Byju Raveendran Writes About The Storm Byju's Survived In 2022

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about."

Byju's founder sent a year-end email to his staff members. He wrote, according to conventional opinion, the edtech startup should have taken a break and waited for the market situation to improve. However, the company broke records in terms of ambition and execution, creating India's largest physical distribution networks for educational goods and services for K–12 and test-prep, by a wide margin.

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The third phase was scheduled to begin in 2025, according to Raveendran, but due to macroeconomic changes in 2022, the company had to start this year's route to profitability. As the company adopted the theme of “growth with efficiency", it started “investing better and prioritising more rigorously".

As a result, Raveendran had to take “the most painful decision" of his life by letting go of some of the employees, wrote the edtech founder in the internal email. This was necessary due to the current macroeconomic climate and the integration of the company's acquired businesses.

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The email stated that, while Byju's saw consistent growth for the first six years, the edtech company experienced exponential growth over the following four years, from 2017 to 2021. Both in terms of products and services, the business has expanded. Byju's expanded both organically and artificially in India and other countries.

Raveendran addressed the controversial decision of roping in Lionel Messi as its global brand ambassador of its social impact arm, Education For All. The move became questionable since it happened after some of its employees had been laid off. Byju's spent nearly $30-$40 million to become the first Indian company to sponsor a FIFA world cup.

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Raveendran said, in the end, it worked out well for Messi, who won the world cup for Argentina after 36 years. "A little bit of faith at every step, and a lifetime of learning - this is the not-so-secret formula for his success. There is a lot for us to learn from him and we are privileged to be able to," he wrote.