Within Reach: Ed Tech Co-founder and CEO On Unplanned Steps To Success
Sabari Raja, co-founder and CEO of Nepris, took the path as it unfolded without intense premeditation.
A lot of the Greek gods were already taken.
So Sabari Raja, co-founder and CEO of Nepris, an education technology company, settled on the Greek god Nepris as the name of her new company; he is the “lord of sustenance.”
“Sabari Raja, co-founder and CEO of @NeprisApp, an education technology company, says that “education was always embedded in me.” #EducationTech #NeprisConnects”
“We were looking for unique names to build a brand, so we turned to the Greek gods, and every Greek god was already an education company,” says Raja, whose platform connects 85,000 K-12 educators with experts for virtual instruction to more than 550,000 students in this country.
Raja’s path to leading this company has not been deliberate, but instead often based on random choices that could have gone another way. Luckily, every choice turned out very well.
“@NeprisApp, the platform co-founded by CEO Sabari Raja, connects 85,000 K-12 educators with experts for instruction to more than 550,000 students in this country. #virtuallearning #femaleentrepreneur”
Growing up in rural south India on a coconut farm, Raja says she went to boarding school at 5-years-old for kindergarten, a common practice.
“My inherited network was very linked as my entire family was in agriculture and it was common for families to send kids off to boarding school. So of the 1,000 girls there, at least half were somehow related to me,” Raja says.
“Education was always embedded in me, and I remember my mother telling me I need to study so I don’t end up on the farm,” she says.
Read more in Take The Lead on women in STEM
Her summers were spent with an aunt in Bangalore, an urban area “that was a glimpse into a totally different world,” Raja says. “My uncle was in the tech industry and I used to go to his company with him and I feel like those sparks, those moments of discovery changed my perspective.”
She adds, “Probably in 8th or 9th grade, I wanted to be an entrepreneur in tech, but that was a world so unreachable.”
Until it wasn’t.
“Sabari Raja, CEO of @NeprisApp says, “Probably in 8th or 9th grade, I wanted to be an entrepreneur in tech, but that was a world so unreachable.” Until it wasn’t. #womenintech #womeninbusiness”
Earning her undergraduate degree in 1996 in electrical engineering in India, Raja had several friends who were discussing taking the GRE exam in order to go to graduate school in the U.S. As a woman, Raja says the expectation was marriage after college, “like you had match.com in your own family,” she says.
So she went along with her friends preparing for the GRE. “I never thought about it, I just went along, like flowing water. Everyone was applying to U.S. colleges, so I went to the library and flipped through the pages of the college guide, looking at state universities,” she says.
She chose Louisiana State University “because it has the most number of library books,” Raja says. Accepted into LSU, Raja says she was surprised her parents said she could go, and “it was one step after another” from acceptance to getting her visa, to planning to leave India.
“On the day I was leaving, I was shopping for pants,” Raja says, “as I had only worn traditional clothing in a very secluded lifestyle.”
Arriving in the Atlanta airport to change flights to Baton Rouge, Raja says, “I had never seen so many white people. I was suddenly homesick and I cried from Atlanta to Baton Rouge. I thought I will stay a week, then go back home.”
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She didn’t leave, earning her masters in computer science in 1999 from LSU and she landed her first job at Texas Instruments in Dallas from a campus recruiter before she even graduated. Beginning in educational technology, Raja says “every step was a struggle. I didn’t come out oozing with confidence. In meetings, I would want to say something, but never get my courage up to say it.”
“Sabari Raja, CEO of @NeprisApp says that early in her career, “I didn’t come out oozing with confidence. In meetings, I would want to say something, but never get my courage up to say it.” #womenleaders”
With keen mentoring, Raja says she learned to realize her weaknesses and “took steps to get past it.” Taking Toastmasters classes for four years, Raja says, she eventually gave a TEDx talk.
Moving up at TI, Raja married and had two small children and moved to India to develop Asian markets for education.
“I kept looking for the next thing, the next thing. I was never comfortable with just doing, I kept asking, ‘how can I grow?’”
““I kept looking for the next thing, the next thing. I was never comfortable with just doing, I kept asking, ‘how can I grow?’” says Sabari Raja, co-founder and CEO of @NeprisApp. #careersuccess #femaleentrepreneur”
Moving from programming to product management to business development to emerging market growth to publisher relations in her 14 years at TI, Raja says she was always “gathering diverse skills along the way but my personal skills were lacking.”
Before leaving TI in 2013, she earned her executive MBA at Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.
Her decision to leave was also not deeply premeditated. “A lot of my important decisions had no thought to them. I was driving and I said I have been driving this same route for 14 years. At this moment I thought I always wanted to start my own company and wanted to be my own boss,” Raja says.
“I literally googled resignation letter and gave it to my mentor, and said I am so scared I will die here. He did not accept it.”
Eventually he did and she launched her first STEM company and gave herself two years to make it work. During that time, she got a call from a friend to attend a STEM education event that day. She walked into the meeting already in progress and the keynoter—intent on embarrassing her for coming late—told her to come sit at the front.
Read more in Take The Lead on recruiting women in STEM
“His intention was to put me on the spot but at that table were general managers of companies and I had a day of productive conversations.”
That night she drove to her co-founder’s house, Binu Thayamkery, who is now chief technology officer, and they worked on the idea for Nepris, a company that connects “educators and learners with a network of industry professionals, virtually, bringing real-world relevance and career exposure to all students. Nepris also provides a skills-based volunteering platform for organizations to extend education outreach, and build their brand among the future workforce,” according to the site.
“@NeprisApp, co-founded by Sabari Raja, connects “educators and learners with a network of industry professionals, virtually, bringing real-world relevance and career exposure to all students.” #EducationTech #virtuallearning”
Education technology is a booming industry globally, and growth is enhanced by COVID-19 forcing curriculum to be online in most areas.
“Education technology is a booming industry globally, and growth is enhanced by #COVID19 forcing curriculum to be online in most areas. #remotelearning #onlineschool”
“The education apps market is expected to grow by $46.88 billion during 2020-2024, according to Technavi,” as stated at OA Online.
“The education apps market will witness a positive impact during the forecast period owing to the widespread growth of the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the report. “With the continuing spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, organizations across the globe are gradually flattening their recessionary curve by leveraging technology. Many businesses will go through response, recovery and renew phases.”
Raja says she has learned many lessons about leadership and entrepreneurship in her career, and which are also important lessons to her sons, now 15 and 13.
“Sabari Raja, co-founder and CEO of @NeprisApp, says she has learned many lessons about #leadership and #entrepreneurship in her career. #womeninbusiness #womenleaders”
“They grew up with Nepris,” Raja says. When she compares her own childhood and the role models she had, she says, “I look at my own kids and the level of understanding they have is very different. When he was in 3rd grade, my 9-year old was talking about valuations.”
“When she compares her own childhood and the #rolemodels she had, Sabari Raja says, “I look at my own kids and the level of understanding they have is very different. When he was in 3rd grade, my 9-year-old was talking about valuations.””
