Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Pai: Linking education platforms to job outcomes builds a moat

Sajith Pai · Sajith Pai, Blume Ventures on building personal brands, being open-minded, and unlearning to succeed · Jul 19, 2020 · at 44:16

Sajith Pai of Blume Ventures explains how outcome guarantees like job interviews create defensibility for EdTech companies like upGrad.

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“Certainly in education, I think some assurance of outcomes is, is, is, is, is certainly linking it to outcomes is a moat. If you're able to, for example, for up grad, for example, if they're able to get you two to three interviews that would be a terrific moat as well.”

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