PD2 | Innovation, holistic learning and transparency | Manushree Chaturvedi and Abhishek Jain, Crossmaze | India, Pre-School Education

Join us on the next episode of “Preschool Diaries” as we dive into the journey of Manushree Chaturvedi and Abhishek Jain, the entrepreneurs behind Crossmaze, a set of innovative preschools partnered with Kreedo since 2019. Discover how Manushree and her team revolutionised the preschool industry by creating a safe and child-centric environment that fosters holistic development. Learn about their challenges, resilience, and the five key factors that parents prioritise when choosing a school for their little ones. Get ready for an insightful exploration into the world of early childhood education!

Discussion Topics: Innovation, holistic learning and transparency

• Inspiration to get started
• Initial doubts and fears
• Three improvements that contributed to their success
• A smart way to expand
• When things go wrong, this is what you should rely on
• Five things that parents mostly look for
• Reasons for working with Kreedo
• Observations on holistic development
• What makes it all worth it

Transcript: Innovation, holistic learning and transparency

Mridula Sridhar: Hi I’m Mridula, welcome to the next episode of Pre-School Diaries from Kreedo. I’m very excited to have another entrepreneur from the Kreedo family. 

We’d like to introduce Manushree and they’re running wonderfully. No, not one, but a set of schools under the name of Crossmaze who has been a partner of Kreedo since 2019. I think we are very excited to bring to you a little bit of that journey and that story. 

Inspiration to get started

Mridula Sridhar: Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. What got you started off on this journey? I think it’s the first question that most aspiring entrepreneurs want to know, want to hear?

Manushree Chaturvedi: This thing starts from a very scratch state, which is a preschool sector. Preschool sector. Earlier the concept was parents were not so aware.

They just know about the mainstream schools. Preschool is just a place where the child goes, they play, they go. But now in recent years, we have seen changes in the awareness of the parents as well as the setup of the preschool industry altogether as an infrastructure, as an industry of education where actually it brings a change to the children who belong to the category of age, group of two to six.

So that’s what, where the concept, that was the thought we had from where we started. Our entire team has been in this education sector, so that helped us a lot to understand the core of the values. value is something which passes on from one generation to the other generation. And that value has to be passed on properly. So that passion somewhere, created us into a domain wherein we are with the preschool industry

Initial doubts and fears

Mridula Sridhar: So did you have any doubts or fears in your mind when you began this? Tell us something about the first couple of months.

Manushree Chaturvedi: Definitely. Even though you are aware of certain concepts or the education sector, you start something new because. It’s not mandatory we have to be in preschool education. we wanted to give it as a learning platform where quality matters and the quality is not only related to the education but the overall atmosphere, what we create for the children

Three improvements that contributed to their success

Mridula Sridhar: So when she decided to take the punch what were your thoughts? What were your fears? What was the excitement?

Abhishek Jain: To be honest we were not having any fear. We were confident in only one thing that we could do anywhere. We were sure about our efforts and dedication towards it, so we were highly optimistic.

Somehow we will be able to make it. That was our first initial plan. But then later what happens when we start an organisation, then we start to realise, oh, this is not something which is very easy to work with every other day. To date, I can see that we have faced thousands of challenges, but due to our joint determination, we were able to resolve them.

And another thing which I wanted to add, like these preschools we did, we never had a thought to start just like a school. We wanted to give an experience to all our parents and students. So like adding the, with the help of technologies, with the help of innovations. We tried it, we tried too much to add, a lot of experience-related things, so regular updates and the help of apps.

What I can say, there were albums, and photo albums also we used to share with all our students, like what was their experience for the complete year in the past. So all those things little by little, everything has been worked upon. Now we stand out in the market. We had some really good strategic partners as well. One of you was the key player you know actually.

A smart way to expand

Mridula Sridhar: You wanna stop to dock us through a little bit about where your current cycles are and what’s the, what is that part like?

Abhishek Jain: Currently we have almost three operational branches and a couple of them are in the pipeline, which will be operational in 2024. So the existing branches, our first one is located in Neeladri Nagar Electronic City. That was our first project actually, which we started. And it turned out to be a really successful one, which led us to open other centres during during the tenure of Covid.

Also, we opened two of our branches. another one that we opened, was in Neotown, which is another in the four-kilometre proximity of Electronic City, and the next one actually is in the SNN Raj Greenbay. So all our branches, the first one is like having an admission code close to 84.

The second one is in Neotown. We have onboarded students close to one 60 in SNN Raj Greenbay, we have one 20 plus, I guess one 20 plus. So these are the preschools actually along with them. We provide daycare services as well for the afterschool kids. So all our seats are generally full and we have a little bit of cues always in the waiting actually.

Mridula Sridhar: What’s very investing is also beyond the way that it is in some ways. Going again, hyper being in an electronic city, but starting largest. Within that were not spending years to pay. I think when people try to expand, they never sell cities to multiple cities.

