"If you want to shine like the sun, first burn like the sun,” so said the one and only APJ Abdul Kalam, great innovator, committed educationist, prolific spaceman, awe-inspiring activist and former President of India.
That one of the few individuals who follows this dictum to a tee is named Ravi Prakash meaning Sunlight is certainly no coincidence; the role and ring of destiny is evident in why and how this bundle of solar energy chose to be a teacher, and not some corporate bigwig or top-notch government official that he could have so easily become. In my freewheeling initiatives and interactions with thought leaders across the globe, I have seen very few individuals as selfless and tireless as this maverick, a rare venture catalyst and angel activist amid many a venture capitalist and angel investor who flaunt their capital and wealth to glory and behave like God’s gifts to humankind.
The bulk of providers in the online education space, including the JEE & CAT coaching market, knowingly and unknowingly behave very similar to the food and cab aggregators and quick commerce businesses, where big money is regularly pumped in the marketing and business development, but the operations and delivery remain pathetically ignored, and glossy advertisements and flowery endorsements by film and sport celebrities are unsuccessfully employed to conceal and downplay the blunders of suspect work cultures and poor customer service. No wonder, the conclusion is forgone when the honeymoon period is over. We all know how the cookie crumbles – how the so-called Ed-tech pioneers were trapped in the debris of financial mismanagement and flawed decisions, after hitting the jackpot with funny and fancy ads explaining the Pythagorean theorem.
Hence, when you come across activists who mean business but are far from being business-like, your delight knows no bounds. After having done a comprehensive thought leader story on Rajesh Balasubramanian, I was keen to cover the incredible saga of Ravi Prakash, a non-conformist of the same genre, one of the few founders who understand the essence and significance of the CAT format, as also the need to enhance the student’s thought process across all dimensions to help him and her develop the knack of cherry-picking attainable questions fighting the most critical constraint of time.
Although he was okay with the idea of the Q & A interaction, it took more than a year and a string of brazen requests to convince our friend to find time and attention off his hectic schedule. Fortunately he finally found the time and made my day!
I am elated to present the excerpts of my exclusive tete-a-tete with Ravi Prakash, founder of Rodha
How do you look back on your formative years in Patna?
I had a decent lower middle class upbringing, a good mix of academic discipline and playground recreation. Of course, scarcity of money was the constraint influencing every economic decision, which has its own charm; may be one cherishes it even more so when one looks back on the years gone by. I remember I had this great fascination for travel to exotic locations with scenic hilltops and serene beaches but that remained a distant dream due to financial constraints. In fact, I finally saw a beach at the ripe age of 28, when I went to Kerala for our honeymoon. That was the first time I experienced the splendour of the sea and the beach in full glory. So yes, there were struggles and challenges, plenty of them, but they couldn’t stop me from having fun with friends and my brother who is four years younger to me.
My school in Patna was not well equipped in terms of facilities and infrastructure, so I always yearned for a playground to quench my thirst for sporting encounters. On the education front, life was relatively comfortable till 10th, I was decent in my grades, very good in a couple of subjects and very bad in a few. After 10th, I developed the zeal and zest to prepare for IIT JEE exams and left no stone unturned in pursuing my goal. I had enrolled for different tuitions, and cycled 14 kilometres to the coaching centre in the hot noon sun of Patna, spending 4 hours for each class whether Physics, Organic Chemistry or Math (which spanned not more than 2 hours) exhausting myself in the process, sapped of energy to do anything else. No fun, no frolic just books and commuting.
What was the trigger for the choice of B. Tech in Electronics and Communication? Please share a few details of your academic voyage?
I could not clear my JEE. Although I had very convincingly cleared the cutoff for Math and Chemistry. I could not cleat the cutoff for Physics. At that time, I was not clear about the options before me, as I didn’t have the commensurate exposure. The prevalent trend was to opt for Electronics and Communications in B. Tech so I went by peer influence. I had cleared AIEEE entrance but I was not getting into a branch of my affinity so dropped that plan for treading the path of other technical undergraduate programs. I had the option of enrolling into chemical engineering and biotech engineering in a few non-IIT colleges, but I chose B. Tech. I had also won an ICFAI scholarship so the decision was kind of sealed in my mind.
