BANGALORE: Harman Singh of WizIQ knew that he would be an entrepreneur right from his school days, having been brought up in a business family where almost everyone had started their own venture. Headquartered in North Carolina, USA, with an office at Mohali, WizIQ Inc enables educators and education service providers to teach online, allowing education to scale up and reach wherever there is access to the internet.
More than 2,50,000 customers, including teachers, trainers, colleges, test prep companies and corporations have chosen WizIQ as their online platform for delivering content through live online classes, one-to-one tutoring, flipped classrooms, Massive Online Open Courses and webinars. Some of his clients include Vidyamandir Classes, Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning and the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Harman was born and brought up in Ludhiana, where he studied at Sacred Heart Convent School and completed his BTech at Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College, Punjab. He then went to the NC State University in North Carolina, USA, for an MS in Computer Science, where he kept exploring the use of technology in education. Harman had a keen interest in science projects at school and often showcased them at local- and state-level science exhibitions. That is where his inclination towards technology came from, and he was clear about using that strength in his venture. Being a part of the college debate team helped him immensely in public speaking and expressing ideas.
Harman founded and ran an entrepreneurs’ club in the US, and started his first business as part of the activities of the club. He later brought in his brother-in-law, who was in India, as the Co-Founder of the company and set up operations in the US and India, while still refining the idea of WizIQ. Over the years, the company has won many awards, like the ‘World Education Public Choice’ award at the World Education Awards 2011 in the ‘Best Innovation in Open and Distance Learning’ category, ‘Best Virtual Classroom Provider’ award at the Global e-Learning Awards2012, the ‘Shiksha Ratna’ award in the State Education Summit Punjab 2013 for Best ‘Virtual Classroom Provider’, and the ‘Best Online Education Platform’ award at the Indian Education Awards 2014.
Mentors are extremely important for Harman, as they have usually experienced the difficulties he faces from time to time and can come up with quick solutions that otherwise could have taken a lot of time. He has role models who set the bar high and can look up to them for inspiration and strength during challenging times. Harman still manages to read, when he is not focusing on the business, and travels two-three times a year.
More details at www.wiziq.com.
— rohit@learnbizsimulations.com