Even multiple aims of backyards might be for the heads of city and it’s not easy or to this sort of need so much more so it’s to say, yeah, I know I’m doing men in me the electronic city and parents and electronic city are recognized that, so why not pay the brand in then around. So I think that was. So what’s the plan going on next?

Abhishek Jain: Actually, the next branch is coming up in SNN, The Hub that is located in Begur. And another one will be coming up in Ananth Nagar. Both are now going to be at other flagship branches, with a minimum carpet area, of close to 4,000 square feet. And they will be loaded with all the latest infra available in the market for a preschool.

When things go wrong, this is what you should rely on

Mridula Sridhar: I know that as an entrepreneur you will see so many ups and downs. So what is it that taught you? Resilience? What is your advice?

Abhishek Jain: Stay strong. Be united. Trust in the team.

Manushree Chaturvedi: And the motive. This is what motivates you have started something and how it brings changes not only to the children but to the people who are, whom you’re surrounded by.

So you have to bring the changes in their life also. Being an entrepreneur is not only about you. It’s not only about the thing you have started, but all the people who are there for you, all the people who are helping you to grow, they’re also part of your journey. And we have to take care of them all as well. That’s what we believe. So if we can bring a little change in their life we are becoming successful.

Five things that parents mostly look for

Mridula Sridhar: Absolutely and I think that’s what keeps it alive within you. I’m sure as now 300 girls, and children you have, you had so many parents coming in through admissions so much of parent interaction. I’m sure there’s a wealth of knowledge that you now have in several things. What do parents look for in a school? What should parents look for in a school? What are the expectations and what should the school do? Any thoughts you ask?

Manushree Chaturvedi: The first thing that parents look for is a safe environment for the child, which is their dog’s highest priority. So because the age group is an age group of two to six, this category, you’ll find all sorts of kids. Parents themselves, search for an environment where all sorts of children can be accommodated in a place that is safe in all respects for them. That’s what matters first for them. Definitely. The other things come from the kind of education, the kind of development, and what we can provide for their children.

The kind of setup has been done for the children, whether it is child-centric or not. What also matters? The next thing is transparency. As a parent, we feel they should know everything about the child. As of now, we are maintaining the different tools we have. We are creating more memories for them every day with their child activities, and what they have done in school.

So all sorts of information we keep on passing to the parents on a daily basis, which helps them to understand and connect with us more. So transparency is again, a very key factor. If you’re not transferring to the parents, you cannot have their trust and faith.

You have to also work on the holistic development of the child. And when I say holistic development, it is everything because we have to understand and we have to take that responsibility, that this is the foundational age for the, that, that is why it is called early childhood health education. Why? Because this is a very early stage. The more you give them, the more they take and they are ready with open arms.

Mridula Sridhar: I don’t know if parents look as much and the softer aspects like in terms of learning.

Manushree Chaturvedi: No, definitely. They look forward to the kind of setup that has been done. We have trained teachers or not. Other issues we maintain between teachers and the child and between support staff and the child’s parents nowadays are much more aware, yeah, aware about the Kind of education services, which are available in the market. And definitely, they’re easily able to compare that, right? And when they have this flexibility of comparing they are able to decide very quickly.

Reasons for working with Kreedo

Mridula Sridhar: One, should we have been associated with you for a long time at Kreedo? We wanna share something about how Kreedo has supported you in your journey and helps also learn where your alignment with Kreedo is. What was your setting for that alignment?

Abhishek Jain: We have done at least two years of research in finalising all the handholding supporters. So out of that, we have explored multiple franchisees. They were coming with them. Cons and pros. I would not say that there were all the cons. There were pros as well. Sure, there was an easy approach.

I could have chosen any franchisee. I could have taken some stars, but there, I was getting limited in what kind of ideas and thoughtfulness I could embed in my school. In spite of being an entrepreneur, in spite of that, I was again a kind of an employee to them.

Exactly. So that was something, that idea we have rejected by far. Then we started exploring the curriculums. So to be honest, when we searched for a curriculum, we got some leads from you, and like the kind of documents will be shared, like these will be the activities, these will be the items.

Then we started exploring Montessori when we realised, okay, yes, in spite, instead of developing our own curriculum and putting all these since you guys are already experts into that, and it is a research and crafted curriculum. So we thought, let’s onboard Kreedo with us and focus on the other things.

Mridula Sridhar: I keep having this thought in my head that we seek to attract people who are passionate about education somehow.

Most Kreedo entrepreneurs truly want to run a world-class institution. The same passion that she has for saying the value that we bring. Everybody has something in their head that they wanna bring to the table and they wanna make a change, And it’s great to hear you say that you had your thought and I wanted to run it my way. Hence I didn’t wanna go with just a guided set of principles, but I wanted to have the liberty of building. My own brand and the way I envisioned it. So that’s great to hear. Any thoughts on that industry?

Manushree Chaturvedi: Things like we wanted to do something well so we can put our innovations and go with the expert. What are the things that you have to do? The best possible things are available on the market side. So in one plate that plate becomes best in.

