Kopal Maheshwari - Founder - Little Einsteins
By Kopal Maheshwari, Founder
Kopal Maheshwari is a Co-Founder of the Little Einsteins Preschool chain. She holds a Masters in Commerce, and certification in Multiple Intelligence. Kopal was recognized as 40 under 40 most influential Indians in 2018 and was awarded as Woman Entrepreneur of the year. Kopal also represents Estonia in the N8 organization which is focussed on a collaboration of EdTech founders for education in the 8 Baltic and Nordic countries. Her preschool chain's proprietary pedagogy is broadly based on Multiple Intelligence, STEM and the 21 st century skills. It fosters learning environments that are child-centric and are focussed on personal skills development. The pedagogy has helped her expand centres to 6 countries. Little Einsteins has also been one of the first preschools to introduce a coding curriculum for pre-schoolers, which is captivating the young minds into the field of technology. Little Einsteins prepares a child to be creative, critical, and divergent thinkers who are able to really 'think outside the box.' At her schools, the mission is to ensure that education is specific to a child's need where the emphasis is on how to learn.
Our endeavor is to ensure that we pick up the best and most effective practices from around the world and make the journey for so many children filled with unfathomable love and enjoyable - Kopal Maheshwari.
Where many Indian women sacrifice their big dreams of doing good societal works due to unsupportive family, it's a blessing in disguise for few women like Kopal Maheshwari to have constant family support. Being a commerce graduate and having completed masters in the field, Kopal was always interested in the development of the educational structure of the country at the grass-root level. This was because, while working in senior management positions with companies like Dell and Monster, Kopal Maheshwari discovered that there was a lack of quality preschools in India which becomes a liability of taking a break from career for a mother after her child is born. Seeing the situation of the preschools, Kopal Maheshwari got inspired to take education as a field of study and did research on it to obtain a certificate in Multiple Intelligence and started the journey of Little Einsteins (LE) in 2007.
With constant guidance, assistance, and encouragement received at the topmost level from her husband and family, Kopal Maheshwari says, "It would have been impossible for me to manage the first center without my husband, who is the pillar for my strength. My child, who is 11 now, also provides his inputs and thoughts on strategies. When you have a loyal family, work becomes an integral part of your personal life where success is inevitable. But we do take breaks for vacations to maintain the balance between life and work." Adding further, she continues, "Our endeavor is to ensure that we pick up the best and most effective practices from around the world and make the journey for so many children filled with unfathomable love and enjoyable."
Kopal Maheswari is an ambassador for 2 organizations in the Nordic countries which keeps her engaged in education innovations and helps her to stay abreast on research and development happening at the global front. Under her leadership, LE has imbibed the excellent and most effective practices from around the world by designing the curriculum based on a model to make children divergent critical thinker.
They are the pioneers in introducing the concepts like Multiple Intelligence (MI), STEAM, Coding for Preschoolers, 21st-century skills, French and Mandarin as a foreign language in their pedagogy. As the initiative for LE started with the intent to make women become financially independent and confident entrepreneurs, LE started supporting their own initiative by appointing more than 80 percent women staff in their institute and giving the ownership of their franchisees only to women. Kopal Maheshwari spends time in guiding, assisting and supporting the women franchise owners on the fundamental concepts of managing centers, business aspects and bookkeeping, marketing and operations, which she calls 'Minimum Interference Maximum Support' model for franchisees. Owning to her supporting activities and not overburdening the franchise owners with mandatory opex or capex heavy requirements, Kopal Maheshwari has built a lifelong relationship and mutual trust that has lead to the success for all the franchisees.
Kopal Maheshwari's work did not stop after the inception of the preschool as she continuously hones the skills of the children to develop an inquisitive frame of mind and a passion for education. She also teaches the parents how to support their children by considering a child's core strengths and intelligence to grasp the knowledge better and faster. "In the end at the time of our graduation ceremonies, I always feel joyful after seeing the confident faces of the kids and thankful parents," says Maheshwari.
