Edtech startup Stoa School, synonymous with a singular MBA boot camp program that first started four years ago, has shut shop. This marks the end of an odyssey that brought specialized management education to aspiring professionals and stayed focused on startups and the technology ecosystem. Launched in October 2020, Stoa came with a six-month, part-time MBA alternative much cheaper than MBA programs across the globe – a fee of about Rs 2.5 lakh. More accessible, more than 1,000 students applied to upgrade their business acumen using the same model.
Evolving Consumer Preferences in Post-Pandemic Edtech
Founder Raj Kunkolienkar revealed that a shift in consumer demand was one of the primary reasons behind the difficult decision to close. Speaking with Entrackr in June, he hinted at the company reassessing its operations due to changing market dynamics. Even though online education boomed during the pandemic, there’s a perception that the preference for live online learning has declined as the world again returns to life through face-to-face interactions. This meant many potential students were seeking more traditional, hands-on experiences rather than online education, especially on the one-year courses, and this would impact enrollment numbers across the online education space.
While the brand was powerful and had a committed community, however, Stoa did not intend to go beyond the online learning platform due to its economic and overhead costs. In her recent LinkedIn post, Kunkolienkar said “We built this brand and then decided not to get offline. While the economics of the move would have taken us to a place we stood against.”
Unique Boot Camp for Startup-Focused MBA Education
From the start, Stoa aimed to deliver action learning in business education that is accessible, with a very condensed six-month program easily fitted into busy professionals’ schedules. In contrast to traditional MBAs, Stoa’s focus was on applied topics including strategy, general management, branding, economics, and analytics reasoning all in the context of a startup environment. The boot camp curriculum facilitated the acquisition of relevant skills in a timely and cost-effective manner when transitioning into roles across many industries. Well-supported by notable investors, including Nithin Kamath, Kunal Shah, Gagan Biyani, and AngelList, Stoa acquired seed funding in November 2021 to expand and enhance its offerings to an emerging customer base.
The Future of Edtech
The closure of Stoa School underlines challenges in the ed-tech industry. While companies like Stoa have chosen offline models or have been absorbed by other companies, others are reassessing because of changed student preferences. Edtech is always changing its competitive landscape; some companies now either pause or adapt the business model to continue. July, a social learning platform that raised $4 million in funding, also shut down its services in line with how changes in the market have not even exempted well-funded start-ups.
It has been our privilege to serve over a thousand individuals who have gone on to achieve amazing things across industries and geographies,” he noted while reflecting upon the journey of Kunkolienkar’s alma mater, Stoa, which has made the painful decision of closing down. It is in this context that the edtech space, in its effort to reshape itself post-pandemic, will remember the challenges and shifting demands in the online education landscape.