Mridula Sridhar: Absolutely. Aap Ka tadka, that has to be there. The flavour is yours. And I think that’s so aligned with why we think of Kreedo as a non-franchise business, as a non-commodity business.

We always strongly believe that. This business is for the true entrepreneurs, and they will bring that flavour. They’re not gonna standardise things exactly the way you want, but there’s a certain amount of standardisation that’s possible in terms of the curriculum, in terms of maybe the approach, and so on.

But at the end of the day, it’s CrossMaze and it will have its own flavour of the day you play with. And that’s what’s so interesting about this preschool space.

Observations on holistic development

Anything you wanna share in terms of your key learnings in terms of early education in the last three years since you’ve been with Kreedo? We strongly believe children learn a lot through play, though we’ve used a very blended learning approach. It’s not only play, but it needs to be supported with books, classroom activities, with other things as well. In terms of learning across all the children at your school, anything you wanna share?

Manushree Chaturvedi: Definitely there are many things like what we have learned throughout our journey. First, a few ways to introduce the things to consumers. There are different ways of interviewing. Same thing. Yeah. But when the outcome, a funnel comes further today in a very short span of time, that becomes very productive. That’s what we learn.

The second thing is holistic development. When it comes to school, it’s more about spending your time learning new activities. Developing your. Vocabulary, writing the communication. But if you see the journey of the child when the child comes back two years and the beating priest calls at four years, definitely.

Peter also plays a very vital role there. And introducing the Kreedo curriculum also plays a very important role there. But apart from this how we develop there in terms of the other areas, yes. That also matters and does not. So the kind of platform you’re giving for the child, for their overall holistic, their confidence level in terms of the challenges to face the world in terms of, standalone and give answers and understand having that maturity to understand the surroundings.

Mridula Sridhar: I think you are balancing this intellectual and emotional development, both facets of the child so well, which is what is needed in the early years.

Abhishek Jain: Things also like the play and there are additional classes that she told in the dance classes, whether corrective, whether sports activities, surprised with the kind of support and expertise we are getting

Mridula Sridhar: I think the best thing that Kreedo will want to always hear is that we are helping others, our job is to make sure the backend is covered, and we’re here to help you become wonderful institutions, We would like to be that support agency that helps other people deliver and they can focus on the actual running of the school. While we constantly focus on reinventing the curriculum, on making it more dynamic, making sure, every year there’s someone that goes in and what more can we give to the children this year?

And if there are entrepreneurs who can make it happen on the field that’s really a partnership that works very well for us. So I’m really happy and excited to hear that.

What makes it all worth it

Mridula Sridhar: Wanna hear from you that in your entire journey of three years what have been those one or two emotional moments, maybe when you feel, yeah, this was worth it? Despite all the difficulties that I face on a day-to-day basis, I really enjoyed seeing this.

Manushree Chaturvedi: Yes. There are basically two emotions. Every time, every year we pay that first. Like when our priest calls us. Yes. We feel that we have everything, This year we have worked on and then paid them to grow up what they should become. And when they lead us, that is like one of the women to feel.

I’m like, yes, okay. They’re leaving us. Yeah. And another thing is with the team, we work. When they feel happy, satisfied, safe, and they stay with us for a longer time, duration of years, and they don’t leave us. And they show that trust when they communicate the same thing to us, because of you to achieve certain things in my life. So that also made us more happy and definitely emotional as well.

Mridula Sridhar: And I think in educational institutions, that’s a bit of a challenge for many people. And it’s great to see investing back into the people that are with you on your team.

Because schools do struggle on that front sometimes with not being able to retain talent. And it’s great. I think. If the teachers are happy and the children are doing well that’s all any entrepreneur wants to see.

Abhishek Jain: At the end of the day, he says that institution doesn’t belong to us. That is their institute. It consists of teachers, it is of support staff of the student, the institute, children just facilitating. We want to take it up in that direction. That they should hold it. All my staff and all my students should feel proud. And that they are part of us. That is the whole idea and thought that’s what we are.

Mridula Sridhar: So Great. It’s been lovely chatting with both of you and, I think I’m hearing the story. In detail for the first time, though we do, we all know it and pieces of it here at Kreedo, but it’s great to hear it directly from you and we wish you a lot of, many more milestones of success. Thank you so much and I hope to catch up again some other time.

Our Guests: Manushree Chaturvedi

Manushree Chaturvedi is the Director of the Crossmaze Education India. In order to make a difference in the preschooling of young brains, Manushree built Crossmaze when it first opened its doors in 2018. Manushree placed a strong emphasis on innovative, unconventional, and engaging teaching strategies that help pupils comprehend subjects easily and amusingly.

Crossmaze believes that education should always be centred on the child’s whole development. Academics and discipline are equally valued here, with the utmost importance being given to a setting that fosters the cohesiveness of values, culture manners and behavioural development that allows for the holistic development of children. Children at Crossmaze practice self control, and participate in a variety of games and role plays to foster empathy, sympathy, etiquette and values, which gradually translate into their behaviour and attitude.