Sameer Shariff, co-founder and CEO of Cambly, discusses why EdTech companies fail when they prioritize upfront payments over delivering ongoing user value.
“A lot of the companies that came before us optimize much more for revenue. They kind of just focused on the revenue number. And the challenge with that is. You can sell the dream for a product people don't actually use and make a lot of money in the process. And actually a lot of those companies would charge a lot of money upfront for it. And it's it can be really misleading because you might feel like your business is doing really well, but unless you're actually delivering on the value that your customer wanted you're heading down a really bad path. It's totally unsustainable and eventually we'll catch up to you.”
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More from Sameer Shariff
Insight
Shariff: Language learners want friendly conversational practice over formal lessons
“What the two of us wanted wasn't necessarily. A professional teacher or a formal lesson. What we wanted was just a friendly person to practice with.”
Sameer ShariffAug 5, 2022▶ 2:17Cambly CEO Sameer Shariff: Why I Raised $60M and Didn't Touch a Dollar | 20VC #914 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Cambly has not touched its Series A or Series B funding
“Just because we haven't touched the series A money and the series B money, it doesn't mean that we sort of behaved exactly the same, you know, had we not raised that money. Like, Having that cash cushion, I think allows us to be much, much more aggressive and …”
Sameer ShariffAug 5, 2022▶ 17:59Cambly CEO Sameer Shariff: Why I Raised $60M and Didn't Touch a Dollar | 20VC #914 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Shariff: Burning cash for fast growth teaches startups the wrong lessons
“And if you're kind of blowing through a lot of cash and doing unsustainable things, there's a really good chance you're learning the wrong lessons. And they're not necessarily gonna serve you down the road.”
Sameer ShariffAug 5, 2022▶ 19:41Cambly CEO Sameer Shariff: Why I Raised $60M and Didn't Touch a Dollar | 20VC #914 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Shariff: A/B testing does not work for early-stage startups
“The reality is in the very early days of startups you don't really have much data. And so, you know, in theory, you might think, oh, let me just like AB test everything and AB test my way to success. And it doesn't really work because like you're tiny, there i…”
Sameer ShariffAug 5, 2022▶ 4:53Cambly CEO Sameer Shariff: Why I Raised $60M and Didn't Touch a Dollar | 20VC #914 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AssertionSupported
Shariff: 1.5 billion people globally are actively trying to learn English
“There's about 7.58 billion people in the world. Six billion of them don't know English. And by the way of those 6000000001.5 billion are actively trying to learn it right now.”
Sameer ShariffAug 5, 2022▶ 7:27Cambly CEO Sameer Shariff: Why I Raised $60M and Didn't Touch a Dollar | 20VC #914 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Shariff: Cambly faced higher VC milestones due to international focus
“I think that the net effect, kind of the combo of those two factors meant that we just had to get, we just had to hit bigger milestones. Then sort of an equivalent company in order to get that fundraise done.”
Sameer ShariffAug 5, 2022▶ 8:23Cambly CEO Sameer Shariff: Why I Raised $60M and Didn't Touch a Dollar | 20VC #914 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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