The start-up that believes in Right Idea in Right Market with Right Execution
“Ego is Easy Go for Us.” – Prateek Kumar Bhowmick
There was a time when students used to be very confused regarding their prospective colleges and various career-related aspects. Their parents would run from pillar to post so that they could get the best guide for their kids. But ever since education counsellors came into the picture, things have become quite easier for the students as well as their parents. They need not hustle that much now as most of the task is done by education counsellors themselves. In the last decade, the process has become even better with the services of digital platforms which help students in getting admitted to the college of their dream.
Today, we are going to talk about one such digital platform named ReviewAdda co-founded by two young innovative minds – Prateek Kumar Bhowmick and Rahul Jain. Before talking about the platform, let’s see how their journey began. Before conceptualizing ReviewAdda, Prateek was an ex-early founding team member of India’s early ed-tech startup backed by Intel Capital &Jafco Asia known as Vriti. During Vriti, he met his co-founder, Rahul Jain. Despite having a family business background, Rahul had a core belief in technology. During the continuous discussion, both decided to sow the seed of their own startup as both possess experience in tech, funding & operation in the Ed-tech Sector. That’s how ReviewAdda came into place in 2015.
The company has successfully placed more than 36,000 admissions in premium & under-rated Indian colleges & universities in the last 7 years with the help of its core-founding team members. It has 3,200+ Partner Micro-Coaching Institutes/Tutors those work with it as influencers from Tier-2, Tier-3 and towns in India. In the last seven years, such has the bond of the two become that they kind of complement each other. “Without Prateek, we can’t run Reviewadda, our co-founder relationship is like husband and wife, where we fight, share and respect each other but never conflict with each other’s decisions, we take whatever is best for the company”, says Rahul with a smile on his face.
EGO means Easy Go
In their entrepreneurial journey, they have made sure the ego doesn’t come in between the vision that they share. “Ego is Easy Go for Us”, says Prateek. Prateek has always believed in “Hard Work with Smart Work” philosophy. Also, he is full ofperseverance, resilience, positive andspiritual energy. He also believes the luck also has role to play in the success of an entrepreneurial journey.
When they started ReviewAdda in 2015, they didn’t have even proof-of-concept & platform, it was just on pen-paper based idea stage with strong data points & analytics. Not a single person wanted to invest in the two young first-time entrepreneurs.Then someone advised them to connect with Ultra Media (India’s Largest Film Distribution House). They had a meeting with the distribution house in Mumbai and in the first meeting itself they took the risk and believedin their vision and face-value.Ultra Mediainvested INR one Crore as Seed-Funding.That was first break moment in their entrepreneurial journey.Ultra Media played a very important role to give direction for their growth not in numbers but in profitability too and due to these fundamentals, they sustained in COVID-19.
Prateek believes India has huge scope in the Domestic Admissions market. Eight millionstudents take admissions in 1,000+universities and 40,000+ colleges every year. Prateek’s core focus is on domestic admissions. “We have captured not even 1% of markets. I and my co-founder personally focus on the ultra-premium admission market in higher education, there are so many last moment vacant seats in premium & under-rated colleges & universities, and students are not aware due to a lack of advice and counselling”, he points.
Apart from ReviewAdda, Prateekalso spends his time analyzingearly-stage start-up and if he finds good opportunity, he loves to do some very tiny small investment in those startups. His thesis for investment and mentorship in startups is learning fast from the mistake. “I believe in Right Idea in Right Market with Right Execution at Right Time and Right Team.”
Well-planned ground research strategy
Prateek takes pride in the fundamentals and core focus of ReviewAdda.Many people advised themto pivot and focus on international admissions.However, Prateek and Rahul were very clear about not wanting to enter commodities and competitive market.“There are already so many great advising firms in study abroad segment, we didn’t have strength and interest to compete with their business.”Prateek is quite an expert in well-planned ground research strategy and execution plan.
Prateek and Rahul always share examples of fundamental core values in every fortnight meeting with team members whether it’s universities/colleges/students or parents. They never pitch any kind of wrong commitments and misinformation.Their business runs on reference, and core values are more important when you don’t want to spend budget for marketing. The only core fundamentals are the marketing funnel for your organization.
Apart from this, Self-Confidence, Market Research with on-ground data and positive vibes have helped him a lot to tackle from roller-costar entrepreneurial journey.The journey is not a straight line. Prateek’s wife is a motivational leader for him, she has played a great role in his success. Also, he finds inspiration fromSachin Bansal of Flipkart, who started with a simple idea and exited with a large-scale startup.“He is a great example of a dreamer from middle-class family who did wonders with great execution and self-motivation.”
Prateek has a piece of advice for budding entrepreneurs. He says, “Don’t start a startup because it’s on trend, start a core business (Dhanda) with clarity and profitability, else have the mental peace with your regular job and alternative investments returns, and don’t chase a stressful entrepreneur journey without backup.”
