On May 20th, 2017, Sissy Gamal and I embarked on an incredible journey by launching GENSU Education Center, my education startup. Gensu was more than just a tutoring service; it was an embodiment of our belief that education should go beyond school subjects and encompass crucial soft skills like motivation, resilience, and self-confidence. Witnessing our vision come to life and hearing how we have cultivated the joy of learning in our students brought us immeasurable satisfaction.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to make a difficult decision. We were unable to transition to digital teaching and had to close the company. However, this experience has taught me valuable lessons that I would like to share.

Vision and Early Employees 🎯

The most crucial lesson I learned was the significance of early recruitment. We faced a pivotal moment when we had to choose between two candidates: someone who excelled at showcasing their abilities and someone who truly embraced our values and vision. Ultimately, we decided to go with the second candidate, and the impact was tremendous. This employee became an invaluable leader within our team. Her unwavering dedication to our students reflected in the remarkable customer satisfaction and referrals, the boosted team morale and collaboration, and the growth and motivation of the students she taught. By hiring early employees with high commitment to our mission, we were able to have team members who acted as owners and not just employees, allowing us to build a united team working relentlessly towards a common goal.

Process and Collective Knowledge 🧠

Another pivotal lesson we learned was the importance of creating well-defined processes and leveraging the collective knowledge within our team. Recognizing that I am not an education or tutoring expert, I tapped into the insights of Gensu’s extended team and advisors. As a service company, our quality relied heavily on preparation, training, and seamless day-to-day operations. Efficient systems and processes were critical. For instance, our head of operations built our teacher scheduling system based on his previous experiences. This system has allowed us to avoid the nightmare of having a class of eager students without any available teacher, while also saving costs by prioritizing key subjects. By actively listening to our team members and incorporating their feedback, we were able to enhance our operations and provide an even better service to our students.

Future-proofing and Risk Management 🚧

The most significant lesson I learned was the importance of future-proofing. Initially, I believed that children’s education would remain largely immune to digitization. However, the pandemic shattered that perception, as it revealed the adaptability of people to new innovations. We couldn’t implement the same teaching strategies online, and we lacked the infrastructure, training, and readiness for such a transformative change. By being aware of these future trends, we could have been better prepared for rapid market changes and potentially minimized the struggles we faced during the pandemic. While we couldn’t have predicted COVID-19, I now understand the importance of anticipating future trends and preparing for potential disruptions.

The journey of founding Gensu was filled with remarkable accomplishments, profound joys, and invaluable lessons. I am immensely proud of the positive impact we had on our students and teachers. I hope this story can help fellow entrepreneurs and educators unlock their venture potential by prioritizing vision in early employee recruitment, investing time in building robust processes, and anticipating future trends in their respective industries.