Meet Krishnkant Chaturvedi, a relentless entrepreneur from Gwalior who is redefining how young India communicates. Starting his business journey in class 11 with scented candles and a tutoring agency, Krishnkant quickly learned the hustle. Realising that exorbitant US college fees weren't an option for him, he pivoted to the Lemon School of Entrepreneurship in Nagpur, eventually becoming founder of KOMMON SCHOOL.
His travels across Bharat revealed a glaring gap: brilliant students in tier-2 and tier-3 cities were losing out on life-changing opportunities simply because their legs shook on stage and they lacked communication skills. To address this, he founded KOMMON SCHOOL, an AI-powered platform that offers hyper-personalised, conversational role-play training. Overcoming massive challenges in computing costs and backend scaling, Krishnkant’s mission is to democratize soft-skills training for millions of non-native speakers.
Tell us something about yourself and your team.
Hi, I am Krishnkant. I'm a small-town guy from Gwalior who realised early on that the traditional path wasn't for me. In my 11th grade, while prepping for my SATs, I ran a scented candle business and later scaled a tutoring agency to 65 tutors. I dropped out of a standard college and found my true calling at the Lemon School of Entrepreneurship, where I rose from a student to an EIR, and eventually the CEO.
When I started building KOMMON SCHOOL, I initially hired highly-paid developers from Bangalore, but quickly realised they wouldn't answer my calls after Friday! Startup hustle demands more. So, I let them go and built a hungry, dynamic team from tier-2 cities. I even hired a brilliant self-taught coder who actually studied biology but finished a 15-day full-stack task in just two days!
What is the problem you are trying to solve?
India has around 4.5 to 5 crore students in colleges, and if you leave aside the top-tier IITs or IIMs, almost 90% of students in tier-2 and tier-3 cities face a massive barrier: poor communication skills. You put these kids in a room, and they simply do not know what to speak or how to represent themselves. Their technical skills might be top-notch, but their legs shake on stage, forcing them to settle for underpaying sales jobs. Moreover, traditional soft-skills training lacks objective quantification nobody knows exactly how much they have improved after a generic workshop.
What's the story behind your motivation to solve this problem?
Between 2017 and 2021, my work took me to over 50 tier-2 and tier-3 towns across India. I saw raw talent firsthand like I remember, a guy from Rajsamand who couldn't utter a word on stage but later built a 300 crore company in Japan. Conversely, I saw my own friends struggling for 10,000-rupee jobs simply because they couldn't articulate their thoughts. I dug deeper and realised over 150 million non-native English speakers are struggling in the corporate world globally. This isn't just a small gap; it is a massive $20 billion market problem. I had to solve it.
Enlighten us with the Solution Overview - The AI Use Case!
Imagine a system that talks to you, understands you, and personalises your training content in real-time. KOMMON SCHOOL offers exactly that: a full-duplex conversational AI platform. You get on a video call with an AI avatar and practice predefined use cases - like a high-stakes job interview, a sales pitch, or a casual soft-skills session. It assesses your verbal cues, non-verbal body language, and linguistic accuracy. Instead of generic advice, our platform generates a step-by-step "guided pathway," detailing exactly how to turn a 60% conciseness score into an 80% score.
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Let’s go into technical details - How AI is Actually Utilised?
For the tech geeks reading this, our infrastructure currently runs on the MERN stack. The magic happens in three layers: AI Role Playing, Analytics, and Guided Pathways.
Every conversation passes through our RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) layer, integrated with various LLMs. We don't stick to just one model; if it's a sales simulation, we might route it to Gemini 2.4, but for other complex scenarios, we use OpenAI models or fine-tuned open-source LLMs. We use world-class Speech-to-Text (STT) models to transcribe your exact words without error, coupled with cost-effective Text-to-Speech (TTS) to give our avatar a voice. While our ML algorithms quantify your parameters, GenAI steps in to generate personalised, section-by-section insights telling you exactly how you can deliver a better response next time.
Were there any Challenges & Failures during this project, and what were they?
