What triggered your interest in education innovation and entrepreneurship?
Since childhood, I’ve been deeply passionate about education and human potential. I believe my parents’ story influenced this passion; they had to leave their country due to a revolution, interrupting their studies, and my father never fulfilled his dream of a scientific career.
Education is a force multiplier across various fields. Rapidly educating the workforce prepares people for tomorrow’s challenges, accelerating progress. When I arrived in the US in 2015 to attend Stanford as a graduate student, I knew I wanted to start a company in education. Being in the world’s most inspiring ecosystem, with access to leading startup experts, was an incredible privilege.
How did your experiences at Stanford as a student influence your approach to entrepreneurship in education?
My Stanford experience profoundly influenced me as an entrepreneur by teaching me new skills, immersing me in a positive culture, and providing access to exceptional mentors.
Stanford equipped me with invaluable practical skills. I arrived with a solid theoretical foundation but lacked practical skills. Courses in applied computer science and entrepreneurship taught me how to be more hands-on and practical.
The culture at Stanford and in Silicon Valley was a great accelerator. People are encouraged to start companies, which is incredibly inspiring.
Finally, mentors like Andrew Ng, Dan Boneh, and Amin Saberi provided invaluable insights in AI, cryptography, network theory, and entrepreneurship.
What inspired you to start Workera? What challenge were you trying to solve?
Through my work with Andrew Ng, I saw millions learn online but lacked mentorship. Learners often don’t know where to start due to a lack of understanding of their strengths and gaps. Educational technologies were linear, lacking precise skills data.
I realized personalized learning required understanding skills at a precise level using concrete data. This led to creating Workera, an AI agent modeled after an expert mentor. Workera helps define goals, assesses skills precisely, and guides learners to close gaps rapidly, navigating the vast content available.
What were your career steps to becoming Founder and CEO of Workera?
Key steps leading to the founding of Workera would be:
- Learning: I studied machine learning, psychometrics, learning science, and entrepreneurship extensively; and continuously follow the latest innovations in these domains.
- Experience: I worked with Andrew Ng to launch the Deep Learning Specialization on Coursera in 2017, which millions of people have completed. This helped me develop better intuition on the challenges of education globally.
- Identifying problems: I noticed a major issue in education: the lack of verified skills data and mentorship, which hindered personalized learning and workforce management – both for workers developing their careers and companies attempting to continually innovate.
- Creating solutions: I assembled a team and developed solutions to that led to the creation of Workera!
What surprised you the most about the founder’s journey?
Tactically, there were unexpected challenges like COVID, a few hires that didn’t work out, and some product bets that fell short, while others exceeded expectations.
But in the grand scheme of things, there were no real surprises. 😛 I went on this journey at peace with the fact that there would be ups and downs. We would make mistakes, but also good bets. Over time, with hard work and focus, success will come as long as you stay healthy and energized. The overall trend will be positive!
How do you see the future of education evolving?
The future of education will be characterized by a high degree of personalization, driven by AI tutoring and advanced skills assessments that enable customized learning at an unprecedented scale. Teachers’ roles will evolve to blend data analysis and motivational support, with less emphasis on subject matter expertise. Digital technologies will facilitate faster implementation of educational innovations, shortening the time from research to classroom impact. Educational institutions will focus on durable skills like analytical thinking and empathy, while companies will frequently update perishable skills like programming languages.
The rapidly changing work landscape will lead to more career transitions, requiring agility. Work will increasingly be defined by tasks and skills rather than traditional roles, promoting flexibility and efficiency. Emerging skills technologies will help individuals signal their skills verifiably, fostering a skills-based meritocracy that boosts productivity and reduces unemployment. Skills-based pay will incentivize lifelong learning, and emerging fields like AI will create new job opportunities, necessitating expert education programs to prepare the workforce for these frontier challenges.
What role do you think new education ventures will play in this evolution?
Absolutely critical. There are countless problems to solve in education, whether it’s personalized learning, skills assessments, access to jobs, school safety, education financing, or mentorship. Most of these problems will not be solved by big corporations. We need more technologists and entrepreneurs to build solutions leveraging the latest technologies.
What was your favorite class or experience at Stanford? How did you learn about education?
One of my favorite experiences at Stanford has been teaching CS230, Deep Learning, with Andrew Ng. It is incredibly rewarding to see students grasp complex concepts and apply them in innovative ways. This experience deepened my understanding of education and reinforced the importance of learning new skills. I’ve seen a significant rise in non-computer science students interested in AI, highlighting its emergence as an essential skill. AI + X combines expertise in various fields with AI proficiency, making it a crucial, durable skill for the future.
What advice would you give to aspiring founders looking to start their ventures?
My advice is to fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Solutions will change over time, but the core problem you’re addressing remains the same. No company went public with the exact solution they started with.
It takes time to truly understand and connect with a problem. Dive deep, stay passionate about your mission, and keep innovating. Focus on the core issues you aim to solve and let your passion drive your work. Connect with experts and stay committed to finding solutions. This mindset will guide your innovation and ensure your venture makes a meaningful impact.