How Deschool reimagined learning experience with Omnify

In the words of Doris Lessing-

“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.”

The online learning community called Deschool may best exemplify what learning is all about. Breaking from the clutches of what entails conventional schooling, Deschool is an unparalleled experience for those who seek skill-based lessons from experts from all over the world. And along with uplifting an individual’s creative self, this unique and one-of-a-kind learning platform helps learners grow into compassionate, confident, and global individuals who are nurtured in the essence of borderless learning. 

Similarly, Deschool has also brought in a community of intelligent, skilled, and creative educators on board so they can share their prowess and be a beacon of light to this global community of learners. Deschool educators are equipped with beautiful and curated lessons that promise to hone the skillsets of learners in the most unorthodox ways. 

As Deschool believes in ‘pushing the limits of traditional learning,’ it’s just fascinating to glance at the unique services they have to offer. From classes on ‘raising a happy eater’ to fun lessons in Japanese Origami, from teaching spoken Arabic to adults to piano lessons for everyone, be it watercolor embroidery or cross-stitch, a math or a science club, to getting a private lesson on singing, music, language, dance or theatre, or maybe someone trying to channel one’s boundless energy through a Karate class, or one on yoga for little yogis or beginners of any age, they have it all. 

Like Nikos Kazantzakis, one of the most notable Greek writers, nominated for the Nobel Prize (nine times!), once said-

“True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.”

This is what learning should be like. One that builds bridges, is liberating and beyond the confines of walls and borders. Deschool is all that and more!

We spoke to Ritu Jhaveri, the founder of Deschool, to get a glimpse of her journey, challenges, and milestones. Isn’t it always about small beginnings that determine bigger success? We wouldn't have wanted to miss out on that chance of knowing more about Deschool for sure.

Here is their story.

It all starts with a dream

Ritu Jhaveri (Deschool, CEO & Founder) is a seasoned early years practitioner with ten years of international experience in teaching, educational leadership, and preschool management across Singapore, Dubai, and India.

Having a solid background as an educator herself, she knew in depth what lay at the very nucleus of the modern institutional, educational system. 

Conventional institutional education is a lot more focused on curriculum development, where extra-curricular activities and skills always take a backseat. However, Ritu was the one who conceptualized an institution that is of global character, a skill-tech marketplace in the sphere of non-academic or extracurricular and after-school activities.  

It was in November 2021 that Deschool was finally launched from Dubai, UAE. This extraordinary school hosted teachers from different countries and helped them connect with learners. Today, they operate from Canada and are one of the most prominent online marketplace communities connecting learners with qualified and verified teaching professionals through live video lessons.

Leveraging technology to accelerate growth

The initial years of building a company are always challenging. The process is exciting and fun with all the experiments, yet if one is not able to sell as much as they wanted, it sure gives a hard time. 

As shared by Ritu-

“Starting up is so daunting, starting something new, from scratch. For me, initially, the biggest challenge of being a solo entrepreneur was not getting the right resources!”

Deschool has come a long way since Ritu put together everything. But how did they get there?

“As a solo founder, my hands were always full. But I knew I still needed those experts who could take care of different aspects of the business.”

While building Deschool, Ritu overcame many hurdles of putting together technological support, branding exercises, effective marketing strategies, and so on. For her, the only solution was to figure out somehow how to put all her educational experience and love for technology together.

This is when she discovered Omnify. 

In the words of Ritu-

“I needed someone who was more of an expert to build the set of features for me. I did not have time to get a developer onboard. At that time, I had a team of 15 teachers to onboard immediately.”

With Omnify’s class scheduling software, Deschool has been successfully handling class bookings, and all their requirements for a scheduling calendar were met.

As Ritu recalls-

“I needed a software to urgently take care of my scheduling and all calendar features. I must say, with Omnify, starting from the set-up to the entire journey until now has been super smooth and efficient!”

Bringing the community closer

A growing business demands growing operations. And it only becomes overwhelming if one does not cater to technological solutions as the business starts growing. However, with so many software options available today, what makes software stand apart?

It is easy adoption, good usability, and intuitive user experience. Ritu found Omnify to be the smoothest transition to all other technologies that she was otherwise relying on.

As Ritu says-

“The UI/UX of Omnify is super clean and very, very user-friendly. Be it from the admin perspective or teachers (client) perspective; we are extremely satisfied with the features. For us, it was important to create a community of educators, and they are absolutely happy with it.”

She further emphasized-

“I mean, the Omnify dashboard is like my go-to thing!”

Technology is today’s truth. Solopreneurs usually rely on various tools to run different aspects of business operations. Isn't it even better if one technology gives you the best of many? 

For instance, staying in seamless communication with clients to bring your community closer is an ideal prerogative of any business. Auto-emails are one way in which businesses stay in touch with their customers. With Omnify, Ritu even found connecting with clients getting simpler, minimizing unnecessary touchpoints.

In her words-

“We used Mailchimp before, but with Omnify’s reminder emails, we have pretty much discontinued using Mailchimp.”

Customer Support like no other

Speaking of Omnify’s customer support, Ritu had some wonderful words to share-

“My account manager has been kind, amazing, and super-attentive throughout. I may have had some really unreasonable demands at times, but Omnify customer support has always been very helpful and very polite!”

Rightly so, to support an unparalleled business like Deschool, one would need an unparalleled customer support team that is proactive and alert and on a constant lookout for improvements to better equip one for success.

If you’re a business looking to serve your clients well and create an impact in their lives, let Omnify’s Class Scheduling software simplify all the hassles of booking and scheduling your services so that you can focus on your business, your client, and yourself!