We recently connected with Shachi Sanghavi and have shared our conversation below.

Shachi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

When I bought the Challenge Island franchise and introduced it into the Houston-Katy area, I thought it would be an instant craze. But it was not that easy, it was a very difficult journey. Schools and other organizations did not want to try out something new and specially with minimal nation wide marketing they did not know what our program was all about. STEM/STEAM programs where more centered around robotics and coding, while our program was device free.

I would call multiple public and private schools to talk about our program but was always turned down. Our first break was working with a private Montessori school, they gave us a chance to bring Challenge Island as a enrichment program to their students. Their students and parents loved the program, and they spread the word to other parents, we gained some recognition in the Katy area but it was not enough to run a profitable business.
Our first summer camps were held in 2019 at a tutoring center we had rented, we had about 25 kids in total that summer. But we did not give up, we made more connections which lead to us getting small opportunities, some of which we did free of cost.

By 2020 we were anticipating a great summer but were hit by covid, but our Challenge-Island-palm-tree-like ability be flexible and strong through life’s ”storms” made us pivot our program virtually. We had hundreds of kids attending our summer camps virtually from all over the country. Our virtual programs were named as top 3 virtual program in the USA by Business Insider as vetted by the President of the American Camp Association and the Chief Innovation Officer of the Association of American Educators. Parade magazine voted us a Top Virtual Program in America.

Since then we have not looked back, we have worked with thousands of kids in the last 2 years to bring the magic of Challenge Island to them!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have a Masters in Special Education and have been certified in Montessori Education. When I came across Challenge Island I loved that it was a hands-on and kid-driven program. Challenge Island is based on the core essentials of STEM and STEAM but it also enhances effective oral and written communication and constant creative dialogue for solving what seems impossible. At Challenge Island we provide hands-on, high interest program which is based on STEM/STEAM curriculum. The Challenge Island program and curriculum are designed to meet the needs of two entities: Today’s playful, imaginative child and tomorrow’s empowered, globally-successful adult. We rest this core mission on our foundational palm tree pillars.

STEM + ART = STEAM
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
HIGHER LEVEL THINKING SKILLS
PROJECT BASED LEARNING
SCREEN FREE

Have you ever had to pivot?

When Covid hit on 2020, we had to pivot our whole program to the virtual platform. Our program was based on team building and working as a team to solve the challenges. But we remained strong and brainstormed ideas on how we could still bring this program to the kids who needed is more than ever before. We packed “kits” with the materials they would need to work on their challenges and shipped it or mailed it to them. We had over hundred kids joining us everyday from all over the country with different times zones, but with the help of my amazing staff at that time we make sure that each and every kid had a memorable fun and exciting time.
It made us stronger as a business to weather any storms that come our way.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

This is my first business’ that I bought, I was very nervous and had many sleepless nights, doubting myself if I should really do this. But this program spoke to me, in my heart I felt that this is was an amazing program that was needed in the current world where kids were on their devices all the time. Digital native kids desperately needed the opportunity to turn off their devices and connect with their peers face-to-face while discovering the wonders of the world around them. Challenge Island’s groundbreaking approach to STEM and STEAM education gifts 21st century kids with the essential, formative, non-digital childhood experiences that have largely been lost to their generation.

The acquisition process was a smooth one, we took a small loan from the bank and paid to the Challenge Island global office.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.challenge-island.com/nwhouston-katy
• Instagram: @ci_nwhouston_katy
• Facebook: @CIKatyTX
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shachi-sanghavi-071a2618a
• Twitter: @IslandKaty
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPbjxqZtLZkVw_Os8YlF0HA