During B. Tech, I relished the play time – both outdoors, playing volleyball and cricket, and indoors, getting better at table tennis. I also joined a dance class driven by the passion to try out everything I could not during the 17 years of my formative life. As mentioned earlier, school life was devoid of these perks, and so I was thrilled to make the most of the greenfield opportunities here. In good time, I became proficient in table tennis and cricket and was part of the cultural committees as well. The attention to study suffered a bit in the process but I have no regrets. I simply had a wonderful time. I however maintained my average grades like in school. In fact, I had myself set a target for B Tech of achieving 3 As and 3 Cs - so I used to pick three subjects for a deep dive and three for just sifting through. This strategy worked fine for me although it was not ideal.
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What was the turning point that defined your career in the real sense?
In third year B. Tech I cleared GATE with a very good percentile (upwards of 98.3) although there was no real interest cultivated for core electronics, I was not interested in coding either. I had set notions in my mind that if I pursue GATE, I will have to enter the R&D field for career options, so I was rather unsure of what I need to do. I had job offers from a few software companies as also from electronic firms. I did work in the corporate sector for a couple of years but still no path emerged in my mind’s eye, which I could say was my calling in life. I had also appeared for UPSC at that time, but I could not clear it, given that I could not prepare well with the job running in parallel, although I had shelled out some 40k for coaching. I realised UPSC won’t ever be possible as a part-time venture and I simply could not afford to quit my job. My father was on the verge of retirement and it was but obvious that I had to share the responsibility of my brother’s education.
I then shifted attention to doing an MBA. The moment I enrolled for coaching classes in Gurgaon, I discovered a natural affinity for the CAT subjects. And suddenly the realization that I was exceptionally good with numbers dawned on me with renewed vigour. I was always good at things like learning tables and doing fast calculations say, reproducing tables of say 167 through fast addition, like 167, 334, 501, 668, 835, 1002…. and so on. And suddenly, I also developed a passion for teaching. I sensed I can do a better job helping students learn math concepts in a fun way, devoid of the burden it is normally linked with. Consequently, I started taking lectures part time at the institute for Bank POs. My students had a instant connect with me as they saw that this man isn’t just expecting us to learn speed math, he’s doing it in real time and helping us do it as well. Before I realised, I had a huge fan following at the institute, with students keenly awaiting the next lecture in classrooms packed to capacity.
So, this was the proverbial twist in the tale?
Yes! Given the phenomenal response, I took myself seriously (for the first time) and ensured that the student expectations were met in full measure. When I asked the owners for giving me more CAT exam classes, the owners asked me to appear for a faculty test with the condition that if I score high, I would be allowed to train CAT students. My score in that test was less than satisfactory – I hardly got four to five question right out of the 30 questions asked in the paper. The owner then admonished me saying that I didn’t have what it takes to teach CAT students and I should stick to Bank POs. I was truly hurt by that remark and went into overdrive of the highest order. This was the month of May, I clearly remember.
I gathered all the CAT material that was available in the market, and in fact borrowed some 22,000 from a friend to make the grand purchase, which was beyond my financial capacity at that time. Luckily my friend obliged to lend me that princely sum. Probably even he sensed that I had locked horns with some life and death challenge.
With the rich repository of knowledge at my hand, I then started solving quant papers day and night for six months like a man possessed. Needless to say, I got a little lax on the job front but I couldn’t help it. I appeared for the November CAT exam and scored 99.81% in Quant and DI section. (Quant used to be clubbed with DI at that time) I showed the institute's owner mam my score and asked for her permission to teach Quant to CAT students. She gladly gave me the green signal.
I was not happy with the approach most teachers had, of relying on some or the other material - books, notes, guide anything,- to solve students’ queries, and not doing a thorough job of teaching concepts. I was groomed under very competent and sincere teachers like Vikas Rahi who taught Maths at Patna. He charged Rs 12000 (five time the market rate) as he covered the depth and width of the subject matter. I had fought with my dad to join his class and my dad had to break his PF for the same.
