If the world reinvents itself every year, why should education stay frozen in time?
Payal Gaba has built her career and her life around one simple conviction: change is fuel.
From her first job crafting new-age strategies at Maruti Suzuki to steering product launches for
Samsung and Lodha, she has always pursued the “NEW”. That appetite for blank canvases
reached its boldest expression in 2020 when she founded BeyondSkool, an up-skilling academy
determined to close the gap between what classrooms teach and what tomorrow’s jobs will
demand.
Her personal “aha” moment arrived at home. Guiding her twin daughters through school, Payal
realised that textbook-perfect grades were no longer enough; children needed communication,
critical thinking and entrepreneurial confidence as early as possible. “If the world reinvents itself
every year, why should education stay frozen in time?” she asked—and then set out to change
it.
Launching an education start-up in the teeth of a pandemic might have rattled a lesser risk-
taker, but she simply pivoted. BeyondSkool opened as a fully online academy, serving
thousands of students during lockdown before transitioning to physical classrooms once
restrictions eased. “We’ve rewritten the model twice in five years,” she laughs. “For my team,
the word challenge is just another way of saying opportunity.”
That team—whom she is lucky to have has been a part since the inception of Beyond School
and one phrase which stands out for them is, “We will figure it out and make sure to make it.”
When investors urged her to pick between launching one main school or five preschools under
the new RISE Schools banner, she returned with a phased roll-out plan that allowed both
dreams to breathe. The proposal was green-lit, proving once again that a well-argued ‘yes’ can
outshine an easy ‘no’.
Personal juggling acts have been just as demanding. Last year, while BeyondSkool scaled, her
daughters tackled their Class 10 board exams. “I don’t separate work and home,” she says.
“Some days that means work on Sundays; other days it’s shutting the laptop at noon to be a
mum. Balance isn’t a place—it’s a motion.” Payal gleamed with pride when she said that When
we see how our programmes helped our students is what keeps us going, We love when our
students come and tell us, “We love Beyond School Programmes, why dont they have more
classes, when our students excel” Thats the kick that keeps us going.
On asking what she thinks she should have started earlier, she said being out there, being
better at networking could have helped her personally and professionally as well in terms of
business expansion.
To young women hesitating at the edge of their first big decision, she offers a final test: “Ask
yourself what the very worst outcome could be. If you can live with that, jump. The rest is just
problem-solving.” In other words: change is fuel, and the road is yours.