With the passion to make LEa synonym for quality preschool and early childhood education, Kopal Maheshwari has bigger goals to achieve at the moment. "I did face hurdles at the time of encountering people who tried to manipulate our work by copying our concepts. That is why we have been very careful in choosing the right partners and making sure that they are equally passionate about education like us," concludes Ms. Maheshwari. Despite these challenges Little Einsteins has been able to grow their presence in seven countries across the globe with USA being the latest addition.
Our endeavor is to ensure that we pick up the best and most effective practices from around the world and make the journey for so many children filled with unfathomable love and enjoyable - Kopal Maheshwari.
Where many Indian women sacrifice their big dreams of doing good societal works due to unsupportive family, it's a blessing in disguise for few women like Kopal Maheshwari to have constant family support. Being a commerce graduate and having completed masters in the field, Kopal was always interested in the development of the educational structure of the country at the grass-root level. This was because, while working in senior management positions with companies like Dell and Monster, Kopal Maheshwari discovered that there was a lack of quality preschools in India which becomes a liability of taking a break from career for a mother after her child is born. Seeing the situation of the preschools, Kopal Maheshwari got inspired to take education as a field of study and did research on it to obtain a certificate in Multiple Intelligence and started the journey of Little Einsteins (LE) in 2007.
With constant guidance, assistance, and encouragement received at the topmost level from her husband and family, Kopal Maheshwari says, "It would have been impossible for me to manage the first center without my husband, who is the pillar for my strength. My child, who is 11 now, also provides his inputs and thoughts on strategies. When you have a loyal family, work becomes an integral part of your personal life where success is inevitable. But we do take breaks for vacations to maintain the balance between life and work." Adding further, she continues, "Our endeavor is to ensure that we pick up the best and most effective practices from around the world and make the journey for so many children filled with unfathomable love and enjoyable."
Supporting Women Become Independent and Confident
Kopal Maheswari is an ambassador for 2 organizations in the Nordic countries which keeps her engaged in education innovations and helps her to stay abreast on research and development happening at the global front. Under her leadership, LE has imbibed the excellent and most effective practices from around the world by designing the curriculum based on a model to make children divergent critical thinker.
They are the pioneers in introducing the concepts like Multiple Intelligence (MI), STEAM, Coding for Preschoolers, 21st-century skills, French and Mandarin as a foreign language in their pedagogy. As the initiative for LE started with the intent to make women become financially independent and confident entrepreneurs, LE started supporting their own initiative by appointing more than 80 percent women staff in their institute and giving the ownership of their franchisees only to women. Kopal Maheshwari spends time in guiding, assisting and supporting the women franchise owners on the fundamental concepts of managing centers, business aspects and bookkeeping, marketing and operations, which she calls 'Minimum Interference Maximum Support' model for franchisees. Owning to her supporting activities and not overburdening the franchise owners with mandatory opex or capex heavy requirements, Kopal Maheshwari has built a lifelong relationship and mutual trust that has lead to the success for all the franchisees.
Aiming Higher
Kopal Maheshwari's work did not stop after the inception of the preschool as she continuously hones the skills of the children to develop an inquisitive frame of mind and a passion for education. She also teaches the parents how to support their children by considering a child's core strengths and intelligence to grasp the knowledge better and faster. "In the end at the time of our graduation ceremonies, I always feel joyful after seeing the confident faces of the kids and thankful parents," says Maheshwari.
With the passion to make LEa synonym for quality preschool and early childhood education, Kopal Maheshwari has bigger goals to achieve at the moment. "I did face hurdles at the time of encountering people who tried to manipulate our work by copying our concepts. That is why we have been very careful in choosing the right partners and making sure that they are equally passionate about education like us," concludes Ms. Maheshwari. Despite these challenges Little Einsteins has been able to grow their presence in seven countries across the globe with USA being the latest addition.