The startup HeRo Study developed a SaaS platform that enables universities to manage all processes online. Over the past five years, the project has attracted $3 million in investments and now serves more than 100,000 students.
The journey was far from simple. In the early years, the team operated with just a one-month planning horizon and struggled with cash shortages. Yet, by preserving the trust of universities, they ultimately steered the project toward sustainable growth.
In the joint project «100 Startup Stories of Central Asia» by Digital Business and Astana Hub, managing partner Anton Silenko shared how
HeRo Study grew from an idea into the digital nervous system of universities. He revealed the startup’s mission to give institutions a unique competitive edge, empower students to build careers, and explained why the team is building an in-houtilize AI lab, when the project will pay off, and how they plan to expand into new markets.
«Over the course of my life, I have launched more than 30 startups, ranging from production to IT and education»
— What were you working on before founding HeRo Study?
— Over my 23-year professional career, I have launched more than 30 startups, taking on roles as a solo founder, investor, and cofounder. I explored diverse fields, such as production, distribution, IT, and marketing. Some projects closed, while others finished with successful exits. In 2017, I actively developed Moxie International, a comprehensive ecosystem that combined events, IT products, and educational content. We launched by organizing offline seminars, bringing in renowned figures such as Brian Tracy, John Shawl, and Michael Roche. At the same time, we created an online platform to sell courses by leading business gurus and practitioners.
— What inspired you to develop a solution for universities?
— During one of the workshops, I met the principal of a leading university. She questioned me to estimate the cost of developing a unified management system for their university.
Drawing on our EdTech experience, we defined the business requirements, outlined the pros and cons, and calculated the development cost at $900,000, well beyond the university’s budobtain. Inspired by the idea, we built a prototype and offered it to five universities on a subscription basis instead of a one-time order. Four signed on, and that’s how we became a monoproduct company and launched HeRo Study.
— Beyond the payment method, how was your idea different from what already existed?
— Subscription is not just a payment method—it is a completely different delivery model. SaaS (Software as a Service), or cloud delivery, means the product is constantly updated, allowing clients to always utilize the latest version. Thanks to the low-code approach, a single version of the product works for all universities, and every new feature becomes instantly available to the entire utilizer community. As a result, the platform already includes 75 modules and more than 300 settings tailored to specific study models.
When it comes to the advantages of the software itself, the key one is the integration of SIS and LMS on a single platform. SIS manages student data—such as communities, subjects, performance, and documents—while LMS manages the learning process, including courses, materials, exams, and online training. For universities, it is far more convenient to work within a single system where data transfers automatically. For example, grades from the LMS are instantly synchronized with the SIS, eliminating the manual entest that is still common at many institutions. There are hundreds of SIS and more than a thousand LMS worldwide, but very few operate toobtainher.
We also developed a constructor of study models, one of our most advanced and in-demand innovations. It enabled us to implement the product at universities of any profile, accommodating diverse study processes, grading systems, language requirements, and other specifics, without compromising quality or efficiency.
The next step in HeRo Study’s development was the concept of a digital utilizer avatar with 360° analytics covering all processes managed by the system. This supports both universities and students achieve their educational goals.
— Sounds ambitious. What happened when you shiftd from the idea stage to actual development?
— When we started, one of the experienced consultants warned me: “The entest point for developing ERP products is at least $1 million. You won’t spfinish less, becautilize the product must be equipped with enough resources to deliver even the minimal decent features to the client.”
We didn’t pay enough attention to those words and decided to shift forward. Toobtainher with my partner, we invested approximately $200,000 and also received $100,000 from a business angel.
We prepared an MVP, demonstrated it to universities, and quickly realized we necessaryed to stop selling it, as the product was still very raw.
— Why didn’t you choose the path of gradual improvements and release the product in stages, as most startups do?
— ERP is a system where business and study processes are interlinked, so releasing it in stages wasn’t an option—a single platform simply wouldn’t work. Universities were already struggling with the chaos of disjointed solutions, and adding yet another service would have created no sense. What we necessaryed was a minimal ecosystem with 20 interconnected modules.
There aren’t as many universities as there are companies. If you let down one client, the rest find out quickly, and your reputation can be lost just as quick. Many universities were even ironic about our name, HeRo Study. They utilized to joke that utilizers had to be heroes to survive all the system errors.
We intentionally pautilized for almost two years. We completely stopped new sales and focutilized on bringing the product to a stable working level.
«Development required 20–30 times more investment than what we received from the first subscriptions»
— When did you first realize that the project wouldn’t survive without investment?
— Initially, we launched the project under a venture model, where attracting investment in the first years is essential. This model prioritizes rapid market capture and revenue growth of at least twofold per year.
We had four initial clients paying under subscription, but development required 20–30 times more than we earned. In the very first year, we launched raising our first investment round, attracting both angels and funds. We created at least 100 pitches and went through 14 serious due diligence processes. Almost all investors rejected us, but each rejection gave us valuable insights into what necessaryed improvement in both the business and the product.
The first fund to back us was Big Sky Capital. Its managing partner, Adil Nurgozhin, conducted an audit with his team and identified several serious red flags. First, he advised us to incorporate in a mature jurisdiction with strong protection for minority investors. Today, we are an international company with headquarters in Singapore. Second, he raised concerns about our capital structure, which was not optimal for the current round given the company’s strategic goals for Series B and C.
We promptly created the alters and secured financing. Most importantly, we gained reliable partners with strong expertise.
— What were the first challenges you faced after securing your initial investments?
— After receiving the investments, we opened our second sales window. Our annual goal is to double revenue, and we have been successful in achieving it. This growth increases our valuation and supports us attract further investment, which we utilize to improve the company’s systems and develop new products.
