Episode 3 | Indra Sofian

The Atlanta Story

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Indra Sofian, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Sora. Indra and his co-founders started Sora while still under graduates at Georgia Tech. Today, they’ve raised over $23 million dollars from the likes of Union Square Ventures and General Catalyst to build a global, online school. On today’s episode, Indra elaborates on the ups and downs of fundraising, what an online education today should look like, how Covid reframed people’s perception of schooling online and much more.

The Atlanta Story is put together by the folks at Atlanta Ventures -- and we can’t wait to share some of the personalities behind the brand. Atlanta Ventures invests in entrepreneurs through community, content, and capital -- most notably through our Studio with companies like Greenzie and Intown Golf Club. We believe the best entrepreneurs learn from other great artists in different fields.

In this episode, we discuss…

1. How is Sora Schools solving the world’s education problem? (1:02)
2. When did Indra and his two Co-Founders come up with the idea? (3:25)
3. How did Indra make the decision to build Sora instead of going the corporate route upon graduating from Georgia Tech? (8:11)
4. How long after announcing Sora did it take to get their first customer? (12:04)
5. How did Indra differentiate the product, and what is unique about Sora Schools? (15:11)
6. What has been the evolution from the first student to the seed young funding from Union Square Ventures? (20:20)
7. What is Sora preparing students for? (33:43)
8. Where does Indra predict traditional college is heading over the next decade? (35:33)
9. Who is Indra and Sora Schools hiring? (38:54)
10. What is the ideal customer profile for a Sora student? (44:09)
11. How does Sora define success? (46:21)
12. Why Atlanta, and what has Atlanta done for Indra? (49:09)

Resources discussed in this episode:

Sora Schools

Sora Schools Job Board

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