Product-led frowth in EdTech: How Gaiane Simonian built a 12-million-user platform

A 2025 UNESCO report highlights that despite the global EdTech market’s projected growth to $404 billion by 2025, a significant digital divide persists, with 60% of primary schools worldwide lacking internet connectivity, often stalling due to stakeholder misalignment and a lack of recurring user engagement.

Gaiane Simonian, MIT MBA and former Head of Olympiads at Uchi.ru, one of Eastern Europe’s leading EdTech platforms, overcame those hurdles by designing monthly school competitions that reached over 12 million users. A recognized EdTech innovator, she built a cross-functional team of 40 and led Olympiads in Math, Programming, Ecology, and more, working with ministries and global partners. Her approach transformed a traditional concept of school Olympiads into a powerful tool for growth, retention, and visibility. Her work won national and international recognition, including ‘Math Solution of the Year’ at EdTech Review India (2020) and the ‘Best Social Project of Russia’ award for her Safe Roads Olympiad.

Here’s how other EdTech platforms can apply similar strategies.

Use familiar formats

EdTech users, especially in K-12, adopt products more readily when they resemble familiar systems. Simonian bet on this principle, digitizing traditional Olympiads rather than inventing entirely new formats.

“You don’t invent a new need, instead, you just offer a new way to meet it,” she explains. The competitions were like school contests but more fun, interactive, and easy to join from home. Because they felt familiar, people joined quickly and easily.

Innovation isn’t about inventing a new product, it’s about making what people already know faster, easier, and more enjoyable. EdTech works best when it builds on familiar offline formats. Gaiane explains: “For example, Duolingo is built around exercises and repetition, like what students already do in language classes. Quizlet replaces physical flashcards with digital ones.”

Because users already understand the analog versions, they don’t need tutorials or convincing to use these digital tools. The value is self-evident, which speeds up adoption and lowers resistance, which is crucial in conservative sectors like education.

Build the habit

Designing the roadmap around seasonality and attention cycles can help products become well anticipated. An event like an Olympiad can be perceived as a Netflix premiere by students, with excitement and willingness to do it all at once, while everyone is doing it, too.

Gaiane suggests making Olympiads a monthly rhythm. This is how she avoided the need to constantly reintroduce the product. “In EdTech, content is expensive. You need economies of scale,” she says. Each launch was timed carefully. She built a clear launch calendar that matched school seasons, key priorities, and government plans, like:

• September: Launch Math Olympiads to tap into high energy at the start of the school year — a great time for core subjects.
• November: Run global events like BRICSMath in India and Brazil, as students are settled and ready for international projects.
• December: Focus on coding challenges and holiday games, using global tech events and festive spirit to boost interest.
• March: STEM and ecology themes for spring learning cycles. Spring is ideal for science-focused topics, aligning with Earth Day and increased environmental awareness.
• May: Introduce Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy Olympiads — a smart way to teach real-world skills before exams and summer break.

Such clarity and strategic thinking help secure partnerships, allocate budgets, and hit user growth targets.

Engineer the gala moment

Each Olympiad began with a gala launch, often featuring celebrities, officials, or even ministers. Such events can be both ceremonial and strategic. By making them feel like major premieres, Simonian created excitement and made learning a national event.

For example, Gaiane arranged the launch of an international Math competition supported by a leading figure in economic policy at an international economic forum, while the Financial Literacy Olympiad was introduced through a live session led by the head of the national financial regulator. Their presence showed trust and national importance, drawing in educators and school leaders who follow their lead on education initiatives.

This approach reflected a broader principle: launches aren’t just functional but emotional. “A well-staged beginning creates visibility, trust, and momentum,” shares Gaiane. “It positions the product not merely as a tool, but as a cultural event worth remembering.”

Design for all the people involved

In education, success depends on reaching many people, not just students, but also policymakers, district leaders, teachers, and parents.

Simonian built tools for every level: real-time dashboards and performance analytics for school administrators, classroom-friendly tracking systems for teachers, and playful, intuitive interfaces for students. This helped everyone see the product’s value, built trust, and made it easier to use. By meeting each group’s needs, she encouraged wide and lasting engagement.

“Once, a national press release accidentally included my phone number,” she says. “For weeks, I got many calls from teachers across the country, thanking us, asking questions, even sharing how excited their students were. Even though it was the best user research experience for me, eventually I had to turn off my phone. It was the first and only time I ever felt like a celebrity,” Gaiane recollects.

That’s why EdTech products must be designed not just for students but for the entire ecosystem. When every stakeholder finds value, from teachers to administrators, the product naturally embeds itself into everyday educational practice.

For other platforms, this means mapping out who influences adoption at each level — and creating tools or messaging that speak to their specific goals.

Turn product usage into platform conversion

The Olympiads weren’t just engaging activities; they were also top-of-funnel drivers. Once a student completed a free competition, they encountered a soft paywall, typically alongside a parent. That moment converted curiosity into a subscription.

“Olympiads were our best lead generator. They brought in up to 3 million new unique users per year,” Simonian says. It was embedded into the product. Each competition brought new users to the platform every month. Other platforms can do the same by adding lead-generation features directly into the product, not through separate marketing, but through everyday use.

The real genius was in the flow: students often encountered Olympiads as classroom assignments, completing them at home. This brought them into contact with a paywall, usually alongside a parent. “If a child is excited to participate, and the teacher recommends it, parents are far more likely to pay,” Gaiane explains. “We designed around that chain: from principal to teacher to student to parent.”

This is especially useful for B2B2C models in education, where purchase decisions are indirect. Mapping the actual path of influence — and placing moments of delight and conversion along that path — turns passive users into active promoters.

From the examples above, we get that the key to scaling in EdTech is clarity, consistency, and emotional resonance. Familiar formats, thoughtfully timed launches, and joyful experiences can transform even the simplest ideas into powerful growth engines. When platforms align with existing habits and embed themselves into the natural learning rhythm, they don’t need to compete for attention — they become part of the culture itself.