MBA alumni make shortlist for prestigious AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards

William Clarke and Vandana Minhas-Taneja are riding high after the news their education start-up, Learn English Live, has made the coveted shortlist for MBA Start-Up of the Year at the upcoming Association of MBAs (AMBA) & Business Graduates Association (BGA) Excellence Awards.

They are the only Australasian entry to be recognised, making the nomination even more special for the duo.

“It’s pretty surreal,” says William. “It’s even cooler that as a product from an MBA project, this has now evolved into a real live start-up making a lot of amazing impact in New Zealand and being recognised globally.”

Learn English Live is an “online cultural exchange programme” that connects school-aged children in New Zealand with their peers in countries all over the world, with the aim of building meaningful cross-cultural relationships. William and Vandana co-founded it alongside Brittany Teei and Teri Teei, who bring a wealth of education and business development experience between them.

Seeing how English lessons were highly valued, especially if the teachers were native English speakers themselves, William and Vandana had a novel idea. Instead of the typical pairing of an adult teacher with a child, they would connect international students with English-speaking kids their own age in New Zealand, using video technology.

“It’s fantastic because the reading and writing English proficiency [of these international students] is high, but where they actually lack – which was our unique focal point – was the confidence to speak English to someone of a native English-speaking country,” says William.

“By leveraging everyday technology to ‘digitise’ the traditional student exchange experience, this has allowed us to create a really equitable model where every student in a classroom around the world can experience an international exchange.”

This was where Learn English Live really took off, says the pair. By creating a peer-to-peer interaction between two children of a similar age, one in New Zealand and one overseas, they were able to capitalise on a unique gap in the market.

It has taken time, but the early seeds of their idea have now started to bear fruit. From its beginnings in 2020 partnering just four kids from a single school in Auckland with a handful of South Korean students, Learn English Live has grown by leaps and bounds. Today, the company connects thousands of kids each year from classrooms in South Korea, Japan, China and Italy with Kiwi kids across the nation. Partnerships with Education New Zealand, the Asia New Zealand Foundation, other international education bodies and the University’s own Centre of Asia Pacific Excellence have further accelerated their growth.

The MBA programme was a crucial step in their journey, says Vandana.

“The traditional mindset is ‘go in big’ and invest a lot of money. The MBA taught us to start small and invest as little as possible, and market test to really refine who the target audience is. The biggest takeaway of all was to identify the gap in the market and tackle that gap.”

Both William and Vandana credit their lecturers for being an inspiration and a knowledgeable resource as they navigated the pitfalls of starting up their own business, as well as the others in their cohort. They have both recommended the MBA programme to others and are always open to speaking to anyone considering further study, or mulling over a business idea of their own.

“Doing an MBA requires a lot of time, energy and investment, but it’s definitely worthwhile,” says Vandana.

“The connections, the people and the lecturers – amazing people that you would not come across otherwise – have been a highlight.”

Andrew Eberhard, Director of Professional Programmes at the University of Auckland Business School, says the duo are truly deserving of recognition for Learn English Live.

“In the two years since Vandana and William graduated, they have worked tirelessly to support and connect students around the world through innovation and technology; they have inspired many powerful stories of students growing into global citizens; and most importantly, their commitment to inclusive and equitable education has been unwavering. They are truly making the world a better place.”

The winner of the MBA Start-up of the Year category will be announced on Friday 9 December at the prestigious AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards Gala Dinner in London.