Oh, plenty! In 2023, after raising funds from Meta, we built a VR-based assessment tool. The massive failure? It was commercially unviable. Deploying it for a university with 45,000 students would cost them 40-50 crores!. We had to pivot hard to a web-based conversational AI.
Then came 2024’s nightmare: Concurrency. Each user consumed an entire WebSocket tunnel, completely blocking our backend bandwidth. By 2025, our biggest demon was cost - burning 3.5 to 4 rupees per AI minute, which was bleeding us dry. We are now partnering with the EkStep Foundation to crash this cost to just 1 rupee per minute for Bharat.
Let’s understand how you applied AI Readiness Skills in your project.
AI readiness in today's world isn't just about learning to code; it's heavily reliant on core human skills. Here is how my journey tested them.
As an entrepreneur how important Collaboration Skills are especially in AI driven world?
Collaboration absolutely opens doors for you. I leveraged my previous tag as Lemon Ideas' CEO to enter rooms and close funding rounds from Meta, HDFC Bank, IIT Delhi, and IIT Mandi. I went to Silicon Valley for an immersion program without a rigid agenda, kept my mind open, and ended up meeting the founders of Hotmail and Palo Alto Networks in just 15 days!. Back home, we recently collaborated with IIT Madras for their Center of Excellence in AI and Education.
Critical Thinking & Creativity
People constantly told me that Bharat doesn't have the paying capacity for a communication app. My critical thinking kicked in: *Why not become the distribution torchbearer for voice AI in Bharat?* If I can build a network of 500 colleges and 200,000 users, that impact creates a massive strategic asset for the future. Impact first, profit follows. That conviction allowed me to confidently pour all my personal savings from my previous exit directly into KOMMON SCHOOL.
Online Learning Skills
I am a BBA graduate, not a hardcore techie. But the internet is an abundant university!. When my initial tech team frustrated me, I didn't give up. I went straight to YouTube and taught myself Unity and VR development. The medical student I hired literally locked himself in a room for two years and learned full-stack development entirely online from platforms like Career Ninja and YouTube. The knowledge is out there for free; you just need the hunger to grab it.
Online Reputation Skills
I must confess, I am absolutely terrible at this. I built this startup in stealth mode. We got featured in The Economic Times and Zee News, but I haven't even updated my WhatsApp status in five years!. However, I now realise that in this era, being a silent builder isn't enough—you have to position yourself as an expert. I am currently bringing in a dedicated team to fix my online presence and share our story with the world.
What has been the impact of your solution so far & what’s your vision for the future
From a tech standpoint, we've successfully slashed our system latency from a sluggish 2.8 seconds down to just 800 milliseconds. Business-wise, we’re onboarding massive channel partners - like a 350-person company covering 200 colleges across Maharashtra. My vision for the future? Balance sheets and real revenues. Technology is fascinating, but a business survives on revenue. We are fiercely focused on democratising hyper-personalised communication training for every student in tier-2 and tier-3 India, making it as affordable as possible.
What advice would you like to give to fellow innovators
My mentor taught me this golden rule: Your idea is the horse, but YOU are the jockey. Don't obsess over finding the perfect horse. Focus entirely on becoming an exceptional jockey. Learn the fundamentals, network aggressively, and force yourself into the right rooms with the right circle of people. If you are a great jockey, you can ride any idea to the finish line!
Let us know if you have any Mentor, Support & Inspiration.
I wouldn't be here without Deepak Menaria, the founder of Lemon Ideas. When I arrived in Nagpur with no money and big dreams, he gave me a place to stay and eventually made me a CEO at a very young age. Dr. Navita Nathani was another pillar who constantly pushed me forward during my college days. And on a lighter note, growing up, my ultimate creative inspiration was the cartoon Phineas and Ferb I'd spend my summers playing GTA Vice City and watching them build crazy inventions!.
Conclusion
To all the bright minds and aspiring candidates reading this, your journey is entirely your own to script. I extend my absolute best wishes for your endeavours. Keep building, keep hustling, and good luck proving to the world that India’s Got Intelligence!
