Roman Saini is the founder of Unacademy, an online education platform that provides free and paid learning opportunities. Some key points:
1. Saini was born in Rajasthan and became one of India's youngest IAS officers at age 22 after clearing the civil services exam on his first attempt.
2. He resigned from his IAS position in 2016 to focus full-time on Unacademy, which provides free educational videos and courses on YouTube and its website taught by specialist educators.
3. Unacademy has grown rapidly under Saini's leadership, with over 2 million YouTube subscribers and $4.5 million in funding. However, some critics argue he quit the prestigious
4. Born & brought up
• Roman Saini was born in Kotputli Town in District Jaipur, Rajasthan
• He enrolled at the All India Institute of Medical Sciencesfor
his MBBS after clearing the AIIMS entrance exam at the age of 16.[
• In 2013, at the age of 22, he cleared the Civil Services
Examinationin his first attempt by securing an All India Rank of 18
in the general category and became one of the youngest IAS
officers in India.
• He resigned in 2016 before the formal completion of his training to
devote more time for his education mission, mainly
through Unacademy
• Roman Saini got 4th place in Forbes India 30 under 30, 2018.
5. UNACADEMY PROJECT
Unacademy is an online
education platform which
provides free and paid learning
opportunity to the students of all
streams and particularly to the
aspirants who are preparing for
the competitive exams.
Unacademy provides free
educational material to students
through its website and video
tutorials shared over YouTube.
Unacademy has various
educators who are specialist in
their subjects.
6. His Youtube channel today
• At present, the YouTube channel has more than 3052+ videos and
around 2M subscribers. Following of Unacademy and particularly
Roman Saini, growing day by day.
• In 2015, 2016 many students of Unacademy qualified civil services
exam. He along with his team has launched many crash courses
related to this examination.
7. What is Roman Saini's source of
income?
• Don’t worry about his income. Unacademy has
secured $4.5 million in funding - it should take care
of his sustenance, lets hope. Exam prep startup
Unacademy raises $4.5 mn in Series A funding
• Extremely fascinating how these investors work; and you
will see interesting things happen to Unacademy very
soon. It is a for-profit company by the way.
8. Here is what Roman Saini has done so
far:
1. Cleared Civil Service Examination with a top rank (and hats off for
that - others’ hats, I love my hat way too much to take it off for even
my madam)
2. Made noise about it - far more than the 17 people above him made
in the year he cleared the exam (2013 I think). You can be forgiven
for assuming that he was Rank 1.
9. 1. Abruptly quit the same service for which he was inspiring his countrymen
and women. Brand Roman was ready to be launched in the business world.
The plot was ready.
2. Launched Unacademy with Gaurav Munjal, who ran some startup earlier
which nobody really cared about but he would mention it right after his
surname like Gaurav Munjal Startup.
11. Why QUIT the services
• Saini was previously posted as Assistant Collect
• factors led to his resignation: The system, he himself and the humongous
expectations from the three lettered word IAS. I have just 6 points to make from the
understanding I have had from this entire episode over the past few days.
• 1. Do not get swayed by the headlines "Roman leaves IAS to serve millions by
providing free education". There is no such thing as free lunch. If Mark Zuckerberg
has a plan to make millions of dollars for the benefit of humanity under the tag 'Free
Basics', let alone Roman Saini.
• 2. If you watch Roman's Ted talk on the topic "How to crack world's toughest
examination", you will learn that in an approx 20 minute video, he brags about
himself and his achievements for as much as 16 mins. That's around 80% of the
video duration. This is called self obsession. It is self obsession because every year,
100 of students achieve what he has achieved. Nothing supernatural. Watch any
video of Gaurav Agarwal (Rank 1 that year) and you will know where greatness
resides.
12. • 3. Apparently from his batchmates at the IAS training academy, it is
learnt that he was slapped by a MLA. When his complaint went
unheard by the senior authorities, he finally made the decision to
quit. I respect the decision as it would be humiliating for anyone to
be in that position and to be of that stature(IAS + MBBS).
• 4. It is not difficult to imagine Roman getting into scuffle with a
politician this early in his career, as he was really obsessed with
himself being the youngest IAS and his rags to riches story and
13. • how swiftly he achieved everything under the sun for any Indian
student and he being the smartest guy in the room. He reminded us
of these in the first 3 minutes of every Unacademy video he had
made initially.
• 5. As an IAS, you have the potential to bring a change to the society.
But eventually you are a part of the system and it is a government
job. It requires you to work under a politician who might not even
know when India got its independence. You have to adapt, adjust,
mature and let go off the hype and expectation that society has
created for this top job. Many people find it difficult as the system at
times might not let you explore your creativity and you are always
constrained by your superiors. Many people choose to leave the
service for various personal reasons.