Similarly, K Singh sir used to teach chemistry with the same dedication. Both of them used to take ownership of their role and covered everything that a student could encounter in examinations. Their notes were complete in every respect. Now, in my teaching role, I wanted to follow in their footsteps. So, I researched a lot to build a robust teaching structure and curriculum to add measurable value to the students’ quant preparation. This effort took all of my time and resigned from my job to focus solely on this task. I faced a lot of backlash from home as I had settled for a low salary at the institute as a full time faculty.
Given the community's obsession with government jobs, did you face any opposition from elders and well wishers not to venture into the online teaching space? What made you think otherwise?
Come what may, I knew I had to do what I loved most. Within a short span, I had built a truly comprehensive content repository for Quant section of the CAT exam and slowly and steadily, I grew in stature at the institute as the most sought after teacher for Quant. I had never imagined myself as a teacher but given the love and respect I got from my students, I got immersed into the role. For the first time in my life, I was loving what I did, and doing what I love. The pay cut that I took to thrive in this happy zone was worth all the sacrifice. All day, I was glued to Pagalguy.com which was the only hub for teacher-student interaction and doubt solving, as there were no WhatsApp and telegram groups at that time.
I remember I was forced to ask for more money from my dad, as subsistence was becoming a challenge. My father was already miffed with me for my decision to quit my well paying job and so there was some bickering between us during that phase. I was however hell-bent on upskilling myself on the chosen path. Money and growth were of course important but without the necessary skill sets, they would always remain a distant dream. I knew that very well.
I tried to go the entrepreneurial way during this time, but I didn’t get the needful support from my family. Few investors had agreed to help me launch a coaching centre but they backed off at the eleventh hour. So, there was a lot of struggle and big disappointments. Simply nothing was clicking. Meanwhile, I gave the SSE exam to open a new window of opportunities for me. Among preferred locations for posting, I had put Bangalore as first preference and Delhi as second. I was told by many people Bangalore was not the place for government jobs, but I was keen to go there as I had heard that city was a hub for sunrise opportunities, and although I had not shared my aspiration with anyone, my plan was not to stick to government job forever. Besides, I had a strong desire to explore Bangalore as I had never been to the city before.
There was a long gestation period for getting the SSE results and the posting process. To make matters worse, the exam was cancelled and postponed. During this painfully long wait time, I got the opportunity to teach LRDI concepts to my students, besides Quant. I asked for preparation time and focused on all possible LRDI material (puzzles, website content and past LRDI sets), just like I had done for Quant. As there was no help from any YouTube videos like we have today, I broke my head solving puzzles, sometimes even spending five hours on a single puzzle. All this hard work paved the way for my focus on content creation. As LRDI teaching was very random at that time, I started developing tailored LRDI content for CAT mock exams. This was a humungous databank in every respect.
How were the early Rodha days? …I mean the phase when you were painstakingly creating quality content while most others were making the most of simply taking classes? Did self-doubt creep into you at any stage about the viability of your dream?
In 2016, I entered into wedlock. This event coincided with my relocation to Bangalore for the government job I had landed following the SSE results. In my spare time after office hours, I explored teaching opportunities offline and at different coaching centres. I used to introspect a lot on various possibilities. During one such contemplation, a stray thought crossed my mind: ‘If stores like Amazon and Flipkart can bloom online, why not coaching centres?’
At a coaching centre in Bangalore, where I worked part-time, I remember a discussion with my colleague comparing the market spaces of JEE and CAT. When he mentioned that CAT market has limited scope, size and scale as it is dominated by working professionals, unlike JEE which is a pure student market which thrives on faculty brands. I was not willing to buy this argument. My contention was that CAT market was small as it had not been explored in the true sense. He told me sarcastically, then who’s stopping you from doing that, go ahead and do it. I was again hurt by the cynical tone, much like I was angry when the institute owner in Noida had told me that CAT was not my cup of tea.
After that trigger, I paced up my search for people willing to work on developing and managing online training platforms. This was how ‘Rodha’ was born with two colleagues Govind and Jai. 2017 was the year of research for us, on how to set up the platform, how to record content on it, and other specifics. I was looking for a credible software solution and finally stared using the open source Epic Pen marker software. Initially, I struggled to write as my handwriting was not legible. Over time, I improved it a lot through diligent practice. Finally, in 2018, we started recording videos, I remember having created over 300 videos. This was the year I was blessed with a baby boy, so now I had the responsibility of managing a growing family.
