Oct 5, 2020 · 51m · neon-show
Mohan Lakhamraju, Founder, Great Learning on building $100 Million ARR EdTech Business in India
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In this episode of the 100x Entrepreneur Podcast, Great Learning founder Mohan Lakhamraju discusses his career journey from Silicon Valley and Tiger Global to building a $100 million ARR EdTech enterprise. He shares insights on mentored learning models, prioritizing intellectual property over physical infrastructure, and the permanent digital transformation of global higher education.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
Siddhartha as informed peer 2.9 Guest teaching 2.7 Guest disagreement 0.6 Siddhartha pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is Siddhartha, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 43:35 Correction on the 'poor sibling' metaphor
Mohan playfully corrects the host's phrasing, clarifying that he originally referred to edtech as the 'poor sibling' rather than the 'youngest sibling', questioning the host's framing of sector hierarchy.
Hardest push from Siddhartha ▶ 15:24 Host pushes on Lee Fixel's role in Tiger's pivotSiddharth attempts to attribute Tiger Global's strategic shift toward early-stage Indian venture bets directly to Lee Fixel post-2009.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 28:51 Correcting average ticket price and positioningMohan firmly rejects Siddharth's low-ball estimate of a 100-dollar average ticket size, explaining that Great Learning offers higher-stakes master's-level programs priced at 2,500 dollars.
Siddhartha holds their own ▶ 50:22 Host synthesizes historical precedent of edtech copycatsSiddharth connects Mohan's warnings about shortcuts to historical patterns of opportunistic real estate developers building sub-par colleges during India's earlier education boom.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Siddhartha as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Siddhartha pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mohan's Formative Path: From IIT to Silicon Valley | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth asks a broad open-ended question about Mohan's personal journey. Mohan provides a linear biographical monologue spanning IIT, UC Berkeley, Silicon Valley startups, Stanford, and his pivot into investing. | |
| Finding Passion in Education and Choosing Entrepreneurship | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Mohan continues explaining his realization that he preferred passionate entrepreneurship over dispassionate investing, describing the origins of Great Lakes and Great Learning's assisted-learning model. | |
| The Mindset Shift of Experiencing Excellence | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Siddharth attempts to summarize Mohan's takeaway as learning to 'think big', which Mohan reframes around experiencing excellence and raising self-expectations. | |
| Work Ethic and the Intense Tiger Global Experience | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Siddharth inquires about the Tiger Global years and Lee Fixel's strategy shift. Mohan clarifies Tiger's timeline, noting India investments began earlier in public markets before venture bets. | |
| Passionate Entrepreneurship versus Objective Investing | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth highlights the distinction between subjective passion and objective investing. Mohan shares lessons on how intellectual property and faculty matter vastly more than physical campus infrastructure. | |
| Business Growth, Scale, and Higher Education Expansion | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth summarizes key tenets of institution building and asks for business metrics. Mohan shares Great Learning's revenue numbers, growth trajectory, and international expansion. | |
| Reimagining Master's Degrees and the Cost of Not Learning | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Siddharth guesses ticket sizes around 100 dollars, but Mohan corrects him, explaining their master's-equivalent programs cost 2,500 to 3,000 dollars and reframe the calculation around the 'cost of not learning'. | |
| COVID-19 Catalyst: Accelerated Digital Learning Adoption | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Siddharth contrasts K-12 dynamics with higher education drivers during COVID-19. Mohan elaborates on the structural unpreparedness of Indian universities and the necessity of specialized digital platforms over simple video conferencing. | |
| The Future Landscape of Global EdTech and Digital Adoption | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Siddharth notes how EdTech transitioned from being a 'younger sibling' to a leader among tech sectors. Mohan gently clarifies he previously referred to it as the 'poor sibling' before detailing global digitization trends across degree and corporate segments. | |
| Sustaining Quality over Shortcuts in the EdTech Gold Rush | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Mohan gives closing advice urging edtech founders to resist short-term growth hacks and maintain relentless focus on learner outcomes. Siddharth reinforces this by drawing parallels to real estate developers and clones. |
Statements from this episode (17)
Lakhamraju: Politicians and real estate developers owned most Indian colleges in 2009
“This was a time when most academic institutions were you know, kind of owned and owned by people from real estate, political backgrounds, You know, manufacturing, and all of those kinds of things, and these are not people that were really focused on education,…”
Lakhamraju: Passion impairs investing because attachment obscures when to sell
“As an investor, you need to be dispassionate, you know? So in fact, passion makes you know, not be a great investor, right? Because you get too attached to different things. You don't really it's hard to, Figure out the right time to sell if you are very passi…”
Lakhamraju: India's education system fails to equip students as self-learners
“The call that we took was that to have high quality learning outcomes most people need support and assistance. You know, so our education system in India doesn't really equip us to be good self-learners.”
Lakhamraju: Completion rates on Coursera and edX remain very low
“So, so therefore the completion rates on platforms like Coursera and edX were very poor, continue to be very low.”
Lakhamraju: Tiger Global did zero early-stage venture investing from 2006 to 2008
“And at that time, it was largely public markets. You know, Tiger was more of a hedge fund than it was, there was no early stage investing that Tiger was doing at that time. So I think all of those started after When I was there, it was all public markets and l…”
Lakhamraju: Lee Fixel began focusing on Indian investments around 2010
“Tiger is doing investments in India and all of that in in India also. So since 2006, two thousand even then, but it was all, like I said, public markets and late stage. And, So Lee was focused on you know, rest of the world and China and all of that. I think, …”
Lakhamraju: Emotional attachment helps early-stage investors but hurts late-stage investors
“And I think particularly when you are a late stage and I think it helps when you are an early stage investor, because there, you know, that involvement and investment is required, but as a late stage and public markets investor, that's actually, I think, not a…”
Lakhamraju: Educational outcomes depend on intellectual property, not physical infrastructure
“Outcomes are what matter, and the main thing that goes into those outcomes is the intellectual property. It's the faculty, it's the content, it's the curriculum, the pedagogy, and the experiences that the students have.”
Great Learning grew bookings 150% from $19M to $43M year-over-year
“So last year, we did about forty three million in revenue bookings. The year before that was about 19. So we had grown about one 50%. You know, I think the, in, in million, the currency plays into an effect, but, you know, in rupee terms, you know, we had done…”
Lakhamraju: Great Learning has paid learners in 85 countries
“In fact today we have learners from 140 countries from around the world. And we also, we have paid learners from 85 countries.”
Lakhamraju: Great Learning programs are priced around 2 to 2.5 lakhs
“So, so our programs are typically priced at about two, two and a half lakhs.”
Lakhamraju: Indian professionals who fail to upskill in AI will be displaced
“And the same thing is going to happen in India as well as we adopt technology more and more, as the transformation happens, as AI It takes, you know, deeper and deeper route across industries. People have to learn or you know, they will find themselves out of …”
Lakhamraju: Professional learning generates 90% of Great Learning's revenue
“Today, most of it will be professional learning because this higher education is relatively new. So I would say maybe like 10% from higher education and 90% from professional learning.”
Lakhamraju: 38 million Indian college students currently receive poor quality education
“There are like, I think, forty million students that are there in higher education today. And, you know, most of them other than probably a million or two million are actually getting very poor quality education.”
Lakhamraju: 30% of US degree enrollments were online in 2018-2019
“So last year and the year before that in the US, if you look at degree program enrollments, 30% happened in online programs.”