From Engineering Dropout to EdTech Founder: How My Unanswered Questions Led to DiRECTIV

By Shivam Pandey | Founder & CEO, DiRECTIV

Leaving an engineering degree was not part of my original plan. But the questions I began asking about education, careers and real-world skills eventually led me to build DiRECTIV with my co-founders.

I never imagined that some of the most important lessons of my life would come from the questions I could not answer as a student.

Like many young people in India, I entered engineering believing that a college degree would help shape my professional future. I enrolled in a Bachelor of Technology programme in Computer Science Engineering, following a path that seemed familiar and promising.

But my educational journey did not unfold as expected.

I eventually dropped out of the programme.

It was not an easy decision. Leaving college meant facing uncertainty, uncomfortable conversations and questions about what I would do next.

At the time, I did not have all the answers.

What I had, however, was a growing curiosity about something I had noticed during my student years: the difference between what we learn in classrooms and what we are expected to know when we enter the professional world.

That curiosity eventually became the starting point for DiRECTIV, an education-focused startup I co-founded with Umang Mahra and Pankaj Sharma in 2026.

The Questions That Followed Me Beyond the Classroom

During my time as a student, I saw people working hard to earn degrees, prepare for examinations and follow established career paths.

Yet conversations about life beyond college often revealed a different picture.

Many students were uncertain about how to introduce themselves professionally, communicate with confidence, build a personal brand or explore opportunities outside traditional employment.

Some understood academic concepts but struggled to explain their own strengths during conversations.

Others wanted to earn independently but did not know where to begin.

I kept returning to a few questions.

How does someone learn to communicate confidently with a stranger?

How does a student build a professional identity before getting their first job?

Where can young people learn practical financial skills?

And how do they discover opportunities that may not be discussed in a conventional classroom?

These were not questions I could answer immediately.

But they changed how I viewed education.

I began to understand that completing a course and developing the confidence to apply what you have learned are not always the same thing.

Learning Through Work, Mentorship and Community Building

Before starting DiRECTIV, I spent several years working with teams, mentoring individuals and building communities.

I interacted with young people who wanted to improve their communication skills, become more confident and explore possibilities for independent income.

I also began creating content on social media.

These experiences helped me recognise connections between skills that are often treated as separate subjects.

Communication was not simply about speaking fluent English or presenting confidently on a stage. It also influenced how someone explained an idea, approached a potential employer or connected with an audience.

Storytelling was not limited to creating online content. It could help people communicate complex ideas more clearly.

Financial awareness was not only about understanding financial terminology. It influenced everyday decisions about earning, saving and spending.

The more I worked with people, the more I questioned whether access to information was the main problem.

Students could already find countless videos, articles and tutorials online.

What was often missing was the support needed to turn that information into practical action.

That distinction became important to me.

I did not want to create something that simply added more information to an already crowded digital learning environment.

I wanted to explore how learning could become more interactive, accountable and relevant to everyday life.

How Three Founders Came Together to Build DiRECTIV

In 2026, I began discussing these ideas more seriously with Umang Mahra and Pankaj Sharma.

Our experiences had exposed us to different aspects of learning, professional development, teamwork and mentorship.

But our conversations repeatedly returned to a common concern.

Why do so many students spend years acquiring knowledge yet still feel unprepared to apply it in professional situations?

We did not believe the answer was to dismiss traditional education.

Academic institutions play an important role in developing foundational knowledge, discipline and specialised expertise.

We saw an opportunity to complement that learning with experiences centred on practical capabilities.

Our goal was to create a platform where students could learn directly from mentors, participate in discussions, complete assignments and receive feedback.

Instead of relying entirely on recorded lessons, we began developing an approach that prioritised live interaction and participation.

Eventually, those conversations led us to establish DiRECTIV.

We defined our guiding principle in a simple statement:

“Build the Skills Life Doesn’t Teach You.”

For us, those words represent the belief that meaningful learning must also prepare people for decisions and challenges beyond examinations.

Building DiRECTIV Around Practical Skills

Starting an education company required us to turn a broad idea into something students could understand and use.

We could not teach everything at once.

We needed to identify specific areas where structured guidance might help learners bridge the gap between knowing a concept and applying it.

That led us to develop two initial learning pathways.

Creator to Career: Turning Digital Skills Into Practical Opportunities

One of our first pathways, Creator to Career, focuses on content creation, storytelling, personal branding and the skills involved in building a digital presence.

Today, creating content is not limited to entertainment or social media popularity.

The ability to communicate ideas through digital platforms can be relevant to freelancers, entrepreneurs, professionals and people building independent projects.

But watching a video about content creation is different from planning, producing and publishing something yourself.

Through this learning pathway, our intention is to help participants understand the practical steps involved in developing these capabilities.

We want learners to move beyond theoretical familiarity and begin experimenting with what they have learned.

Decoding Finance: Developing Everyday Financial Awareness

Our second pathway, Decoding Finance, focuses on financial literacy and money management.

I have often felt that young people can enter professional life without enough practical preparation for managing their finances.

Understanding income, expenses, savings and financial choices can become particularly important when someone receives their first salary or begins earning independently.

We wanted to approach financial education through practical understanding rather than simply introducing technical terminology.

The objective is to help learners become more aware of the financial decisions they encounter in everyday life.

