Sohopathi: how a student Facebook group became a learning platform
Sohopathi began as a Q&A group run by university students. In October 2020 we started designing the backend for its web and mobile apps. By early 2023 the site listed 800,000+ learners and teachers.
Founding Software Engineer · Oct 2020 – Mar 2023
How it grew
It took five years to get from a Facebook group to apps on two app stores. Each step links to its source.
2017
A Facebook group for questions
Students from BUET and MIST started Sohopathi as a Facebook community where anyone could post a study question and get an answer from other students.
Source: Future Startup: How Sohopathi was created (Apr 2022)
2019
Online Sohopathi: "Keep Asking, Enjoy Learning"
The community moved to its own site, onlinesohopathi.com. It had about 15,000 questions by then, and a paid service to talk to a mentor directly.
Source: Future Startup: How Sohopathi was created (Apr 2022); onlinesohopathi.com, Sep 2019 (Wayback Machine)
Sep 2020
Seed funding
The TigerIT Foundation invested through its Tiger IT Innovation Challenge. As the CEO said later: "We did not have a proper operation in September 2020."
Source: TBS News: TigerIT Foundation investment (Sep 2020); Future Startup: How Sohopathi was created (Apr 2022)
Oct 2020
Backend work begins
Sohopathi needed a web app and a mobile app, and there was no proper operation behind them yet. We designed the backend architecture and wrote the API specs, then started building it.
Source: Future Startup: How Sohopathi was created (Apr 2022)
Illustrative. In October 2020, the new platform did not exist yet. There was the community and the old Q&A site, but no new web app, mobile app, API or database. Nov 2020
The new web app goes live
A month later, the Wayback Machine saved the first version of the new web app at onlinesohopathi.com.
Feb 2021
Courses, mentors and a video library
The rebuilt site still had Q&A. It also had courses, mentors, campaigns and a video library.
Oct 2021
Students can buy a course and pay online
Students could now buy a course on their own, and a B2B online exam product launched around the same time. By then Sohopathi had 3,500+ recurring paid users and a community of 200,000 people, 60% of them outside Dhaka.
Source: Future Startup: interview with co-founder and CEO Shadman Majid (Oct 2021)
Nov 2021
Accelerating Asia and the Bangabandhu Innovation Grant
Sohopathi joined Cohort 5 of Accelerating Asia and won a Tk 10 lakh Bangabandhu Innovation Grant (BIG).
Source: Future Startup: Accelerating Asia Cohort 5 (Nov 2021); TBS News: Bangabandhu Innovation Grant winners (Nov 2021)
Dec 2021
sohopathi.io and daily live classes
The product moved to sohopathi.io. School and admission students got live classes every day, plus live tests and quizzes.
2022
Apps on Android and iOS
The Android app passed 10,000 downloads and an iOS app came after it. HolonIQ also put Sohopathi on its South Asia EdTech 100 list.
Source: Sohopathi on Google Play, Dec 2022 (Wayback Machine); HolonIQ: 2022 South Asia EdTech 100
2023
800,000+ learners and teachers
By February 2023 sohopathi.io listed 800,000+ learners and teachers, 140+ active teachers and a 4.6 rating on Google Play.
Before and after
In 2019 the site was a Bangla question box. You asked, and someone from the community answered. By 2023 the same idea had classes, courses, teachers and an app around it. Drag the handle to compare the two.
Left: onlinesohopathi.com, Sep 2019, via the Wayback Machine
Right: sohopathi.io, Mar 2023, via the Wayback Machine
On video
Both films are from December 2021, a month after Sohopathi joined Accelerating Asia and won the Bangabandhu Innovation Grant.
The numbers
- 200K
- people in the community, Oct 2021. Source: Future Startup: interview with co-founder and CEO Shadman Majid (Oct 2021)
- 800K+
- learners and teachers listed on sohopathi.io, Feb 2023. Source: sohopathi.io, Feb 2023 (Wayback Machine)
- 3,500+
- recurring paid users, Oct 2021. Source: Future Startup: interview with co-founder and CEO Shadman Majid (Oct 2021)
- 10K+
- Android downloads, Dec 2022. Source: Sohopathi on Google Play, Dec 2022 (Wayback Machine)
- 140+
- active teachers, Feb 2023. Source: sohopathi.io, Feb 2023 (Wayback Machine)
- 4.6★
- Google Play rating, Feb 2023. Source: sohopathi.io, Feb 2023 (Wayback Machine)
- EdTech 100
- HolonIQ South Asia list, 2022. Source: HolonIQ: 2022 South Asia EdTech 100
Role
- Designed the backend architecture for the web and mobile apps.
- Wrote the API specifications.
- Led backend development.
Sources
- Future Startup: How Sohopathi was created (Apr 2022)
- onlinesohopathi.com, Sep 2019 (Wayback Machine)
- TBS News: TigerIT Foundation investment (Sep 2020)
- onlinesohopathi.com, Nov 2020 (Wayback Machine)
- onlinesohopathi.com, Feb 2021 (Wayback Machine)
- Future Startup: interview with co-founder and CEO Shadman Majid (Oct 2021)
- Future Startup: Accelerating Asia Cohort 5 (Nov 2021)
- TBS News: Bangabandhu Innovation Grant winners (Nov 2021)
- sohopathi.io, Dec 2021 (Wayback Machine)
- Sohopathi on Google Play, Dec 2022 (Wayback Machine)
- HolonIQ: 2022 South Asia EdTech 100
- sohopathi.io, Feb 2023 (Wayback Machine)
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