Life is an endless journey of learning. A knowledge-hungry mind finds its dream realized only if it remains in constant pursuit of an insightful journey. DC Thirupathi Daddala had a dream since his childhood days – to become an inspirational entrepreneur who transforms society with their revolutionary vision.
This dream was born due to a ritual his farmer father followed whenever DC Thirupathi came home from school. He used to hand him a battered and wrinkled newspaper that was probably read by thousands of villagers. Then Thirupathi’s father would ask him to read those stories from the newspaper that included some business person or highly successful entrepreneurs’ life saga.
“My father taught me the ability to dream, which is required by an entrepreneur. He used to particularly make me read news about how some big company had been conceived and nurtured, or the success story behind it,” recalls Thirupathi.
Today, being the successful Founder and CEO himself of a multimillion-dollar EdTech firm Student Unique Card, Thirupathi has already become an inspiration to millions. “We have raised One million USD in angel funding, and Ten million dollars is our company valuation,” he informs.
Digitally Pedagogical Edu-System
Now DC Thirupathi has another dream. He envisions transforming the entire Indian education system with Student Unique Card, from a traditional physical walled classroom-based structure to a digital ecosystem of modernism, where students can learn in a digitally transformed pedagogical Edu-system.
Established in 2015, Student Unique Card is an EdTech initiative that aims to convert ordinary schools into digital campuses. The Digital Campus certification concept is an evolution of the “Student Unique Card” program of the Digitalization process in an Educational Institution started in 2014.
This Digital Campus Certification program aims to build and adopt the latest technologies and best practices on campus to provide better management tools and assessment processes, leading to a ‘Know-How’ to leverage new technologies to benefit institutional Administration, student performance, Parent -Teacher interactions.
This Digital Campus certification process provides a set of principles that ensure a common sense approach to the Management of the activity to achieve performance while standardizing the process continuously and increasing effectiveness consistently.
A Common Sense Approach
Digital Campus program helps institutions to understand the global context better and develop the students into global citizens and also allows institutions to validate the progress and gain recognition for their campus.
The Student Unique Card platform strives to bring together emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), data science, analytics, machine learning (ML), smart cards, and others to address the lack of superior education, especially in tier-II and tier-III cities in India. The company has partnered with 2300+ educational institutions to date.
Student Unique Card claims to have spearheaded the introduction of the “Internet of Things” in the Indian educational landscape. The company ultimately aims to eliminate human intervention in its technological innovations, but it plans to do it gradually. In a sense, it has proved to democratize the way in which both students and educators approach education. It has made important information such as academic records, attendance records, and performance graphs accessible to Parents and Educators and an Automated learning system to Students, 24 hours a week, all 365 days of the year.
The Greatest Positive Impact
According to DC Thirupathi, Student Unique Card comprises a close-knit team of entrepreneurs, educators, and other professionals who understand responsibility, accountability, and integrity. “We aim to produce work that can impact society positively. We believe that true learning never stops, neither for the students nor us—we’re always on the lookout for areas with room for improvement or advancement. Our technological innovation is never “done”: it is a rather accurate belief for the fraternity we belong to,” he states.
The platform’s approach is essentially student-driven, aiding the pupils’ intellect and emotional growth. They possess a rich repository of learning resources and empower their educators to focus on students’ needs and teach them as efficiently as possible.
The initiative of the Student Unique Card has come a long way in the last seven years. Largely championed by its founder and CEO, DC Thirupathi Daddala, a serial entrepreneur. Thirupathi hails from a lower-middle-class family in a village called Daddalavaripally near Madanapalli in Andhra Pradesh. His father is a farmer, while his mother is a homemaker. DC Thirupathi informs, “My father has studied till 8th standard, and my mother is uneducated and cannot even sign her name.”
The Core Team in the Journey
During the course of this journey, the real backbone of the company was its dedicated warriors who fought the war against (COVID and post covid) all odds to keep the company on track.
