Failure Analysis
Lido died from a combination of unsustainable unit economics and catastrophic timing. The core issue was a structural mismatch between revenue and costs. At...
Lido Learning \India
Lido Learning promised to solve India's K-12 education crisis through small-group, live online classes that combined the personalization of tutoring with the structure of classroom learning. The core insight was powerful: Indian parents were spending billions on after-school tuition because traditional schools couldn't provide individualized attention, yet one-on-one tutoring was prohibitively expensive. Lido's value proposition was a Goldilocks solution—small cohorts of 6 students per teacher, gamified curriculum, and pricing at ₹6,000-8,000/month (roughly $75-100), positioned between mass-market recorded content platforms like Byju's and premium private tutoring. The psychological hook was parental anxiety about competitive exams (JEE, NEET) combined with pandemic-era proof that online learning could work. For a brief moment in 2020-2021, Lido represented the future: venture-backed, tech-enabled, and riding the massive tailwind of COVID-forced digitization in a market where education spending is non-discretionary.
Discover the reason behind the shutdown and the market before & today
Market Analysis
The Indian edtech market in 2024 is in a post-bubble correction phase. The sector raised $16B+ from 2020-2022 but has seen 80% decline in...
Startup Learnings
Live synchronous models in education only work at extreme ends of the pricing spectrum: either ultra-premium ($200+/hour for 1-on-1 with credentialed experts) or loss-leader...
Market Potential
India's K-12 supplementary education market is estimated at $50B+ annually, with 250M+ school-aged children and cultural obsession with academic achievement. The TAM is undeniable....
Difficulty
Live tutoring marketplaces are operationally complex with three-sided dynamics (students, parents, teachers) and require constant quality control. Modern tools like AI tutoring (Khan Academy's...
Scalability
The business model had a fatal scalability flaw: teacher supply constraints. Unlike pure software, each cohort required a qualified teacher, and India's pool of...
Rebuild & monetization strategy: Resurrect the company
Execution Plan
Phase 2
Month 2: Recruit 10 IIT-graduate tutors on commission-only basis (₹500 per 15-min doubt session). Build Calendly-style booking system where students can request live help after attempting AI-generated problem sets. Record all sessions for content library.
Phase 3
Month 3: Launch closed beta with 100 JEE aspirants (Class 11-12) in Kota/Delhi. Offer completely free access in exchange for daily usage data. Goal: Prove that AI + on-demand tutoring can improve mock test scores by 15%+ in 90 days.
Phase 4
Month 4-6: Introduce ISA-style contracts: 'Use ExamProof free for 12 months. If you score in top 5,000 rank in JEE, pay ₹1,00,000. If not, pay ₹0.' Partner with NBFCs to finance the ISA risk pool. Scale to 1,000 students across JEE/NEET.
Monetization Strategy
Income Share Agreement (ISA) model: Students pay ₹0 upfront. Upon qualifying in top 10% of JEE/NEET/UPSC, they pay ₹75,000-150,000 (scaled by rank—top 1% pays more). Expected conversion: 15-20% of users will qualify and pay, generating ₹1,125-3,000 per student in blended revenue. At 10,000 students, that's ₹1.1-3 Cr annual revenue. Partner revenue share with coaching institutes adds another 50%. By Year 2, introduce a ₹2,999/month premium tier for students who want guaranteed 24-hour doubt resolution and weekly 1-on-1 strategy calls with IIT mentors (targets anxious parents willing to pay for hand-holding). The ISA model solves trust and CAC: students have no risk, so conversion is high, and word-of-mouth drives 60%+ of growth. Finance the ISA risk pool via partnerships with education-focused NBFCs (Liquiloans, Avanse) who will underwrite the contracts in exchange for 20% of success fees.
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