Manohar Singh

Edutech x AI | Previously: Built stuff @Unacademy / @Graphyapp | BITS Pilani

[Prapthi @prapthi_m]

BENGALURU ADOPTION APPEAL

Our big baby, Theo, is still looking for a home.

We found Theo abandoned about 3 months ago.

He's 4 years old, healthy and vaccinated. He's a calm dog who gets along with pets and people alike.

Contact : 9686931568

Please help. Please share ♥️🙏

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@theskindoctor13 @shobhitic / @Vishant_Batta
Happy fifth anniversary of the Battle of Baghpat

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@shobhitic They own PnL / You are welcome.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@thepmfguy @junaid_1460 Avengers Doomsday ka trailer bana do aap bhi ek

[Gaurav Munjal @gauravmunjal]

But then the reality hit. In 2022, three things happened simultaneously:

1. The entire game changed. The game was no longer about raising funds and showing top-line growth but it was about profitability
2. Learners went back to offline centers post-COVID
3. Few competitors copied every single thing about our product and our YouTube playbook and launched a one-tenth cheaper product

Funding winter didn't impact us as much because we had raised a lot of money in the last two years and we still had more than half of it in the bank. We started cutting costs. But it was a huge shock that online is going through a shift and we are degrowing month on month. We didn't realize that the market had shifted and the primary online product was no longer needed. In fact, a supplemental product which was much cheaper was needed. We got complacent. We invented the playbook, but we stopped innovating on price. A competitor came in, used our own playbook against us with a cheaper model, and beat us at our own game while we were distracted.

And all this while we were also battling internal issues which arise from bringing down burn from 1400 crores a year to almost zero and we were learning how to run offline centers because we had been an online tech product company from the beginning. Without any experience in running ops-heavy services businesses.

Personally, for us founders, this was the most difficult three years that we had ever seen in our lives because until 2021 we had not seen a single month of degrowth. But in the last three years, we saw us losing market share in the game that we literally invented and it hurt.

Monthly panic attacks were a normal thing. It was tough to deal with the pressure from the investors, from the team, from the educators, and more importantly from the extreme expectations that we had set for our own selves. That we wanted to be the largest tech company in India.

I'm grateful to @RomanSaini, @sumjain and @hemezh for being the best co-founders one could ever hope for. Without them, I would definitely not have been able to cope up, and would have had a breakdown.

Also extremely grateful to our leadership team who stuck around with us even during our worst times.

And also to my mentors @sjs_day1, @deepigoyal, @bhash, Sujeet Kumar, and @bhavintu. Their support during this time is something that I would never forget.

After being in denial till 2024, we took a different mindset. We assumed that we were never a $3.5B company.

We went back to the basics. To what we were good at, to the playbook we invented, which was making great content on YouTube, having a great product, and selling the subscription. We started doing YouTube events. We reduced our pricing. We went to a very, very lean team. And we were able to bring down the burn from 1400 crores in 2022 to less than 175 crores in 2025.

We are still here. We are still strong. We still make products that our users love. Millions of learners use our product, and our videos are watched more than a billion times on YouTube every year. We still have a healthy balance sheet with decades of runway. And a top line of almost 600 crores with a path to profitability next year. And we feel that, though it was a roller coaster, we did survive the last three years.

Sometimes, winning is not dying, because you live to fight another day, and that's what Unacademy went through.

Now, we might be worth less than $500M as compared to $3.5B that we were worth three years ago.

Three years ago, I used to care a lot about this, which probably led us to make some bad decisions - this chase of valuation. But today, I care more about building great products, having great unit economics, and growing profitably.

Yes, we are in M&A conversations, and yes, if we find a win-win situation where consolidation can lead to a stronger entity, we will go ahead with this.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@banasawadips @BlrCityPolice @DcpEastBcp @acpbanaswadi Thank you checking. The store might be licensed it still seems dangerous considering the area is highly populated with residences on both sides of the lane. This probably isn’t the safest space for a firecracker store.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

Hi @BlrCityPolice @BbmpEast , what are the rules around selling firecrackers in residential areas?
Someone is selling them on Karavali 3rd Main Road from what appears to be a residential building / seems like a potential safety hazard. Please check, if possible. Thank you.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@BlrCityPolice https://t.co/Mj0GLGOv2c

It’s somewhere here. 3rd Main Road, Karavali Main Road, Behind Jalvayu Vihar,
Choice bakery is the nearest landmark.

Thank you for the prompt response.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@shantanugoel @whitecheezpasta 🤣🤣🤣

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@shobhitic What happens if you try driving this?

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

A friend was going through something and a couple of us were trying to help.

Last week I called another friend at 10 PM asking if he knew a good therapist. He said no, but what struck me was that the MF didn’t even ask if everything was okay.
Time to re-evaluate friendships.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@foldmoney_ Ask them salary kitna loge?

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@dvabhishek

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

That random urge to post everything on social media for absolutely no reason.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

Happy teacher’s day to life as well.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

My biggest learning as a PM so far?

Be opinionated but not too opinionated. There’s a very thin line between having a vision and having an ego.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

Renting a house with pets in Bangalore is a bloody nightmare.
Most flats don’t allow them.
If they do, the house is a wreck.
If the house is good, they want 10 months’ deposit on top of already inflated rent.
Pain.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@snehasanks Fine. I will take them seriously.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

I am sorry but I am not taking you seriously if you describe yourself as UI/UX designer.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

TIL that in some companies before any meeting with the CEO they have a rehearsal meeting where the teams agree that they will not disagree with each other in front of the CEO.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

@chandana_pitta Oh yeah. That too.

[Manohar Singh @Dr__Strangest]

Working in Lala companies is just so special.

So much bureaucracy / so many inefficiencies and yet, somehow zero room to fix any of it. Fun times.