Rahul Ranjan & Ami Dror: Striving To Provide Parents And Educators With Right Resources Needed To Raise The Next-Gen Leaders
Ami Dror, CEO & Co-Founder
Rahul Ranjan, CEO & Vice President - India
Rahul Ranjan and Ami Dror, the Co-Founders of LeapLearner, the world's leading provider of K-12 Coding Education platform for schools and learning centers, collaborate with different education systems globally. This includes Charter Schools in the USA , K12 Book Publishers in South Asia, public school systems at national and district levels and international non-profit groups. Both Ami and Rahul are passionate about education equity and access to skills of future for young children. In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights Rahul Ranjan and Ami Dror, enlightened us about the inception story of LeapLearner and the factors that contributed towards the success of the company.
What inspired you to establish LeapLearner and how has been your journey so far? What were the major challenges that you encountered during your journey to date?
Amy - I've wanted to learn and have a profession in coding since I was a child, and then worked my way up as a serial entrepreneur, and then when my daughters were approximately eight, I expected them to learn to code. I was shocked that the offering didn't improve significantly over time. I tried a few products and recognized it was a bigger challenge after looking at the quality of the coding courses. I believe that every youngster in the world needed to know how to code. So I started to explore and most people told me about five years ago that coding education is really necessary, but not right now because it is still a long way off. So, when we first started the Leaplearner, we wondered how we could make coding education more accessible to schools and instructors. Our
purpose was clear from the start: we wanted to go after school, we wanted to understand the school problem. It was evident to me from the start that, though we started in Israel and had some activities in China, it was India, the most significant market internationally, for many reasons. The first concern we discovered was that schools are having a hard time finding qualified coding instructors, and the second issue is what you teach.Because coding is an ever-evolving field, there are new coding languages, computer skills, and so on every year. On the one hand, we're teaching computational thinking, and it's evolving, but not at a breakneck pace. However, if we try to educate students about coding with something that was created three years ago, they will quickly recognize that it is not today, that it is a journey into the past rather than a trip into the future. As a result, the platform, solution, and curriculum must all be updated regularly.
What is your vision, mission and the inspiration behind the operations of LeapLearner and how do you seek to revolutionize the present day E-learning educational framework?
Rahul - There is a huge education inequity when it comes to future skills; computational thinking is one of them, and coding education directly addresses it; however, computational thinking is only available in a few developed education systems around the world, such as Israel, the United States, or some other developed education systems in Europe, such as Finland. The Leaplearner vision is to ensure that every child in the world has access to computational thinking and a solid coding education platform, regardless of the type of school they attend; if they attend an international school, they would be learning on Leaplearner. Even if the children attend a government or public school, he or she should be able to use our coding instruction platform. So that's the long-term vision, to democratize access to computational thinking and to assure educational parity in the field of future skills.
Education plays a significant role in every student’s life. What initiatives have you adopted at LeapLearner to reinforce the students with the best of learnings?
Rahul – We're constantly developing new courses that are relevant to future competition trends. For example, in India, we have a few more companies that teach Python at the middle school level. We have the right platform to teach Python, and if there is another language that children desire to study, we will incorporate it in our platform so that they are prepared for the future. The second is that we are redefining the
Leaplearner’s vision is to ensure that every child in the world has access to computational thinking
What is your vision, mission and the inspiration behind the operations of LeapLearner and how do you seek to revolutionize the present day E-learning educational framework?
Rahul - There is a huge education inequity when it comes to future skills; computational thinking is one of them, and coding education directly addresses it; however, computational thinking is only available in a few developed education systems around the world, such as Israel, the United States, or some other developed education systems in Europe, such as Finland. The Leaplearner vision is to ensure that every child in the world has access to computational thinking and a solid coding education platform, regardless of the type of school they attend; if they attend an international school, they would be learning on Leaplearner. Even if the children attend a government or public school, he or she should be able to use our coding instruction platform. So that's the long-term vision, to democratize access to computational thinking and to assure educational parity in the field of future skills.
Education plays a significant role in every student’s life. What initiatives have you adopted at LeapLearner to reinforce the students with the best of learnings?
Rahul – We're constantly developing new courses that are relevant to future competition trends. For example, in India, we have a few more companies that teach Python at the middle school level. We have the right platform to teach Python, and if there is another language that children desire to study, we will incorporate it in our platform so that they are prepared for the future. The second is that we are redefining the
way the coding education platform is distributed globally. Instead of creating a large sales force, we focus on our strength which is high quality teaching learning experience in coding. Our distribution channel is essentially collaboration with governments, book publishers, and other EdTech firms who already have a strong network of Schools and students. As a result, our outreach and impact base has grown at a phenomenal rate. Incredibly, a five-year-old company has over a million students, or 10 lakh or more, spread across more than 20 nations.
In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed your utmost satisfaction - both as an individual and as a CEO?
Ami - LeapLearner is used by every primary school student in Israel, yet they have no idea that I am behind its creation. But every time I see someone teaching coding to students using LeapLearner at school it makes me happy.
Rahul– For me, one moment that I will always remember as the major milestone will be, in a COVID-induced pandemic situation, we were able to sign up major SAS clients in India and swiftly ramp up to a 10,000-plus number in the first year alone, which was a huge high.
Rahul Ranjan, CEO & Vice President – India, LeapLearner
Being an alumni of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology and Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Rahul is an experienced and entrepreneurial business leader who is currently leading the India Business of LeapLearner Inc. He also manages the business development efforts for the company globally.
Ami Dror, CEO & Co-Founder, LeapLearner
Ami Dror is the co-founder and CEO of LeapLearner, a prominent provider of K-12 computer science education software for schools and learning centers throughout the world. Ami is also the founder and chairman of Ponka.org, a social impact organization based in Sierra Leone's remote Ponka community. Dror is an entrepreneur with a track record of success. XPAND 3D, the market leader in 3D cinema, was his first entrepreneurial company, and it revolutionized the cinema experience. Mr. Dror was instrumental in the establishment of Amblyz, a firm that revolutionized the treatment of childhood amblyopia, while growing XPAND 3D. Ami went on to co-found Zaitoun Ventures, an Israeli investment fund focused on innovative start-ups.
In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed your utmost satisfaction - both as an individual and as a CEO?
Ami - LeapLearner is used by every primary school student in Israel, yet they have no idea that I am behind its creation. But every time I see someone teaching coding to students using LeapLearner at school it makes me happy.
Rahul– For me, one moment that I will always remember as the major milestone will be, in a COVID-induced pandemic situation, we were able to sign up major SAS clients in India and swiftly ramp up to a 10,000-plus number in the first year alone, which was a huge high.
Rahul Ranjan, CEO & Vice President – India, LeapLearner
Being an alumni of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology and Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Rahul is an experienced and entrepreneurial business leader who is currently leading the India Business of LeapLearner Inc. He also manages the business development efforts for the company globally.
Ami Dror, CEO & Co-Founder, LeapLearner
Ami Dror is the co-founder and CEO of LeapLearner, a prominent provider of K-12 computer science education software for schools and learning centers throughout the world. Ami is also the founder and chairman of Ponka.org, a social impact organization based in Sierra Leone's remote Ponka community. Dror is an entrepreneur with a track record of success. XPAND 3D, the market leader in 3D cinema, was his first entrepreneurial company, and it revolutionized the cinema experience. Mr. Dror was instrumental in the establishment of Amblyz, a firm that revolutionized the treatment of childhood amblyopia, while growing XPAND 3D. Ami went on to co-found Zaitoun Ventures, an Israeli investment fund focused on innovative start-ups.