Meditation camp gives Housing co-founder his new startup idea

(Sitting on the yellow bean bag): Former Housing co-founder Advitiya Sharma launched an edtech startup this week.

Vipasana is a 10-day meditation course in which on the third or fourth day you start getting deep into your consciousness. It starts bringing back your childhood memories. That’s what happened with Housing co-founder Advitiya Sharma. The memories gave him his new startup idea.

He launched Genius Micro Schools this week, just over a month after the meditation camp.

“My grandfather was a playwright and poet. But to earn a living he turned a teacher. He told me once that the audience may forget the play after a day or two but the thoughts that I instill in these kids will stay longer,” Advitiya tells Tech in Asia.

School education has become like a factory.

“That childhood conversation memory kept on ringing in my consciousness till the whole camp period. It turned into an inner calling to change something in India’s education system,” he says.

After the meditation camp, Advitiya visited about six schools and also got on a call with AltSchool founders in the US to learn about how that firm works.

“School education has become like a factory model in India. We wish to change that,” he adds.

His new startup will train neighborhood people to become tutors and impart learnings to kids after school. It’s aimed at children in grades 3 to 5.

The tutors will also use virtual realty headsets and apps like Wonderbox.

“We already have over 500 inbound queries. Now we will start training teachers over Skype and video,” he adds.