This phase was truly back breaking. I had my government job to cater to, plus I gave tuitions to boost my finances – all this ran parallel to the hectic Rodha activity. My schedule of that time was mind boggling. I left home each day at 6.30 am for taking morning classes from 7 to 9, after which I used to rush to my office which opened at 9.30. 10 to 6 was office time; the load wasn’t much so I used spare time for my study. Since I was diligent in my work, my reputation in office never suffered. I was always known to be a sincere performer. By 6.30 I would be home to spend quality time with wife and kid. After 11 in the night, I used to spend desk time studying till about 2 am each night. From 2 am onwards, I used to record the videos. Initially, I used to fumble a lot, as I was not very fluent with speaking. The setup also took a lot of time in the formative span. So, it would be almost 4 when I hit the sack. Sleep time was hardly 2 hours but this was the story almost every week day for almost one year. The best part was that I had no qualms following this schedule – it was as if my sleep time had voluntarily dropped on its own to accommodate my ambition. In mid 2019, I uploaded them on YouTube in batches of 100.
The initial response was not very encouraging. Even after four or five months, there was noting to write home about. Now, I had to face the music at home, as my folks felt I was wasting my time with something which could never become a career. I had sacrificed so much on the personal front – skipping family functions and marriage ceremonies, waking during sleep hours – and now sitting with not more than 500 subscribers for my YouTube channel. At times, I felt really demotivated and was inclined to believe what my family and well wishers were cautioning me about. But I still kept at it. I did a SEO course to improve the ranking of the videos as buying a SEO solution was outside the scope of my budget. I was somehow floating in deep waters but far from a smooth sail.
How did the stint at Unacademy come about?
I got a call from them sometime in 2019. I had applied to them in the past but had not elicited any response. Now, they were on an aggressive hiring mode as they were in the growth phase. The job requirements were a breather. Work from home was the prevalent mode, and the salary and perks were very competitive. I joined them at 1/3 of the salary of the star faculty who were already brands by then. Although I had a channel of my own, I was virtually unknown with not even 1000 subscribers. I was okay with their terms, and thus began my innings at Unacademy. I took a leave of 10 days from office to prepare for this new phase. I launched a course of LRDI which was the weakest offering in the market at that point. I thought that was a good start point to create my identity as Quant had a truckload of faculty and many of them were very popular with students.
My prudence paid off. In only a month, my LRDI course went viral. I used to solve 2 or 3 high quality sets each day and students were delighted with the speed and quality of my delivery, as also the variety of content. The number of live students went up really fast, so did my rankings – from 100 up to below 60s to below 30s. Student testimonials threw lavish praise at me, and many successful students officially acknowledged my contribution in their media interviews. Soon after, I was ranked number 1 on Unacademy. Life had suddenly become very sunny and rosy. My enthusiasm was now sky high and I started a new trend of doing FYQs over and above PYQs which was the prevalent trend. This was a game changer as PYQs were getting repetitive and dangerously familiar. There was an acute need for newer and more challenging varieties of questions more likely to be asked in coming CATs. Given the challenge of smartly picking the doable questions in a limited time frame, the student needs to solve a lot of questions. Greater the volume, greater the value as the student will then be able to prioritise the questions he or she has developed a niche in, by virtue of solving difficult questions of all forms and varieties. CAT tests you on two counts – how fast you correctly solve questions, and how fast you astutely eliminate the questions that would end up eating significant time to little avail. FYQs did just that and was an instant hit.
