I left investment banking 6 months ago to build AI grading for Indian schools. Here's what I've learned so far.

Left a PE/IB role in late 2024. No technical background. Built GradeSense, AI that grades handwritten answer sheets against a rubric.

Six months in. Here's what surprised me:

The problem isn't that schools don't want this. It's that nobody has shown them it actually works. Every conversation starts with "prove it on our papers first."

So that's what we're doing. Active pilots with coaching institutes and PU colleges. Benchmarking accuracy against human graders before asking anyone to pay.

The CBSE OSM controversy this May validated the whole thesis, digitised evaluation without rubric standardisation caused the lowest Class 12 pass rate in 7 years. Schools are now actively asking what alternatives exist.

Still figuring out sales, distribution, pricing. Happy to answer any questions from folks who've sold to Indian educational institutions, that's genuinely where I need help.

gradesense.in if curious.