school teacher, and also ran a coaching centre, was finding it difficult to sustain his coaching institute during the pandemic, until he realised the vast potential of online space, which definitely has become the next big thing in education.
After moving into the online space, Hanif surprisingly was overwhelmed by the fact that his portal could not only teach students from Shillong, but from far-flung places of the state such as Nongstoin, Mairang, Resubelpara, Jowai, including international students from Bangladesh as well.
Realising that an investor could boost his business and take it to the next level, Hanif turned towards Meghalaya government’s flagship programme that helps budding entrepreneurs and startups in the state—the PRIME.
“Once I came across a post on social media for the second cohort, I applied for it. I pitched my idea of an Ed-tech, and that is how I got selected. There were more than 1600 applicants across Meghalaya, and I was very lucky to be onboarded by PRIME,” says 39-year-old Hanif.
Hanif’s EduTech startup, Edify, that focuses on providing localised online learning content for the North East, was picked up by the PRIME team after Hanif presented his idea on how digital platforms can transform online education.
Currently, Edify focuses on four verticals: software development, digital marketing, content creation, and entrepreneurship, and Hanif’s team is being trained on all the above skill sets to take teaching pedagogy forward, Hanif Says as he outlines his plan for 2023.
“Our vision for 2023 is to have 2 new training centres in the sub-urban regions of Meghalaya. The goal is to create a self-sustaining model so that we can generate employment, and encourage the youths of Meghalaya to take up entrepreneurship as a career,” Hanif tells The Meghalayan.
Deliberating on PRIME, the entrepreneur points that the flagship programme is helping the youths who have passion for entrepreneurship by getting them trained by industry experts who have excelled in the business field.
“Once onboarded, they are also assigned a mentor who can help them grow their business. Apart from that, if they can sense a potential in a business idea, PRIME offers funding to expand such businesses,” Hanif remarks.
An important thing Hanif points out during the course of the conversation is that the government does not look at the size of the business when funding them through PRIME, but rather a business that is different and has growth potential.
Speaking on how a business is selected through PRIME, Hanif reveals, “Every year, there is an open competition, where entrepreneurs get the chance to submit their business ideas to PRIME. Following this, 100 entrepreneurs are shortlisted for a pitch deck session. The pitch deck session is the final round, and based on their performance 50 start-ups are selected, and onboarded in PRIME.”
Giving tips to budding entrepreneurs, Hanif advises youths to learn new skills that are integral to their business. These include, product, digital marketing, sales, content creation, and being consistent on social media.
“Majority of the entrepreneurs avoid marketing their business, and in the process leave so much money on the table. So, do ensure that there is consistency in marketing your business. Most importantly avoid a firefighting spree in your business, and have the frameworks to run the business defined. Have clarity on the framework such as marketing, sales, operations, R&D, legal compliance, management and accounts,” concludes Hanif.