*Kalpana P – Head of Sales
A business Idea needs a strong selling point, a strong selling point needs a strong sales team. If you ask about the Sales team of Student Unique Card, one name that stands out bright and shining is Kalpana. She is a strategic-minded and self-motivated strong sales individual who has stood by Mr. DC Thirupathi in the Student Unique Card journey since the year 2015. Kalpana currently spearheads the sales team to reach the next level of organizational goals. Kalpana’s determination and never say die attitude has helped Student Unique Card sail through the difficulty of COVID impact on business and sales.
DC Thirupathi in his words “STUDENT UNIQUE CARD may not have survived the COVID impact, if Kalpana was not part of Student Unique Card, Kalpana’s commitment for STUDENT UNIQUE CARD is unconditional.”
*Kalyan Contractor – Head of Marketing
Currently, Kalyan is Heading the marketing team of Student Unique Card. He is a close confidant of DC who stood like a pillar behind him throughout the ups and downs of the Student Unique Card journey. Kalyan is a 12 am friend of Thirupathi and Student Unique Card, and he worked relentlessly and selflessly for the organization without expecting any return. He is a true friend of DC Thirupathi,
DC Thirupathi in his words “ Kalyan’s support cannot be valued in terms of Money, he is priceless.”
*Siva Naidu – Scrum Master
Siva Naidu, the scrum master of the Student Unique card, coordinates with all the strategic decision-makers of the organization and keeps track of the organization’s goals and KPIs, and SLAs.
Siva is an inseparable part of Thirupathi’s journey from childhood as a sibling, and he held through his brother in all the highs and lows of the organization,
Siva mentions in his own words how much Thirupathi and his business mean to him “We will get another opportunity but not another brother”.
Thirupathi has only one word about Siva “Brother!”
*Dinesh G –Head of Human Resources
Dinesh is instrumental in Hiring, Training, and Organizing the team for the takeoff. He is an invaluable support of the new energetic STUDENT UNIQUE CARD sales team. Dinesh is a young and energetic leader with more than 6 years of experience in corporate and human resource setup.
DC Thirupathi in his words: “The family support during the difficult times.”
*Vijai Dora Indugu – Head of Operations
Vijai Dora is a management professional, with a vast experience in operations and data governance. A major part of Vijai’s 18+ years of experience has been at S&P Global Market Intelligence, with expertise in Data Governance & Quality Management as well as Corporate and Financial Data Research & Analysis.
A People Leader with competency in imparting training to Managers and Employees, he Assists the management in fixing SLAs and KPIs for the new and existing processes.
Vijai is currently working with the Entire Student Unique Card, including Management, workforce, and administration team in recalibrating the systems and processes to meet the upcoming market, corporate and management requirements.
DC Thirupathi in his words: “Right person at Right Time.”
Tech Team
An Edu Tech company is not successful, if you do not have a committed team of Tech savvy individuals, who work relentlessly on the project to deliver the product that is promised to the clients. Student Unique Card is blessed to have 6 such gems, and each one of them brings a Unique Selling Point to the product offering table. Vishal, Seshu, Anil, Chandrakanth, Ramesh, and Sujay are the backbone of the Student Unique Card.
DC Thirupathi in his words “My Tech Team is my pride, who deliver what we promise to Clients.”
The Growing Tree of a Vision
DC Thirupathi’s passion for entrepreneurship (inculcated in him by his father) can be traced back to the time when he sold milk as a school-going kid. “We used to collect milk from other dairy farmers and sell the collected milk and pay the farmers. It was our daily schedule,” he remembers.
An entrepreneurial seed culminated into a curious mind and became a tree when DC Thirupathi grew up. Though nothing was hunky-dory. After working on several ideas and experiencing eight startup failures, he realized the scope of digitizing education in tier-II and tier-III cities, where most institutes still struggle to access the latest technologies.
