6 Bit Education - the A.I. influenced start-up that makes teaching and marking easier

This week we caught up with Physics and Astronomy graduate Manjinder Kainth who co-created the start-up business 6 Bit Education. We asked him what life working on a start-up business was life following graduation.

6 Bit Education was set up by four University of Birmingham students including Manjinder - the others are George Bartlett, Austin Tomlinson and Robert Stanyon. The business itself aims to create a modern solution to teaching and marking using an A.I. system they designed and built called 'Graide'. Here is Manjinder's tips about starting up....

What is the most exciting and challenging thing about being self-employed?

The most exciting thing about founding a start-up is waking up and knowing that you’re doing something that you love and care about. It is incredibly fun and motivating. The most challenging part of founding a start-up is separating your work from the rest of your life. It’s easy to always be alert to emails and notifications you get about your work, because you care about it a lot. That can make it hard to relax or spend time with friends and family.

What inspired you to start your own company?

While I was a postgraduate student, I had to teach and grade student’s work. I alongside my co-founders, realised the inefficiencies in the systems involved. Me and my co-founders had extensive programming experience from our undergraduate degrees. That combined with summer internships that all of us had based around creating education content using our programming knowledge, made us the perfect team for our venture.

What advice would you give to others who are thinking of starting a business?

It is far too easy to think you have a good business idea when you actually don’t. The people you tell your idea to are usually your friends and family who are likely to say “yes that’s a good idea” even when it isn’t. A great business idea is one that solves a problem that people are willing to pay for. The first thing you should do is validate that fact is true. Interview your prospective customers about the problems they face, what solutions they have for them, what it costs them (in either time or money). Don’t mention your potential solution to them until you have fully interviewed multiple prospective customers, as you are likely to fall into the “yes” trap as stated earlier. Once you have a solution that solves a tangible problem you can start building prototypes. You have the most leverage at the start of the building phase, so design, test with prospective customers, iterate, repeat.

Find out more about the business by visiting the 6 Bit Education website here or learn how A.I is used in Graide on the video link below.

With thanks to Manjinder Kainth

Blog post edited by Kerry Brunn and Bob Lee