Byju Raveendran Failed Because He Didn’t Listen To Anyone: Unacademy CEO

Byju Raveendran, Founder and Group CEO of embattled edtech firm Byju’s, faced setbacks as he put himself on a pedestal and stopped listening to anyone, said Gaurav Munjal, Co-founder and CEO of Unacademy on Friday.

“Byju failed because he didn’t listen to anyone. He put himself on a pedestal and stopped listening. Don’t do that. Never do that. Don’t listen to everyone but have people who can give you blunt feedback,” Mr Munjal said in a series of posts shared on X.

Byju failed because he didn’t listen to anyone. He put himself on a pedestal and stopped listening. Don’t do that. Never do that. Don’t listen to everyone but have people who can give you blunt feedback.

— Gaurav Munjal (@gauravmunjal) June 27, 2024

“You might not always like the feedback, but take the feedback and act on it,” he added.

Unacademy’s CEO started his series of posts with some learnings he had in the last two years before arriving at the criticism for Byju’s.

“Learnings from the last 24 months: Understanding the Unit Economics on Day One is probably the best thing you can do,” Mr Munjal said.

He further added that “some investors are assets, some are liabilities. The trick is to figure out the ones who are assets and listen to them”.

Meanwhile, global investment giant Prosus has written off the value of its shareholding in Byju’s, recording a loss of $493 million.

In its annual report for FY24, the investment firm said that in the financial year, “the group wrote off the fair value of its 9.6 per cent effective interest in Byju’s, due to the decrease in value for equity investors.”