Today we’d like to introduce you to Gaurav Sangal.
Gaurav, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
The STEM Lab didn’t start with a business plan. It started with a conviction.
After getting a Master’s in Electrical Engineering, years of working in telecom and public-safety engineering, and later earning an MBA, I kept coming back to the same question: why are kids not getting exposed to technologies that will define their lives? AI, robotics, coding, engineering – these aren’t electives. They are the future. And too many students were being left out of that conversation entirely.
So, I decided to do something about it.
What began as a small, scrappy program has grown into an award-winning K–9 STEM education organization serving students across the Midlands and beyond through camps, after-school programs, teacher training, homeschool cohorts, advanced evening programs, and direct school partnerships. We teach robotics, coding, AI, science, Math, engineering, and emerging technologies – not as abstract concepts, but as hands-on tools kids can use right now.
The growth hasn’t been linear. We have built this bootstrapped, one program at a time, earning trust with families and schools through results. We compete in VEX Robotics, First LEGO League, and 4H Engineering competitions. We deploy AI and robotics curricula directly into partner schools. We have created evening programs to train students in advanced concepts like Rocket Engineering, Neuroscience, Quantum Mechanics, Cybersecurity, Economics & Finance, Circuit Design, and Drone Coding. We use a first-principles approach to break down advanced concepts into easier principles for kids to understand.
Every step has been driven by one north star: make world-class STEM education accessible, engaging, and real for every kid who walks through our doors – or whose school we walk into.
We are still growing. But the mission hasn’t changed since day one.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Honestly? Far from it.
I launched with energy and momentum – and then COVID hit about a year and a half in, right when we were starting to get some momentum. What followed was two and a half years of effectively being shut down. No camps, no after-school programs, no in-person anything. We were able to offer some virtual classes, but that was not enough for us to sustain. For a young, bootstrapped organization still finding its footing, that kind of disruption doesn’t just slow you down – it tests whether you are willing to rebuild from scratch. We were.
Getting back up and opening a physical location felt like the right next step, but brick-and-mortar comes with its own set of challenges. Growth was slow. Rent was unforgiving. And the pressure of carrying that overhead while rebuilding enrollment from the ground up was a constant weight.
Like any entrepreneur, the job description has never been just one thing. On any given day, I am the curriculum designer, the operations manager, the sales team, the strategy team, the customer service rep, the marketing manager, the HR team, the teacher, the troubleshooter, and the janitor. Wearing every hat forces you to confront your weaknesses head-on – and fast. There’s no delegating your way around it when you are building lean.
Marketing is a perfect example. It wasn’t a skill I came in with, and hiring for it wasn’t an option in the early days. So I learned it – social media, ad campaigns, email, content creation, flyer designs, all of it. Done in-house, from scratch. It’s uncomfortable to put yourself out there before you feel ready, but that discomfort turned out to be one of the best teachers.
Finding the right instructors has been one of the most persistent challenges. We need people who have a real STEM background and the ability to make that knowledge feel alive for kids – to think outside the box, connect concepts to the real world, and keep a room full of curious students genuinely engaged. That combination is rare, and it doesn’t come easy.
Getting into schools and school districts has been its own uphill climb. The decision-making process is long, relationships take time to build, and proving your value to administrators who have limited budgets and a hundred competing priorities requires patience and persistence.
And through all of it, we have done this without outside investment. Every decision, every hire, every new curriculum, every piece of equipment, has been self-funded. That kind of financial discipline sharpens you, but it also means there is no safety net.
Speaking of curriculum – building it is a job in itself. The technology landscape in AI, robotics, and emerging tech moves fast. Staying current means constantly learning, constantly updating, and constantly asking whether what we taught last year still reflects where the world is heading. That never stops.
None of it has been easy. But every obstacle has made the organization – and the mission – more resilient.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At its core, The STEM Lab exists to make world-class STEM education accessible, engaging, and relevant for every student – regardless of zip code or background. We are an award-winning K-9 STEM education organization based in Columbia, SC, serving students and schools across the Midlands and beyond through a range of programs that meet families and institutions where they are.
We specialize in robotics, coding, artificial intelligence, science, engineering, and emerging technologies – but what we are really known for is making those subjects feel real. Not theoretical. Not textbook. Hands-on, future-facing, and designed to stick.
