A college dropout who started out at McDonald’s now helps run a Y Combinator-backed learning company. Narayanan S, co-founder and Chief Business Officer of UnSchool, joined a Builders Club Water Cooler conversation to unpack how an upskilling platform can win in a crowded edtech market.
The founders in the room pushed on his campus ambassador model, community design, marketing choices and the lessons from Y Combinator.
How does an upskilling platform grow without heavy ads? Narayanan S’s core thesis
Narayanan’s view is that online learning only works when it is experiential and tied to an outcome, such as a skill, a project or a job. UnSchool is an e-mentorship platform where experts teach and learners explore different fields through courses, live sessions and an active community.
On growth, he argues that for an Indian student audience, word of mouth beats conventional ads. UnSchool leaned on a large campus ambassador programme and strong customer experience, and the company stayed bootstrapped apart from its Y Combinator funding.
- Make learning experiential. Courses include projects and activities, not just recorded content.
- Build community into the product. Learners and experts interact in groups, live sessions and chats.
- Let customers market for you. A campus ambassador internship drove most of UnSchool’s leads.
- Stay agile and talk to customers. Never fall in love with your own idea.
What problem is UnSchool solving in online education?
Narayanan described a call from his co-founder Rahul asking what was wrong with online education. They saw two gaps: online content ran separately from what students learned in college, and platforms offered content but no clear objective such as landing a job.
UnSchool serves two sides. Experts with a few years of experience get a platform to share what they know, and students get a space to explore, experiment and then excel before committing to a path.
- Online courses were disconnected from classroom learning.
- Platforms delivered content but not an outcome.
- Students often pick a stream without knowing which jobs it leads to.
How is a platform like this different from YouTube or Udemy?
He pointed out that YouTube is built for content consumption, so distraction is constant. A search on Udemy can return thousands of similar courses at similar prices, which leaves learners confused about which to pick.
UnSchool tries to streamline that into a path. A computer science student might move from C++ to Java, Python, data science and then AI, while a management student might try content writing, then digital marketing and SEO.
He also said it works alongside college rather than replacing it, whether the student is exploring options or building a specific skill outside the syllabus.
How do you build community and engagement into an online course?
UnSchool built a community platform where learners and experts talk in course groups, on a main feed and in live sessions. Shy learners can message the instructor directly. A separate Discord community had around 11,000 sign-ups in about two and a half months, out of roughly 60,000 customers acquired in two years.
The course design itself is interactive, with deliberate interventions inside each course.
- A mid-course activity, such as improving a LinkedIn profile, scored by the community and the instructor on a scale of zero to ten.
- A major project before completion, such as recording a speech or building a landing page.
- Weekend live sessions kept open for life after enrolling.
- A reputation score that converts into credits redeemable for partner vouchers.
How does a campus ambassador programme work?
UnSchool runs one of the larger campus ambassador programmes in India, with more than 3,000 interns a month, according to Narayanan. Second and third-year students are trained on sales and marketing and promote UnSchool in their colleges. He said the company has reached out to over 2,000 colleges.
He rejected comparisons to multi-level marketing. It is a paid internship with a stipend and certificate, and ambassadors do not have to buy courses to sell them.
- Community influencer: about two weeks, with training and a handful of tasks including two or three sales.
- Community leader: manage a group of influencers for a month, with a separate stipend.
- Community champion: the top role, for around a month and a half.
- The programme runs roughly 90 days in total.
Why not run paid ads to grow an edtech startup?
Money was the constraint. UnSchool relied on the ambassador model and word of mouth, and Narayanan said they ran almost no ads before 2021. He wanted customers to spread the message because the product solved a problem for them.
He said the company held an NPS above 60 for a year. His point was that a strong foundation built on customer experience lasts longer than growth bought with funding.
Buy technology first, then build
Early on, UnSchool bought existing technology to learn what customers wanted. After about a year and a half it built its own community and learning management systems.
What did Y Combinator teach the UnSchool founders?
Narayanan said getting into the Winter 2021 batch was a surprise, and the value was less about money than about access and attention. Group partners tracked the company closely and kept pushing on product-market fit and customer conversations.
Retention and subscriptions came up repeatedly, so UnSchool launched a six-month subscription mid-cohort. He said only a handful of people were signing up each week, but the data was useful.
What advice does he give early-stage founders?
He named agility first: learn from others doing part of what you do, take feedback and pivot fast. A mentor’s comment that the business needed a clear objective led them to internships as their first step.
His second point was to keep talking to customers at every stage. He cited a Y Combinator partner’s story about the smartwatch maker Pebble, whose founder wished he had spoken to customers more before selling the company.
- Never fall in love with your own idea.
- Pivot early when feedback points elsewhere.
- Speak to customers before you start and keep doing it after launch.
Further reading and sources
Frequently asked questions
What is UnSchool?
UnSchool is an e-mentorship and upskilling platform where experts teach courses and learners join live sessions and a community. Narayanan S describes it as serving students, graduates and young professionals. It went through Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 batch.
How can a startup use a campus ambassador programme to grow?
Narayanan describes a paid internship model with training, tasks and a stipend, plus tiers that increase responsibility over about 90 days. Ambassadors promote the product in their colleges and earn a certificate. The founders should make sure it is a genuine internship and not a pyramid scheme.
Should an edtech startup run ads or rely on word of mouth?
Narayanan’s experience was that word of mouth suited the Indian student audience and kept costs low while the company was bootstrapped. He paired it with a high NPS and a strong customer experience. Ads can come later, once the product is trusted.
Conclusion
Narayanan’s story shows that an upskilling platform can grow on community, a strong product and students who talk about it. Experiential courses and outcome-driven design kept learners engaged.
If you are building for students or any community-led audience, test a low-cost ambassador or word-of-mouth loop before spending on ads, and keep speaking to customers.
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