Supported by his wife and guided by his mentor, Thirupathi took it upon himself to bring about the much-needed change by implementing the latest technologies in these areas with one sole aim: let’s go digital.
His way of working is quite different from the droves of entrepreneurs with an exit strategy in place even before their startup takes off. DC Thirupathi cares for his organization and the jobs he can create and addresses problems head-on.
One can call his tale a rags-to-riches story, as he built this company out of nothing and took it to the pinnacle of success. Student Unique Card raised six crores through domestic angel investors: Sudhakar and family, Prof BSK Reddy, CV Chalam, Vedanth, Ram, Vijai Dora, and Geeta.
With Renewed Energy
With COVID behind us and well-recalibrated systems in place to fuel the Student Unique Card engine on its full throttle to cover the entire nation by the year 2025, this requires a further infusion of funds of around ₹20-25 crores and DC Thirupathi is in course to generate these funds as per the timelines.
The Ultimate Wisdom of Infinity
In his advice to budding aspirants who wish to venture into business, DC Thirupathi says, “As my father gave me a newspaper to read every day, I learned from the inspirational stories. I was able to dream that I could go beyond the conventions and achieve much more. My father showed me that determination and discipline never let you fail. By making me work even when other kids were playing, morning and evening, by following a schedule, he taught me life lessons. He also taught me that I was not a king and that status in society is temporary. If everything fails, you can still go to your roots, start again, and become successful if your foundation is strong.”
Whatever an entrepreneur needs in life, DC Thirupathi’s father taught him for over 20 years. And in business, his Mentor taught him how an entrepreneur’s mind should be. How to manage self. How to overcome fear, anxiety, and greed in making business decisions. What is a decision-making system? How do Student Unique Cardcessful entrepreneurs make decisions? Entrepreneurs who always look at short-term results and never focus on the long term will fail. “That is why I failed. All my previous startups failed, and I lost all my money,” he adds. However, DC Thirupathi’s mentor taught him to plan for the long-term, R&D, strategic thinking, learning everything through the situation, and the difference between fact-based versus impulsive decision-making.
He adds, “Don’t forget, you have 24 hours daily. Even if you invest eight hours in employment and another eight in sleep and other activities, you still have eight hours you can utilize productively. So think, concentrate, and focus on the long term. My journey is not one that was studded with stars. For the last 8 years, I worked around 14 to 16 hours a day, trying to make ends meet and fuel Student Unique Card with the limited resources I had.”
Taking Education to the Next Level
On envisioning scaling Student Unique Card’s operations and offerings in the future, DC Thirupathi reveals that the Indian pedagogical narrative has witnessed a technology-oriented makeover in recent times. The ongoing pandemic has accelerated digital learning worldwide, including in India. With several institutes needing to redefine their education systems, Student Unique Card has emerged as the torchbearer of technology-powered learning.
He says that at their company, their mission is to drive innovation in managing educational institutions, especially for towns that are lagging, which is fuelled by the same sentiment. “We are mission-driven. Every day we innovate our technology, customer service, and communications more and more learner-centric.” Students always come first. He says they are here to improve the education of students. Their focus is on the whole student – they build tools that ultimately help enrich both students’ intellectual and emotional growth. “We do this by empowering the greatest learning resource that students have at school. Educators Give Our Kids the Best Chance.”
DC Thirupathi adds that they believe that educators and parents best understand how to help children grow intellectually and socially. Their job at Student Unique Card is to empower educators with more time and better data to enhance whatever they dream best for their students.
Thirupathi uses his exceptional management portfolio to further Student Unique Card’s plans across various departments such as human resources, finance, etc. “Through Student Unique Card, we are all set to take education to the next level,” he says. Student Unique Card is operating under the mentorship of NovlEdge Entrepreneurs.
The post DC Thirupathi Daddala: Transforming Indian Education System into Digital Campuses via Student Unique Card appeared first on Insights Success.