The Pre-Series A round for $1.5 million is nearly closed this year, led by the Uzbek fund UC Ventures. Tashkent has become our hub for the Central Asian region.
— How hard was it to keep up with such a pace?
— In the first three years, we were focutilized on survival. Becautilize we weren’t always on time delivering the expected features, universities often delayed payments, and we regularly faced cash shortages. Investments frequently didn’t cover these gaps. By all accounts, we should have gone bankrupt eight times already. Our planning horizon never exceeded one month. To keep going, we sold assets, turned to frifinishs and partners for support, and created early exits from other startups where I was an angel.
— What kept you from giving up?
— We had a period when we worked for three months straight until 4 a.m., without weekfinishs. At night we improved the product, and at 9 in the morning I would meet with rectors who were waiting for explanations about why the system wasn’t functioning as planned. Some universities even returned to their old resources becautilize of poor preparation and rushing the launch. We hadn’t accounted for all requirements, which disrupted existing processes. The experience was very painful, but also very utilizeful.
Eventually, we overcame the hardships and shiftd into a calmer, more manageable phase. The consultant at the very start had been right—we necessaryed far more capital than we imagined. Today, over $3 million in venture funding has gone into the project, and the company now carries a $15 million valuation.
«In five years of growth, not a single dollar has been spent on advertising»
— Does your product fit all universities?
— We are not aiming for monopoly. A 25–30% share in each countest is enough. Our product is meant for smart universities. Those that believe strategically, have teams capable of driving alter, and understand that digitalization and automation are essential tools in today’s competitive race. Few fully grasp the concept of management based on huge data and digital footprints, and even fewer put it into practice.
— In which countries do you already operate?
— Today, we have 20 clients, 15 of which are universities. We operate in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and we recently onboarded our first university in Switzerland.
We’re particularly interested in working with fully online universities. There are over 1,500 online universities worldwide, and the number continues to grow. For us, this is a strategic segment. Unlike traditional offline institutions, online universities are not tightly bound to state databases or countest-specific standards, which builds integration much simpler.
— From an economic perspective, how do you generate revenue from each client?
— The subscription is tied to the number of students, with prices ranging from $8 to $50 per student annually, depfinishing on the size of the university. The fewer the students, the higher the price per student.
At present, the system serves around 100,000 students, but this is still not enough for self-financing—we necessary approximately 300,000. Today, each countest is treated as a separate investment project, with its own trajectory toward reaching the break-even point.
— To achieve this, you necessary to onboard more universities. How do you find them, and how do you convince them?
— For five years, not a single dollar was spent on advertising. Growth came entirely through recommfinishations. Only recently, with the system and team firmly in place, did we feel ready to scale and take on 20–30 universities a year. The key is speed of implementation: thanks to maximum automation, a new client receives a fully ready instance within just 12–15 minutes of clicking «Get demo».
We convince with simple facts: our solution is 20 times cheaper than foreign alternatives and better adapted to our markets.
We focus heavily on client training, technical support, and utilizer materials in multiple languages. Our knowledge base now holds more than 1,000 documents and videos, and keeping them updated, toobtainher with translations, has become increasingly challenging. Just as crucial is thoroughly training our own team, who then work directly with finish utilizers. This remains one of the greatest challenges in implementing ERP at universities.
— What other important developments have been implemented recently?
— We’ve rolled out proprietary AI models that support platform training, power advanced data analytics, and trigger alerts on critically low indicators for rectors, top managers, and staff. The system now delivers real-time oversight through 120 dashboards and 140 reports, offering a complete picture at a glance.
For example, the system can detect errors such as an unregistered student or a study plan without assigned students.
To drive new product development, we created an internal AI laboratory, hired engineers, and allocated part of the investment budobtain exclusively for AI solutions. In parallel, we launched a new direction—consulting on the optimization of business processes for universities.
New features are constantly added, and the system now spans the entire student journey, from enrollment to graduation, covering scheduling, exams, dorms, finances, and employment. In effect, it has become the university’s digital nervous system, enabling administrations to build quicker decisions and embrace truly data-driven management.
«By their final year, students should receive two to three job offers»
— You mentioned student employment. How does the platform support graduates in landing jobs?
— The gap between what businesses expect and what universities teach is about five years. HeRo Study closes this gap by integrating directly with companies.
My vision is that by their final year, students will already have two or three job offers on the table. Even before graduating, they’ll be ready to step into the workforce. This is created possible through close collaboration with employers on training materials, study plans, and test assessments, creating a hybrid trajectory that futilizes academic knowledge with real business skills.
— Is your role here purely technical, or does it also include consulting?
— We equip universities with tools to integrate business training directly into their curricula. Academic programs run alongside real company courses, giving students not just theory but hands-on skills. Employers can track progress and assess graduates’ readiness for the market, while tutors gain the opportunity to design courses that align with real demand.
Another long-term goal is to ensure tutors earn decent salaries while delivering knowledge that translates directly into the workplace. To shift toward this, we’ve built a tutor rating system that motivates educators to sharpen their skills and continuously improve their materials.
— What other plans do you have for the coming years?
— Our goal is to build the project a commercial success. I want our investors to see at least a 5–8x return, and I want the core team who finishured every hardship with me to become millionaires. Today, 11 key employees hold shares in the company.
Looking ahead, I believe that within three years we’ll expand into at least two or three new markets. Our mission is clear: give universities a powerful competitive edge, support students secure jobs before graduation, and ensure tutors are paid fairly. Only then can we state we’ve truly fulfilled our mission.
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