Alex George, Co-founder and Managing Director at ITLH, a conventional training center for students and professionals

Alex George, Co-founder and Managing Director at Information Technology Learning Hub (ITLH)

At Sugermint, our aim is to bring to our entrepreneurs and startups community some of the inspiring and motivational stories from the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another entrepreneur Alex George, Co-founder and Managing Director at ITLH, a conventional training center for students and professionals for an exclusive interview with us.

What service(s) or product(s) do you offer at ITLH? 

Alex George: We offers courses and Professional Training for UIUX Design & Programming (various technologies ) at ITLH including A) UIUX Global Advanced Course, B) UIUX Intermediate  Course, C) React js  – Front End Development, D) Machine Learning. Corporate Training for UIUX, React js , Angular js & Full Stack Development, and Resource Augmentation Services for Technology Industry. 

What is unique about your business?

Alex George: ITLH has implemented a Practical Learning Approach in its entire teaching mechanism where we have implemented the entire course in a “Learn by Doing Mechanism”, you are not trained by Teachers with Past Industry Experience, you are instead made to deliver a simulated project under currently working Industry Team Leads, Project devilry managers, etc.

Below mentioned are a few of our USPs

• Global Multi-Member Faculty of Industry Experts with an Avg Experience of 15 Years
• Guest Faculty with World-Renowned Heads & CEO’s.
• Round the Clock mentorship to ensure your learning experience is holistic.
• Special Focus to build your own personalized Behance Portfolio
• Lifetime Placement Opportunity so that we have your back when you decide to switch.
• Project Collaboration with a Design & IT company to ensure you don’t go out in the market as a Fresher.
• Access to World’s first Gated freelancing community for UIUX Designers.

What was your mission at the outset? 

Alex George: Our Mission is to Change the way Education is perceived and implemented in the Tech Industry by having a much more engaging &  practical approach.

We also feel Education needs to have a much more accountable model, which means you shouldn’t get placed because you own a degree/certificate from a Fancy brand name,rather you get a job because you are now skilled enough for one.

How many employees are there in your organization? 

Alex George: Currently, we are a team of 30 

Your company’s goals? 

Alex George: Make our Students skilled and self-employable. Provide an Education that is much more accountable with respect to Employment. Build a community where our learners can always rely on us for every step of their career 

How do you build a successful customer base? 

Alex George: We believe in case of Education its a far more different journey compared to any other segment. As we follow a practical learning mechanism we ensure we focus on a constant dynamic delivery standards for our course contents.

As technology keeps changing we need to ensure we are constantly changing our curriculum and approach.

To build a successful base in Edutech especially professional learning, we follow the mantra of “Customers output /End result is everything “ rather than “Customer is everything”.As these customers are students who want to rely on us for their guidance and career.

A major focus is given on how to make them skilled and confident enough to acquire a job and everything revolves around this principle.

What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them? 

Alex George: As I’m an Entrepreneur who started doing business when I was really young, I have had my share of failures.A few of the learnings I have had are :

– Never cloud your judgment because you are too attached to your product. Being passionate about your product is very different from being attached to it.

– When you are passionate you think about what can be done to make it so good that everyone  who needs it loves it, while when you are attached you start thinking why isn’t everyone loving my product, both of them mean the same but the energy you put in as an entrepreneur differs.

– Hire people who can add value to your team, always prefer work discipline over talent. Do not hire because you get mesmerized by someone’s talent, rather check their approach towards a problem statement and how committed they are to solving them.

– Value of HR is very critical in any organization, young start-ups do not press the importance of HR, what we need to understand is that it is the one department that forms the connection/culture between an entrepreneur and its entire workforce.

– You are the most answerable to the customer you provide your service to, compared to any other stakeholders involved in your organization.

– Statistics is everything – A personal mistake I feel many entrepreneurs do is as we are too driven by passion and dreams, it does cloud our judgments, as a large part of entrepreneurship is driven by hope.

when we see all other entrepreneurs saying “if you have a dream, never give up “, they also mean constantly doing that math and making decisions.

– Never give up but at the same time be very much statistics-driven so that your team can heavily rely on strong processes and milestones towards your goals.

– Young entrepreneurs often make the mistake of not diversifying their investments when they make a profit.

– Always be prepared for a scenario you never expect. Keep reserves so that if anything happens, your team is always safe and you have enough funds to pay them. ( Pandemic was the most unpredictable event and young start-ups suffered a major bolt )

– Keep upgrading your skills and network with many experienced entrepreneurs,they can save you from making mistakes you could never have predicted

Who has been your greatest inspiration? 

Alex George: My father. He used to be a teacher, then became a principal and later on the management team of a school.

The happiness he used to get seeing his students succeed in life, I never felt that in my entire professional career even after building a successful technology consulting company, till I started my own Edu tech.

Besides this, it was his constant support despite my untraditional approach of taking up entrepreneurship at a very young age, that made me go through all the difficult parts of the journey. He’s been always there believing in me.

What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made? 

Alex George: I have made many mistakes, this article won’t be even enough to cover them, however, I am happy that it made me reach where I am. highlighting few below:- 

A)  Never focussed on my health and well-being for a long period of time to try to work as much as possible. Health and well-being just add more value to your work.

B) Took failures very close to my heart, when you work with all your heart and when you fail, you take it very personally, however, an experienced entrepreneurs knows that it is just a standard operating procedure, always ask yourself what next and then ACT!

C) Not seeking mentors for a long period of time. An experienced mentor just helps you avoid the mistakes they did!

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? 

Alex George: Entrepreneurship is a way of living. It changes every element of who you are and what you want to be the more you keep growing.

Choose it only if you have that undying passion of solving a problem/creating an impact or changing society.

And once you do, just like your life, there will be different moments, some that you expect, some that you won’t, but all in all it will grow you and build you into what you are.

Does your company help the community or society? 

Alex George: Yes, we truly believe the ITLH impact, in the long run, is going to change the way education is perceived altogether.

Many of our students had spent a lot of money to get a degree that could give them a  job and they didn’t invest a fraction of it with us and yet they gained something more precious than just a job. A skill that lets them rely on themselves rather than any other entity.

Website: https://itlh.in

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