Then came the pandemic time which ruled out office attendance. I used this time to enhance my LRDI classes even more, a gesture which was widely appreciated by my students. When life became close to normal in the post-pandemic phase, I resigned from my government job and devoted full time to my online teaching vocation. Even though I was now on a better footing, I could not escape the backlash from home as my folks weren’t too happy with my decision to shun the government job. They told me I am getting carried away by the short term success. I told them I am not into influencer marketing, I am into the education space which is a very robust market of unmatched longevity. And above all, this is the space which gives me ultimate job satisfaction. The emotional delight can’t ever be traded for money – when students thank you for your role in their success, when they tag you in their LinkedIn posts, when they quote you in media interviews. Perhaps a person who is not into teaching won’t be able to relate to the euphoric feeling which money cannot buy. They were not convinced but I was sure of what I was doing. There was no question of leaving it all midway led by wrong notions of safety and security.
Why did you leave Unacademy?
Life was going great guns at Unacademy. My hard work paid off, and students were hooked to my lectures. Unacademy went on to assume leadership position in CAT coaching. I left no stone unturned to contribute to this unprecedented success to the best of my ability.
The four years spent at Unacademy was a very beautiful time of my life and I got very good visibility in the real sense of the word. My remuneration was very good too and I had a great rapport with the management. We had regular brainstorm meets and they had great faith in my intent, intuition, and insights. And I was having a gala time with my students. Having 1000 plus students go live for your lectures was a very uplifting and liberating feeling to say the least. With a total populace of 2 lakh students appearing for CAT, having 1000 plus for your lecture was a monumental achievement.
But as they say, good things don’t last forever. Following few undesirable incidents, Unacademy announced a policy that no teacher could run his or her own private online coaching channel. I was not happy with this development as I had seeded and nurtured Rodha with great love and commitment, and suddenly I was told to merge it under the Unacademy fold. Notwithstanding their assurances that I could still manage Rodha as before, I knew things would be very different if I conceded to the deal.
So it was time for Rodha 2.0?
Yes. I decided to break free again to start out on my own. Taking such risks was in my DNA in any case, so I was not worried to call it quits despite the comfort zone I had created for myself at Unacademy. Again, my family members were not happy about the way I was on a job quitting spree every three four years. But they knew well if I had made a decision, I was not going back on it. I was very transparent and upfront about informing Unacademy of my last date as also my plans of staring out on my own. They tried to convince me to reverse the decision and I respect them for their genuine warmth, but I had made up my mind.
Thus began a new chapter of Rodha 2.0. This phase brought in a new set of challenges, the most formidable one was the choice of the tech for the platform. Any edtech venture can’t scale up without a robust tech environment and there’s a gestation period involved for the tech platform to settle and stabilize even after choosing the best option in the market and paying a premium for it.
I still remember 3000 people going live for my first class in October 2023, a phenomenal load that the tech platform could not cope with and crashed within no time. Thankfully, the matter was resolved in a couple of days and the classes streamlined for good. CAT 23 exam was a tough exam, but many of our general category students performed well. Two guys scored 99.98, and a few more got upwards of 99. And all these were average students in their academic years having scored around 70 to 75 percent in Bachelors and Board exams. Motivating average students to move up the value chain had always been my passion and forte even at Unacademy. Many of my average students had performed exceedingly well at Unacademy. The story was now repeating at Rodha which was my own venture and hence the delight was beyond words. Even the XAT performance turned out be very good. Almost 30 plus students made it to XLRI.
You don’t seem to advertise your value prop the way the market is known to? How would you describe Rodha’s USP?
We never broadcast our breakthroughs as we simply don’t have time for marketing. We are always busy with the next CAT batch once the results are out. Save for a simple poster that conveyed the 2023 results, there was no other intimation or publicity campaign. I admit we could have publicised our outstanding results in the language that the world understands, but then I am ok with my contrarian approach.
On the bright side, we always get a very good word of mouth publicity from our successful students which helps us enrol a significant number of students for the next batch. In 2024, we had a whopping 10,000 plus students for different modules – some for full course, others for booster capsules, and many others for specific courses like Quant or LRDI. This response bears testimony to our focused effort on ensuring quality content for students rather than spending time blowing our own trumpet. We consciously prioritise product, faculty and team development over marketing and business development for a good seven eight months since the launch. Normally, once the system stabilizes, we see many founders shifting away from their core. Although we now are a 24-member team, I still take 6 to 8 hours of classes everyday, besides other attending to other duties like training the content team, doing business development, or addressing system and administrative issues.
