Introducing Varsity Live

I vividly remember, in early 2014, Nithin and I discussed how difficult it was for an investor to learn about the capital markets in India. At that point, there was hardly any learning material available online. Content was fragmented, scattered across several sources, and there was nothing specific to the Indian markets. To learn a particular financial topic, one had to spend several hours browsing the internet to find relevant content.

The content gap was a problem that needed to be fixed, and thus, Varsity was born. We started Varsity 10 years ago to educate and spread financial literacy. We were clear that the content would be available to everyone without any “corporate” agenda. No signups, no lead generation, for free without any product placement or advertisements. Varsity was an agenda-free initiative, purely focused on learning. We also ensured that we did not cut corners on the quality of the content just because it was free. In fact, the quality and simplicity of content was our primary focus.

Back then, we were resource-constrained, so we picked the lowest-hanging fruit and built Varsity in the classic article-based format. In a way, I’m glad we chose this path. All articles on Varsity are long-form, meaning the content is detailed and nuanced. Today, we have lakhs of comments and user queries on Varsity, a testament to the user acceptance of the content on Varsity.

Over the years, as Zerodha grew, Varsity had the opportunity to experiment. We hit a few exciting milestones along the way — Varsity mobile app with 2M users, 15 modules covering a wide array of financial topics, a YouTube channel with 400K subscribers, a solid social media presence, Varsity Certified, Rupee Tales for Children, Varsity Junior, and Varsity outreach programs.

Each of these initiatives strengthened Varsity’s educational offering. Varsity is no longer an article-based learning portal but a full-fledged stock market education ecosystem.

Today, I’m excited about the latest addition to this learning ecosystem — Varsity Live.

Varsity Live is India’s first ‘learn by doing’ experience for financial education. Imagine being able to build your own personal finance plan while attending a class, live. You will draw trend lines and support resistance during the class to learn technical analysis. To learn fundamental analysis, you’ll analyse a balance sheet together. This ‘Practice Technology’ lets you learn by solving actual case studies live with instant feedback.

Your return on time spent in a live class is much higher than just watching or listening. This is a new form of learning we are trying to pioneer for stock market education. All programmes are mentor-led and feature live animation and state-of-the-art production to keep you engaged. You’ll also be part of a live leaderboard to keep things competitive. 🙂

Check out this one-minute video for better understanding.

We have been running Varsity Live as a beta for a couple of months now, and we have already completed 9000 user registrations, all through organic self-discovery. Currently, Varsity Live sessions are in Hindi and in English, but the technology permits us to scale this and offer the course in different languages.

Varsity Live is a collaborative effort between Zerodha Varsity and LearnApp. While the content is from Varsity, the technology is from LearnApp. Here is the link to see all the upcoming Varsity Live programs. So sign up and start learning! 🙂