Education, in many countries, has been declared a fundamental right. Whether or not this right is exercised by everyone, is another matter of concern. More often than not, getting a formal education requires an infrastructural set-up and a host of other resources. To access and maintain this entire set-up, finances are required, which is often a big hurdle in small towns and villages..
It has been observed that a weak financial condition is one of the top-most reason why many youngsters are unable to finish their high school and proceed for further studies. As such, many talented stories are cut short before they could even write the first chapter.
However, with the emergence of technological assistance, e-learning has proven to be of great help in such situations. With the growing penetration of the internet, e-learning is now reaching even the remotest areas and delivering education at comparatively nominal costs.
With such thoughts, The Moonshot was started to reach out to lesser penetrated layers of the Indian education sector and offer them an opportunity to secure themselves financially through its proprietary programs. A product of Whooping Crane Ventures, Moonshot is the world’s first Human Equity Company.
By investing in the untapped high-potential young intellectuals, the company is helping to build a secure financial future for graduates, while helping organizations tap into a bigger pool of skilled & ready to deploy graduates.
The Right Path: Fate v/s Will
Life, they say, is the most rigorous teacher and strange are its ways of teaching. A Computer Science Engineer by education, when Puja Joshi started her professional journey, it was as an HR Coordinator in one of the Big 4. This, in spite of having a good hand at coding and development. Even after her first professional assignment, she would not have much success in getting interview shortlists in a career path of her choice.
It was then that she realised that her degree from a small town engineering college was turning out to be a roadblock. Tenacious by nature, Puja decided to address this issue of preference of “brand name colleges” on the resume over the individuals or their capabilities. And with that, she embarked on the mission which is now The Moonshot. With her business acumen, perception, vision and impeccable execution strategy, Puja has already made Moonshot a big name in the market.
Exhibiting Excellence
Moonshot is a career incubation program which believes quality education does not have to be financed with decades of debt unaligned with student outcomes. In India, e-learning penetration is at its best and continuing to grow, but the opportunity penetration is not yet resolved. Moonshot gives not only upskilling opportunity but also complete profile upliftment to its students. “The way we have designed it, Moonshot is not just a program, but becomes a learning habit for life. On the other end, to our employers we provide well-groomed, ready to deploy professionals,” adds Puja.
Moonshot aims to be ‘top of mind’ for college graduates’ placements, and the best hiring partner for employers to hire fresh graduates. Other platforms are simply upskilling platforms, but Moonshot is a unified solution for all the hiring needs at entry-level. It differs from some of the players on crucial pointers like:
- AI-enabled detailed screening of the students for selection into the program.
- Active training program where the talents are mapped to a talent manager who acts as an external motivator to ensure performance milestones are achieved timely; and
- Most importantly, it invests in the talent upfront unlike any other program in the market.
Enhancing Reach with Technology
Moonshot’s business strategy is a simple 3 step model: Spot – Fix – Deploy. It employs advanced technologies to drive operations in all three stages for the best efficiency. For example: in the “Spot” stage it uses machine learning to assess the subjective answers to its assessment questions which reduces manual intervention and the biases that come with it. Today it is at capacity where even 10k students can appear for the Moonshot assessment test at a time.
In the “Fix” stage it uses video analysis tools that can alert talent partners on 15 traits of the talent including a drop in the level of attentiveness. This helps talent partners to continually monitor non-technical aspects of the personality of the talent as well. In the “Deploy” stage it is working on algorithms that aim to assess the candidate for a given role as easy as an assessment for lending.
Lessons from the Pandemic
Moonshot was in a growth stage just before the pandemic. For the company, the current pandemic has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Since it has an intensive screening and on-boarding process, it has had to spend significantly more time than usual to on-board the talents. It has had several technological interventions to the platform, which has ramped up its testing capabilities manifold.
Moonshot has also expanded its team in the last couple of months to ensure that it maintains its committed talent manager to talent ratios. Adds Puja, “A remarkably simple approach of structured operations and technology interventions has allowed us to scale up our operations. It has also been a great lesson for us to find the right approach to cater to the talents, companies and our own goals as we continue to grow.”
Being a Name to Reckon with
Moonshot offers an opportunity for the talent to choose their own career path to start with. Curating courses for the numerous talents to bring out their individual best while estimating demand from the industry for the same is certainly challenging as it grows its talent pool and program offerings. And Moonshot’s ‘Proactive’ team is ready to face every hurdle.
“Every team member is always trying to be ahead of the curve and with that in our company DNA, we are already working on our latest program offerings which promise to cater to latent demands that seem to go unnoticed. Our mission is to be the first name for college students looking for the first job that they desire,” assures Puja.