Today, Rodha has a best-in-class faculty as our most enduring value prop, including revered teachers like Tarun sir, K D sir, Ayush Gupta. Our mocks and FYQs are rich in variety and top notch in quality and depth; most important, our brand ambassadors are our students themselves. Rodha has well and truly arrived and we are unflinchingly committed to making it a one-stop solution station for CAT and other competitive exam preparation, thereby giving our students the much-needed assurance and comfort that we cover the entire universe of CAT and other key exams and there’s nothing that we leave untouched. The wealth of our content and the quality of our coaching help average students wake up to the possibilities of a deep dive preparation and are motivated to give it their best shot. I always cite the metaphor of a well to these students. I tell them they are stuck in a deep well of mediocrity, and they need a big leap of faith and effort to get out of the well and soar higher on the performance scale. That leap will come only with sincere and consistent effort. I feel truly blessed that in my career as a teacher. I have helped scores of average students achieve unimaginably high scores in CAT and other exams. I find great fulfilment in their success. That is the biggest charm which is strictly non-negotiable for me.
I get offers from investors now and then, who are willing to acquire or partner with Rodha but as the 100 percent owner of the venture, along with my wife of course, I feel duty-bound to nurture the value prop of Rodha my way. This is not about authority, it’s about responsibility and a dilution of commitment is something I am not willing to sacrifice, which will invariably happen with the dilution of equity.
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Given the rapid strides of AI and ML, what in your reckoning would be the education of the future like? Will an MBA program still hold its charm? Will the CAT format undergo an evolution in any respect?
I think young students should pursue an MBA; education plays a pivotal role in life, no matter what popular opinion is about the ornamental value of degrees, or what one-off success stories like Dolly Chaiwala hint at. IITs, IIMs and institution of similar league make you better decision makers with out-of-the-box problem solving skills. If India is to achieve growth and prosperity, we need more and more young people with value-added knowledge and skills to become disruptive innovators.
And the way these degrees lift even mediocre guys is phenomenal. I know of a very average guy who otherwise had very ordinary acads cracked CAT in 2019 and made it IIM Kozhikode. He is currently in Singapore on a very handsome package. His life miraculously changed for the better. There was this other lad who got 99.98 in CAT and made it to IIM Calcutta . He was very sceptical about his chances at the start. He was a mechanical engineer with average acads who had quit his job and enrolled for CAT. Being in the general category, he thought he had no chance whatsoever to excel in life. He worked very hard and look where he reached. He did better than some of my IIT Delhi students who got less marks than him in CAT. In fact, there are so many of my students who were pretty average people from India’s small towns, and they made it to BLACKIS and other prominent and promising IIMs.
MBA gives you a potent platform and excellent peer group, and you acquire a huge repository of relevant knowledge which helps you join the industry in plum positions and become CEOs and CFOs and CTOs in real quick time. Say, if you are pursuing marketing, you get to do very many realistic case studies and you gain from the actionable insights of India’s top professors. Many a times, students of engineering and technology don’t get such tailored help and such a big lift, which is why many mechanical and electronics engineers end up doing coding even after specialization.
The significance of MBA is not going to go away anytime soon, even in the era of AI and ML. AI works on data but the value of human acumen and interaction will reign supreme at all key decision making levels. MBA enables and empowers you to be at the helm of an organization or institution and call the shots, as also make the most of disruptive technologies like AI. If you are in the IIT and IIM league, you have a very high probability of success. The conversion rate is high, so is the quality and stature of employment and entrepreneurship.
The CAT format is fast evolving. CAT 2022 has made VARC and LRDI tougher compared to earlier years. CAT 2023 quant has also been raised higher. This upgradation was expected as the paper setters have to filter out the best from the better and the good. There is so much content available on CAT papers and strategies to solve them, so we will see newer and tougher questions coming up in future CAT papers. In recent years, even GMAT Quant is getting tougher, very close to CAT in terms of challenging questions. GMAT VARC is a little bit above CAT now. GMAT now has a section for DI as well. So, CAT will surely move up the value chain faster than before, and it is a good thing.
Any regrets in life till date?
