A former teacher turned EdTech entrepreneur believes his collaborative lesson planning platform can transform the profession and become a 拢100m business in the process.
Teachers currently spend around 40 per cent of their time planning lessons but Atif聽Mahmood believes his start-up Teacherly is the solution by getting teachers to collaborate through technology.
More than 2,000 schools and 70,000 teachers have already signed up the platform, which has just broken into the UAE market.
Mahmood said he decided to do something after witnessing the problem first-hand and seeing a growing number of colleagues leave the industry.
鈥淭eachers spend a lot of time planning lessons,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you imagine your child’s teacher or your brother or sister is a teacher, you spend 40 per cent of the time planning lessons, 20 lessons a week, that’s a lot of lessons you have to plan for. And they do it on their own.
鈥淭eacherly allows them to collaborate on the lesson planning with other teachers, connecting teachers teaching the same subject and reducing the workload.鈥�
He launched the SaaS-based business in 2016 after moving from Derby to Manchester to join an Accelerator programme.
Explaining how it works he gave the following example. 鈥淎 year nine teacher in a school secondary school in Derby signs up, with the department paying for it,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen they log in, they will see the English teachers, maths teachers, whichever year nine subject they teach, that other teachers are teaching in another city or a country and if they wanted to, send them an invite and collaborate on planning with them.鈥�
Teacherly has raising around 拢3m, including 拢1.5m in venture capital funding. The start-up has also received match-funding from the UAE and an undisclosed investment from US-based Global Village, which is backed by high profile entrepreneurs including Reid Hoffman, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Teacherley鈥檚 turnover has grown in the last year from 拢468,000 to 拢1.4m, rising to an estimated 拢3.3m next year. Mahmood predicts it will eventually grow to 拢100m.
鈥淲hat I want to do is break that cycle of being here again in 10 year (and teachers) saying, 鈥榳e’re still struggling with workload鈥�,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he only way to do that is to really grow a business that can go to the moon, and make a difference to the teachers and take them with us.
鈥淭he morale for teachers is very low right now especially the new qualified teachers. Just in the UK alone, you鈥檝e got around 460,000 newly qualified teachers coming to the profession but four out of 10 leave. I’m telling you right now robots and AI are not going to replace teachers.鈥�
Mahmood was speaking at a business event in Warrington called 鈥極n A Stick鈥�, organised by Opus by聽Carpe聽Diem. He was of seven entrepreneurs to share their story against a backdrop of Luke Jerram鈥檚 seven metre wide 鈥楳useum of the Moon鈥� artwork.
The other speakers were: 聽聽聽John Kershaw, founder of M14 Industries; James Bedford, former head of Investment Partnerships at Tech Nation; award-winning Anna Heyes, founder of Active Profile:聽Guy Weaver, director of Praetura Ventures; serial entrepreneur Lorna Davidson, founder of The Mothership Group and RedWigWam; and former barrister Sue Wright, who is now the managing director of Signature Living and oversees 900 staff.