Success Story: Hackberry

You know something great is in the brewing when a business starts out as an honest attempt to solve a personal and intimate problem and then goes on to solving the same problem for millions of other users.

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Not so different, is the story of Hackberry! We were super lucky to chat with Ashni Dwarkadas, co-founder Hackberry, and learn about her adventures. But before that, I certainly want to double-click on her professional background. A former investment banker and MBA from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

Ashni, was looking for an early years coding program to enrol her daughter in and realised that while coding is taught widely at a young age across the globe, such programs weren’t available in India. In a few  months, she and her co-founder Anisha Parikh had created a program, piloted it with a group of kids, and launched Hackberry’s first coding program from 5-8 year olds.

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Here's a glimpse from our conversation.

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Describe your business tweet style (280 characters or less)?

Hackberry teaches kids life skills through coding and entrepreneurship.

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What according to you, separates you from your competitors?

Our unique programs that are created to teach kids the skills they need to succeed in this new world of work! The programs are concept driven, engaging, and fun.

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How do you foresee for the next 10 years in your business?

Education is transforming and evolving to meet the rapidly changing needs of the work environment. Every school will need to focus on teaching skills to create future innovators, collaborators, problem solvers, and design thinkers.

How do you measure and celebrate success at work? 🎉

Did students benefit? If yes, we've achieved our goal!

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Today, Hackberry offer computational thinking, coding and entrepreneurship courses, and has trained over 5,000 kids across Mumbai in coding and entrepreneurship. They believe that the world of work is changing, and children today need to be equipped with problem solving skills resilience, creativity and motivation. Hackberry is dedicated to developing fun educational programs to impart these skills.

Learn more about Hackberry: https://www.hackberrykids.com/

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