Thinking inside the box, how ThinkPlay Box looks to change the education landscape of India
““Whenever you have an idea, just go for it. I know that you might not get support immediately. You might not get funding at first but you can always bootstrap. You keep on trying,” said ThinkPlay Box CEO and founder Samir Dash in an exclusive interview with Startup Story.
With tech-based startups appearing to be on the rise, there appears to be an ever increasing chasm between the current startup trends within the country and those not privileged enough to have access to technology. The onset of the pandemic has only widened this gap further. Education-focused startups, as exemplar, who look to foster entrepreneurship function on mobile devices only a few can afford.
Founded in April 2021 by Samir and Sangeeta Dash, Bengaluru-based ThinkPlay Box aims to bridge this digital gap.
Bringing design and Innovation to the grassroots
ThinkPlay Box co-founder Samir Dash had been working in the field of design for several years before Think PlayBox came to be. The author of a design book ‘DesOps’, his belief in making educational materials available to the masses has stretched back several years. Similarly, co-founder Sangeeta Dash possesses design experience.
The pair, being passionate about bridging the digital divide and promoting the spirit of innovation present in the masses, founded ThinkPlay Box to service individuals, teams, and enterprises at the grass-roots level.
The proverbial box of crayons
ThinkPlay Box is gearing up to deliver to its customers its very own patented Innovation Acceleration Kit. Created with the intent of being a completely analog experience, the kit will contain everything that a person would need to innovate on their own. The company seeks to make entrepreneurship as accessible as possible to people from all walks of life- mitigating the steep costs of attending workshops, complicated instructional material, allowing learners to learn at their own pace. Aligning itself with the newly announced National Education Policy 2020, the kit is further aimed at developing ingenuity in young children.
The company will offer several kinds of Innovation Acceleration Kits including design thinking, research activities, and prototyping.
Samir, talking about how easy the kits can be to customise, said, “It will be a DIY approach … What we are trying to reach is where they [masterclasses and workshops] can’t go. And secondly, even if there is a masterclass with a huge audience, we can customise everything on the basis of teaching and provide it to the teacher.”
An unexplored market
When talking about the space that their new Innovation Acceleration Kit occupies in their market, Samir claims a first mover’s advantage for ThinkPlay Box. The company’s product offering, whilst being instructional material, is also an interactive activity kit.
“Imagine you are giving a child who is trying to learn the alphabet a mobile phone … While tech has tremendous value, there’s still a digital divide. If you’re taking the help of a digital device to reach your students, it doesn’t work. So what we tried to come up with is a model that will be sustainable and affordable,” stated Samir.
It is this unique position in the education landscape that allows ThinkPlay Box’s unique kit the ability to address several social issues that the current education system and edtech startups cannot. The lacunae it addresses will likely allow the kit to bridge the gap between the desire to grow and the actual learning process for children, individuals from economically weaker backgrounds, and women who are not given an equitable access to education.
The ThinkPlay Box team is prepared to launch their Innovation Kit soon and hope that it can positively impact the education system. Entirely bootstrapped till date, the startup looks to raise its seed round of funding later this month.
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