What We Offer
Our programs run across multiple formats to maximize access. Summer, spring break, winter, and one-day camps give students an immersive, high-energy experience. After-school programs provide consistent, weekly skill-building. Homeschool cohorts serve families who want rigorous, tech-forward enrichment outside the traditional classroom. Evening programs at our Innovation Hub location offer the most advanced programs for ages 6 – 15 years old. And through our school partnership model, we bring our curriculum directly into partner schools – deploying AI and robotics programs where students already are. In addition, we also offer in-school field trips and fun birthday parties to expand our reach to more students in a fun way. Our competitions and hackathons get the kids to showcase and test their skills by challenging them to achieve goals while competing with other students with similar skills.
Our signature offering includes the evening programs and teacher training. Evening programs are uniquely positioned for kids 6 – 15 years old, where each group meets up to twice a week and gets to do some of the most hands-on projects on advanced topics like AI, Rocket Engineering, 3D printing, Neuroscience, Quantum mechanics, Biomedical Engineering, Economics, Finance, and Drone coding. Teacher training allows us to train the trainers in school districts. This expands the reach of our programs to more students across South Carolina by allowing the teachers to train their students in some of the STEM concepts.
What Sets Us Apart
A lot of organizations teach coding. Fewer teach AI. Almost none weave together computer science, emerging technology, real-world tools, and cross-disciplinary thinking the way we do – and do it across every grade band from kindergarten through 9th grade.
We don’t water things down for younger students or assume older ones can only handle surface-level content. Every program is designed with genuine rigor and genuine excitement in mind. Our instructors aren’t just teachers – they come from STEM backgrounds and bring real-world context into every session.
We are also deeply committed to staying current. The AI landscape alone has transformed dramatically in the last two years. We have been teaching AI for over 6 years to our students. We update our curriculum continuously so that what students learn with us reflects where technology is actually headed – not where it was five years ago.
What We’re Most Proud Of
Honestly, the trust. When a parent drives across the county to enroll their child with us, or when a school district opens its doors because they believe in what we are building – that’s the thing that means the most. We have earned that trust by delivering results, not by overpromising.
We are also proud of building something that didn’t exist here before. The Midlands of South Carolina now has a place where a 7-year-old can build their first robot and a 15-year-old can design an AI-generated medical device using a 3D printer. That gap existed. We filled it.
What We Want Readers to Know
If you have a child who is curious, creative, or just hasn’t found their thing yet, we would love to be the place that changes that. And if you are a school, district, or organization looking for a partner who can bring serious STEM programming to your students without the overhead of building it yourself, we should talk.
The STEM Lab isn’t just a program. It’s a pipeline – from a kid’s first introduction to coding all the way through the skills they’ll need to compete in a world being reshaped by AI and technology every single day.
Learn more at www.thestemlabsc.org.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Relentlessness.
Not in an aggressive, burn-everything-down way – but in the quiet, unglamorous sense of simply refusing to stop. There have been plenty of moments – during COVID, during slow enrollment stretches, during the months where the overhead felt heavier than the revenue – where stopping would have been the rational choice. We didn’t.
But if relentlessness is the engine, then adaptability is the fuel. The world we are preparing students for is changing faster than any curriculum can keep up with. That means we have to be willing to tear up what worked last year and rebuild it if the technology has moved on. It means being honest about what isn’t landing and fixing it – quickly, without ego.
Running a bootstrapped organization also demands a certain kind of humility that I didn’t fully anticipate. You have to be willing to be bad at something long enough to get good at it. Marketing. Operations. Hiring. Curriculum design. There’s no department to hand it off to. That humility – the willingness to sit in discomfort and keep learning – has been as important to our survival as any skill I came in with.
And underneath all of it is a genuine belief in the mission. Not as a tagline, but as the reason you show up when things are hard. When you believe that what you’re building actually changes the trajectory of a child’s life, it reframes every obstacle. It’s not a setback. It’s just the next problem to solve.
That combination – relentlessness, adaptability, humility, and mission clarity – is what I would point to. No single one of them works without the others.
Pricing:
- STEM Evening – $130/month
- STEM Afterschool at school – $65/month
- Weeklong camps – $265/week
- Day camp – $75/day
- Daily school pickup, STEM, and homework – $130/week
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thestemlabsc.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stemlabsc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stemlabsc
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gauravsangal
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSTEMLab-SC
