How PlanetSpark achieved profitability: Lessons from the Trenches! 2024 was a landmark year for PlanetSpark, with the company hitting cash flow profitability in Qtr1 & 2 earlier this FY. The journey is still long, and we need to sustain it quarter on quarter going forward, but I wanted to take a moment and share some learnings from our journey with others. In early 2022, we were on a rocketship—100x growth in two years. It felt like nothing could stop us. But when the macro environment changed, the rules of the game changed overnight. Investors wanted profitability, not growth, and we were unprepared. This forced us to make tough calls and revisit everything—from strategy to execution. We chose to fix the engine mid flight, and it wasn’t easy. But after two years of intense focus, PlanetSpark attained cash flow positive in Qtr1 and Qtr2 of FY'25 Key learnings from this journey: 1️⃣ Profitability requires a mindset shift: It’s about first principles, not just cost-cutting. 2️⃣ Revenue is the founder’s job: You can’t delegate this—you need to own it. 3️⃣ Quality is everything: Compromising on quality for growth is a mistake we’ll never make again. The path wasn’t linear, and there’s still a lot to do. But the resilience we built during these tough times has defined who we are as a company. Entire credit goes to the team who pulled this through during the challenging times. Special thanks to my Co Founder Maneesh Dhooper who has been a pillar of stength throughout this journey along with Nitish Bhardwaj, Jaydev Shiroya, Karandeep singh, Junaid Shaikh, @Achal, Sahil Dhall, Sheen Vishen, Akeel Javaid, Anukriti Bhatnagar, Rishov S. Jayant Bhadoria, Sankalp Sharma, KAPIL SINGH, Sumit Nimoria and every one else who was been a part of this journey. 📹 I shared these insights at Prime Venture Partners Founders Day 2024. Thanks Amit Somani, Sanjay Swamy, Shripati Acharya & Alok Garodia for the support in this journey and for the great discussions that day! Thanks also to FIITJEE team & all other investors for their belief in the company from our initial days. Here’s the video for those interested in the details. https://lnkd.in/gxKjNhZs I’d love to hear—what’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in achieving profitability? #Entrepreneurship #Profitability #StartupLessons #FounderJourney #PlanetSpark
How PlanetSpark Achieved Profitability: Lessons from Kunal Malik, Co Founder, PlanetSpark
https://www.youtube.com/
A horrible Experience with PlanetSpark We entrusted PlanetSpark with our second grader's education, paying ₹50,000, but the experience has been terrible: Frequent Teacher Changes: 6-7 different teachers, none consistent or competent. Poor English Proficiency: Teachers make basic errors like “She do,” “They does,” and “I has.” Negligent Teaching Methods: Teachers are distracted, rely solely on PPTs, and fail to help when the child struggles to read or pronounce words. When we reach out to customer care, they either don’t pick up or take 20-30 days to respond. Despite sharing screenshots of teachers’ mistakes in WhatsApp chats, they remain indifferent and unbothered. PlanetSpark has failed to deliver on its promises, making this a waste of money and time. This isn’t just about the fee—it’s about our child’s education and future. If no action is taken, we will escalate this legally. Parents deserve accountability, and our children deserve better.
A suggestion if you really want sustainable YOY growth - keep your post sales also strong like your pre sales team . Not a great experience with Planet team
Kudos, Kunal & Maneesh. Been a customer in 2023 for my daughter! Team PlanetSpark does a fab job with the progress tracking & access to quality teachers👍
Truly inspiring to see how far PlanetSpark has come this FY-24! ✨ It’s definitely a moment of gratitude to be part of a journey filled with growth, innovation, and impact. Cheers to the entire team and leadership for driving this progress forward. Excited to see what's next! 🙌☺️
Thank you Kunal Malik ji.... When I told you the truth, you blocked me.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dhruvnathprof_startup-business-pivot-activity-7259574611283959808-4Sd6?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android I was recalling your story. You did well Kunal didn't say "Mar Gaya" as our dear Prof Dhruv Nath says witfully. Cheers 🥂
Congratulations are in order and it is so refreshing to see you in video in action, Kunal, you should create more of them!
Congratulations to the entire team for reaching this amazing milestone. Congratulations on setting the bar even higher for all of us. 👏 👏 👏 👏
Unemployed at No-Company
4dPlanetspark is a scam. I enrolled my son in the month of August, 2024, paying Rs.56,055. No information about the orientation class online. Hence, we had to face a lot of problems with the application. We have been raising tickets continuously since the 1st week of September. No reply nor a call from the customer support team. And the counselor, Astha Sharma, is not receiving the call nor replying to the messages. When we requested the teacher to help us, we were completely shocked listening to her answer that she doesn't have any contact number other than the counselor. If the teachers need to contact any team for an update, they, themselves, have to raise tickets and for the call from the concerned team. This is so ridiculous. My son has attended only 2 classes till date. No one tried to reach out to us to ask about the concern. How is the customer satisfaction achieved by PlanetSpark?