Are a teacher’s daily activities confined only within the classroom? The answer is actually no. Although their primary responsibility is to teach, teachers often have to take on a variety of other tasks. From handling administrative duties within the educational institution to managing programmes and events, they are left with little time to prepare for their classes.
This often leads to burnout. A study in the US found that a significant portion of teachers experience burnout. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 44% of K-12 teachers report feeling burned out often or always. This is higher than the average burnout rate across other professions, which stands at 30%.
Although similar research is not available in the context of Bangladesh, two BUET alumni, Yanur Islam Piash and Azmain Adel, believe the situation here is likely to be no different. And they know it for a fact — many of their family members are in the teaching profession.
“I have witnessed my wife’s experience as a teacher. I watched her constantly bringing work home, juggling support for students and parents around the clock, being overwhelmed by administrative tasks outside the classroom. It is exhausting and edging toward burnout. Adel has two teachers in the family as well,” Piash shared with The Business Standard.
The urge to find a solution led them to build Monsha. The duo embarked on this journey in June last year with a clear goal to reduce teachers’ workload using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Most edtech innovations have overlooked teachers’ productivity, despite massive investments in Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Student Information Systems (SIS) over the past two decades.
Piash and Adel both graduated from BUET in 2019 — Piash from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Adel from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
In November last year, they launched their minimum viable product — an AI-powered web application. In just a few months, the platform attracted over 20,000 visitors organically, with most users coming from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and several emerging markets.
“I have witnessed my wife’s experience as a teacher. I watched her constantly bringing work home, juggling support for students and parents around the clock, being overwhelmed by administrative tasks outside the classroom. It is exhausting and edging toward burnout. Adel has two teachers in the family as well.” Yanur Islam Piash, Co-founder of Monsha
However, Piash’s journey as an entrepreneur began back during the Covid-19 pandemic when he co-founded the popular e-learning platform Bohubrihi, branding it as the Bangladeshi Coursera. The startup was later acquired by Shikho in 2021. He spent the next two and a half years as part of Shikho’s leadership team before finally leaving to launch Monsha in mid-2024.
Piash brings to the table his entrepreneurial experience while Adel brings extensive expertise in AI and software engineering. Monsha is still a two-man show — there are no other members in the team so far.
So, what exactly does Monsha do? Monsha is an AI-powered platform built to help teachers and educators plan their curriculum, prepare lessons, and create teaching materials more easily. It’s an all-in-one tool that simplifies the time-consuming tasks of teaching prep, helping educators save time and focus more on teaching and connecting with their students.
Monsha provides tools to create assessments, presentations, and worksheets, along with features that support diverse learning needs. Teachers can also easily export their materials to platforms like Google Classroom and Microsoft Office.
Recently, Monsha was accepted into the San Francisco-based LAUNCH Accelerator, founded by Silicon Valley’s prolific entrepreneur and angel investor Jason Calacanis. As part of the programme, the company has raised $125,000 in pre-seed funding to support product development.
The founders aim to utilise the funding, network and mentorship to strengthen Monsha’s core product features, expand into key teacher workflows such as grading, explore new distribution channels, and build strategic partnerships with schools and districts.
The platform works in a subscription-based model. It offers three pricing plans to suit different users: the Basic Plan is free and ideal for individual teachers, offering curriculum planning and up to 10 resource generations per month.
The Pro Plan costs $15 per month (or $120 annually) and provides unlimited resources, advanced features, and early access to new tools. The Enterprise Plan is tailored for schools and institutions, including all Pro features plus custom tools, integration, and dedicated support, with pricing based on specific needs.
“Monsha won’t be limited to any specific region — it’s for teachers all around the world. Our goal is to take it as far and wide as possible across the globe. Among all the global companies that have emerged from Bangladesh, we want to become the biggest. That’s our ultimate dream,” said Piash.
However, they have found accessing the international market while operating from Bangladesh quite challenging.
“As entrepreneurs, our biggest expectation from the country and the government is to make it easier to do business in Bangladesh. Our country lags behind in the ease of doing business index. Many promising startups have the potential to attract global funding, but the real challenge lies in running a business here,” he noted.
Piash and Adel believe that if the government steps in and addresses these issues, our startup ecosystem could move forward by leaps and bounds.