I am Pratham Mittal, Founder of Masters' Union. Ask me anything!
Hi Folks,
I'm Pratham, Founder of Masters' Union. We're a new-age business school with a unique practitioner-led higher education, where courses are taught by CXOs of top companies in India.
I'd love to chat with you folks about my journey in building Masters' Union, my thoughts on the future of Education in India, and discuss my experience in building fast-paced businesses, amongst other things
I'll be back at 5 pm and start answering your questions :) Ask away!
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
Hey Pratham
I was in the 2nd batch of MU
The placement report that is being marketed is not actually what happened in our cohort, why is it inflated or is there a specific way this was calculated ?
@Doopermind The placement report is released by our auditor and not by us. They release the placement numbers (mean, median, Top 25% etc) by their own accord and we only release the supporting data. Our auditor is the same firm and the same person as IIM A etc
Politically correct response but it doesn’t communicate what actually is happening in the cohort, from the data that I have from the 2nd cohort the audited report looks inflated, or the auditors made a mistake ?
Hey Pratham,
Really appreciate how MU made offline education cool again, a good departure from pure Edtech.
Curious: You had a strong background in the education industry, would it have been possible to pull off something like Masters Union without it?
Do you feel a lot of such schools will emerge in India?
@WittyFeed I come from a SaaS background and I think education industry can truly change and be disrupted if people from tech and other industries come into it. Hard from incumbents to disrupt. Most incumbents are prisoners of their own legacy. Not by their own mistake but because of the bureaucracy of the system and the highly regulated regime.
Thanks for answering. Completely aligned with incumbents being prey to their legacy.
But I meant your family background in education and how much you feel that helped in building MU too
Hi Pratham
Thanks for doing this!
What made you start a modern day b-school? What are the gaps you saw in other b-schools like IIMs, ISB? How should I pitch MU to a friend who is about to join ISB?
@randomjocke TBH, I always thought that there has to be a better way to learn that goes goes beyond lectures and exams. We started researching on the science of learning and figured that we can do an experiment with a small number of students. Thats how Masters' Union started - as an experientent to see new ways of teaching
Hey @PrathamMittal
@salt here.
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What do you think about other companies operating in a similar space i.e. education? Do you track their progress?
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I've seen Stoa, Mesa pump a lot of money in performance marketing over the last year now. Do you feel that even if you guys have a clear differentiator, you may be competing with them for the same mindshare?
@salt
Yes, the founders of Stoa, Mesa, Scalar are all good friends and we compare notes quite often. We have a lot to learn from each other.
I strongly feel that in education there is no competition as such. The market is too too too large and even if there were 100 Masters' Union, there would still be space to build one more. India has unlimited appetite for good education and we need as many as possible to develop as a nation.
Came across your reel on Tetr with Nas, can you shortly say what is it about and why is it sooooooooo costly?
@DoubleChurn Its a college where you study by building businesses across 7 countries. Its for the global audience and it turns out that it is actually chepaer than studying in America.
I'm kinda jealous I will never be able to afford something like that. but perhaps MU I can
Who do you think Masters union is most apt for?
Who would you NOT recommend to join MU?
@Careermode If you want to learn "how to build a business", I think Masters' Union is apt. But if you want to become a "consultant" or become an "Investment Banker", then I think IIM ABC would be more suitable.
Generally, if you think you want to build your own business sometime in ur life, either right after graduation or a few years after, then I think MU is better. If your interest is to climb the corporate ladder for a longer period of time (and i do not think there is anything wrong with that), then I think traditional setups may be better.
Noted, thanks for answering this Just curious. I know at ISB sub 5% people actually end up building. Does this % look different at MU?
I have heard a lot of negative PR around masters union mastercamps program where people are not getting placed - over LinkedIn and Quora,
At the same time know few friends who says good things about masters union PGP program.
As a marketer, I would like to know how do you handle PR of such kind, because it's all over the internet!
@BasicWeather Yes, this is a tough one. I have not yet figured out a way to manage this to be honest. I think the best way is to never leave your students' hand. Even if they are having a tough time crack a role, we must always stand by them and give support as long as it takes. Thats always been our policy and after initial hiccups, i think we are all set now!
Hey Pratham, great job building out MU.
AACSB recently categorically denied the claims of Master’s Union being accredited under them - does MU have the accreditation or in the process of getting?
Would appreciate a candid answer here :)
Cheers!
Source is the article from Ken - just to clarify
@jinyang We never claimed to get AACSB. There is nothing on our website to that effect. Its take 5-6 years to qualify. We are in the process and we hope to complete the process sooner than later.
Hey Pratham,
I'm somebody who never did an MBA. Have worked in startups for 6-7 years out of college and done pretty well for myself. I'm not against an MBA, but I feel it often fixes the mistakes our education system does during undergrad (not preparing students correctly for corporate).
Why did you not attempt doing a Bachelor's program at MU? Like an Ashoka for Business Education?
@AlphaGrindset We started a UG program last year :) Its exactly what you mentioned
Okay that’s nice Hope it takes off well!
Have cousins it would make sense for