Both learning pathways reflect the same underlying idea: learning becomes more meaningful when people can connect it to action.

Why We Believe Learning Needs More Than Recorded Videos

Digital learning has made educational content easier to access.

A student can find explanations of public speaking, personal branding, financial planning and numerous other subjects within minutes.

That accessibility is valuable.

But access alone does not guarantee understanding, confidence or practical ability.

Someone may know the principles of public speaking yet struggle to introduce themselves during an interview.

A learner may understand personal branding but hesitate to publish their first piece of content.

Someone else may know the definition of budgeting without having developed a habit of tracking expenses.

These gaps are part of what we want DiRECTIV to address.

Our approach emphasises live sessions, mentor interaction, guided activities and community participation.

We want learners to have opportunities to ask questions, make mistakes, receive feedback and improve.

I also understand that this approach must prove its value through the experiences of actual learners.

Good intentions are not enough.

The real measure will be whether participants can apply what they learn with greater clarity and confidence.

What Building an EdTech Startup Has Taught Me About Entrepreneurship

Starting DiRECTIV has changed how I think about entrepreneurship.

Recognising a problem is one thing.

Building an organisation capable of addressing that problem consistently is something entirely different.

During our early discussions, it was easy to imagine what a better learning experience might look like.

The difficult work began when those ideas had to become decisions.

Which learning programmes should we develop first?

How should sessions be structured?

What responsibilities should different team members handle?

How can we gather meaningful feedback?

And how do we build processes that remain reliable as the organisation grows?

These questions made me realise that enthusiasm can help start a company, but it cannot replace disciplined execution.

A strong vision may bring founders together. Building a sustainable business requires systems, accountability, clear responsibilities and the willingness to improve.

My earlier experience in content creation helped me understand communication and audience engagement.

But building a company focused on learning requires a different level of responsibility.

Students are not simply an audience.

They are individuals investing their time, attention and expectations in an experience that should offer meaningful value.

That is something I want us to keep in mind as DiRECTIV develops.

The Challenges of Building a New Education Business in India

India has a diverse and competitive education ecosystem.

Students have access to universities, online courses, coaching institutions, digital creators and professional training platforms.

For a new startup, simply offering another course is unlikely to be enough.

The more difficult challenge is creating a learning environment that people find credible, relevant and worth returning to.

We also recognise that students come from different backgrounds.

Their confidence levels, communication abilities, financial circumstances and career interests are not identical.

A model that works for one learner may need adjustment for another.

That makes listening to learners an important part of our work.

We are still learning how to structure our programmes, improve the learning experience and build an organisation capable of delivering consistent support.

At this stage, our priority is not to claim that we have solved the problems we identified.

It is to understand those problems better and develop practical responses.

Why I Don’t Believe Entrepreneurship Requires Rejecting Formal Education

Because I left engineering, people may assume that I see traditional education as unnecessary.

That is not my position.

My own journey has made me appreciate that learning can take different forms.

Universities and colleges provide academic foundations, technical knowledge and opportunities that remain valuable.

Practical learning can complement those experiences by helping people develop confidence, professional awareness and the ability to navigate situations outside a syllabus.

I do not believe every student should become an entrepreneur.

Nor do I believe everyone needs to become a content creator.

What matters to me is that young people have opportunities to discover their strengths, understand their options and develop skills that support their individual goals.

That philosophy continues to influence how we are building DiRECTIV.

Our Vision for DiRECTIV’s Future

DiRECTIV is still at an early stage.

We have an ambitious vision, but we are also aware that building a credible education business takes time.

For now, our focus is on developing our learning pathways, understanding student needs and refining how we deliver practical guidance.

We want to build an environment where asking questions is encouraged and learning is connected to real situations.

Our progress will depend on how effectively we execute that idea.

I hope that, as DiRECTIV grows, we can help more learners recognise that skills such as communication, financial awareness, storytelling and professional confidence are worth developing alongside academic knowledge.

But the responsibility is ours to demonstrate that the learning experience we provide can deliver meaningful value.

The Questions That Started It All

When I look back at my journey, I do not see dropping out of engineering as the defining achievement.

Nor do I consider starting a company to be the final destination.

What matters more is how the questions I carried from my student years gradually changed the direction of my life.

Those questions encouraged me to explore new experiences, work with people, build communities and eventually collaborate with two co-founders who shared a similar belief about practical education.

There is still a great deal for us to learn.

But if my journey has taught me anything, it is that uncertainty can sometimes encourage us to explore possibilities we had not previously considered.

The questions I could not answer as a student did not disappear.

They became the questions I wanted to help others explore.

And that is how DiRECTIV began.

Shivam Pandey is an Indian entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of DiRECTIV, an early-stage education startup he established with co-founders Umang Mahra and Pankaj Sharma in 2026.

After pursuing Computer Science Engineering and subsequently leaving his B.Tech programme, he developed an interest in practical education, communication, community building and professional skill development.

Through DiRECTIV, he is working to create guided learning experiences that complement formal education. The startup’s initial learning pathways include Creator to Career and Decoding Finance.

Website: https://directiv.co.in/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivam-pandey-2101a3261

This is a first-person founder contribution. The views and experiences expressed are those of the author. IndyaStory.com should verify the author’s account and disclose any relevant commercial relationship before publication.

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