He turned down an offer from Unacademy and now manages a billion-dollar Educational technology company: Meet Alakh Pandey, a member of PhysicsWallah

Unacademy, a SoftBank-backed edtech startup, presented an offer to a Prayagraj-based (Allahabad) physics teacher a few years ago that he couldn't reject. It offered Rs 40 crore per year to recruit this teacher, who had launched his own YouTube channel and was rapidly gaining in popularity.

The teacher, on the other hand, had loftier ambitions. He stayed put, grew his YouTube following, and developed an edtech company that is not only successful but also on the verge of becoming a unicorn, a term that refers to private companies valued at $1 billion or more. 

This is the story of Alakh Pandey, the 30-year-old co-founder and CEO of PhysicsWallah, a two-year-old company he founded. However, neither Pandey nor Unacademy responded to the offer.

Pandey resembles his on-screen counterpart in his outspokenness, earthy sense of humour, and ability to connect with students on life issues.

Pandey's unique thoughts on everything from love to achievement to heartbreak can be found on a dedicated fan channel. You might even come across Shayaris (short poems), anecdotes, and personal experiences offered by Pandey during his classes that have been turned into YouTube Shorts with viral soundtracks and transitions.

Pandey's teaching style looks to be that of a one-on-one chat with students, inspiring them by laughing with them and even pulling their legs.

"Other institutes derided PhysicsWallah when they first introduced their courses, claiming that if they are delivering sessions at this pricing point, their quality must be low." "Alakh sir always said don't respond them, prove them wrong with your results," said Ritu Chauhan, a first-year MBBS student at Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, who was one of Pandey's students.

Chauhan isn't the only one who praises Alakh's'sir.'

"After 12th, I took a gap year and enrolled in classes at a reputable coaching centre, but I was unable to pass the NEET (medical admission exam) on my first attempt. My father was already paying a lot for my care because I was a tuberculosis patient at the time. So, while my treatment was ongoing, I chose to study at home. That's when I discovered PhysicsWallah and Alakh sir," said Ruby Prajapati, a student in PhysicsWallah's NEET Crash Course 2020's first batch.

Prajapati is now doing his MBBS at New Delhi's Vardhman Mahavir Medical College. 

"Many of these huge coaching institutes cram us into classes. However, pupils who attend government schools, such as myself, do not necessarily receive a good education." "Rajapati went on to say. PhysicsWallah is a bootstrapped edtech firm that offers an online platform for JEE and NEET (important admission examinations for engineering and medicine)  preparation, which was formally incorporated by Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari in 2020 as PhysicsWallah Pvt Ltd.

The company is currently in talks with international investors to raise $100 million, earning it the title of "unicorn." PhysicsWallah will become one of the few successful unicorns in the country, as well as the only profitable edtech unicorn. Unacademy, Eruditus, Byju's, Vedantu, LEAD, and upGrad, India's six edtech unicorns, have recently increased their losses despite rising revenues, owing to high marketing and advertising costs. However, PhysicsWallah made a profit of over Rs 7 crore in its first year of operation.

Early on in the journey

Pandey created a YouTube channel called PhysicsWallah in 2014, which had around 10,000 followers in its first year before formally registering the organisation. The channel, on the other hand, now has over 1.2 billion views and close to seven million subscribers.

"I'm not a businessman," she says. I'd never considered creating a company or anything. That's my co-founder over there. "I hail from a humble family and enjoy teaching," Pandey remarked.

"I've been a teacher since I was a child." I used to teach pupils in grades four and six when I was in eighth grade. It didn't start out of enthusiasm; it began because I was having financial difficulties at home and needed to pay tuition. This carried on for a long time; I used to teach grade nine pupils when I was in 11th grade, and then I started teaching again in my second year of engineering," Pandey explained. Pandey, unlike the majority of the country's unicorn founders, did not attend any of the country's 23 IITs.

"Back then, getting into IIT was crucial, and I was unable to accomplish so."  In institutes like Aakash or Allen, which were once a dream for me, I didn't obtain a platform or proper training. Then I began teaching in an offline centre where I had formed a collaboration with a well-known figure. My partner once told me that I was fantastic and that I could reach 6,000 to 7,000 students using YouTube. Pandey continued, "That's when it hit me, and I created my own YouTube channel."

Pandey stated that he began uploading videos for NEET and JEE students on his YouTube account in 2013, but that he was mostly focused on offline teaching at the time. Pandey's channel was up and running, but he hadn't begun monetising it until 2019, when he started generating money from it.