In 2017, when I was in the middle of all the struggle and strife, my mother suffered a brain stroke. Those three months, when she was struggling with fatal health issues of brain and heart, were the toughest moments of my life because I was very close to my mother. Seven years have passed since her demise, but my eyes still turn moist thinking of her. That I couldn’t save her from that terminal illness has left a scar on my soul which shall remain all my life. Patna isn’t known for good medical facilities, and my mom sadly succumbed to her illness within three months. We did what we could but we lost her. How I wish she was around to see my success and prosperity, more so because she did all the sacrifices to for the upbringing of her sons but she could not see both of them well placed in life. After her demise, it took more than six months for me to pull myself and restart work life in top gear.
Where do you see Rodha in a few years from now?
As a person I don’t plan much. I rather live from moment to moment and at best, I keep a set of small and short-term targets at any point of time. When I launched Rodha, my first target was to maintain a very high quality of teaching. This is how we kept improving our speed and quality of delivery with every successive batch.
I have at the back of my mind a guiding vision of making Rodha a very iconic and endearing brand and maximising its value prop for the CAT segment. There’s still huge untapped potential in this fertile space. Helping prepare students for CAT exam is a challenge with its special charm. You are always at making the content, whether lectures or mocks, more powerful and rich in relevance and variety , there’s never a dull moment. And the outcome continually motivates me. Like for instance my students love the decision making section of our LRDI course, almost 2000 plus students are live for my decision making lectures, this gives me instant satisfaction of doing a good job of measurable value. I am also focusing on supplementary capsules like advice on interviews and motivational lectures.
We propose to introduce newer segments in due course, but there is no aggressive expansion plan as such. CAT is a very sensitive market space which runs on the trust of students and the credibility of teachers. We have to think a lot for something like defining fee structures which is a tight rope walk. You have to ensure that people from modest financial backgrounds are able to afford the fees, and at the same time, you have to take the financial viability of your organization, otherwise the concessional rates will lead you to losses, which will not make it sustainable.
We don’t believe in charging astronomical fees but we have to maintain at least a certain percent profit margin to take care of facility salaries, GST, taxes, and charges for mock portal, booklets, tech platform, video streaming, courier, logistics and the like. So, we keep our fees in a feasible range to help manage our resources in a very efficient and cost-effective manner. We are currently very happy working remotely as a close-knit team of 24 people.
Any favourite travel destinations, books, role models, passion pursuits…
I travel a lot and absolutely love to go on long drives with family. I drive myself and have been at least 10 times to South Goa, Ooty, Mysore, Coorg, Pondicherry, and many places in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. I unwind myself in these serene environments and spend time in deep introspection. It is very therapeutic, and works like oxygen to recharge the body and mind. I also love going to Mumbai, work takes me there in the first place, but I also steal some moments off for spending quality time at Marine Drive.
I have drawn great inspiration from James Clear’s book ‘Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones’. It’s a treasure trove of actionable insights and helps usher in a welcome change within you. As it rightly proclaims on the cover: Tiny changes bring remarkable results. How true! I would recommend this book to every students including those appearing for CAT and other competitive exams.
I also love the biographies and autobiographies of sportspersons like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Saina Nehwal, and Sania Mirza. I am a big fan and follower of President APJ Kalam. I was devastated when I saw the sad images on TV of his fatal fall while addressing students on the IIM Shillong dais. His demise has left a void although I never had the good fortune of meeting me in person. I am not the one to follow celebrities like a fan but while he was around, I was always keen to know all about his travel schedules and interactions with media and the public. It always amazes me how a person from a small town can work wonders for the nation with humble beginnings and scant resources. I thinking his teachings are even more relevant in today’s times than before when the youth of the country is lured with instant gratification and low hanging fruits. There is a dire need for broadcasting his thoughts and perspectives on life and work across the length and breadth of India, which will help scores of aspiring and capable individuals from remote and deprived regions aim high and soar higher.
I recently went to his home-cum-museum in Rameshwaram and spent over two hours at the haloed place. I was in tears when I saw his belongings on display, which I believe are an integral part of our national wealth. Instantly and instinctively, I bought the whole pack of around 40 to 45 of his wonderful quotes from the merchandise sale section. There was no question of asking for the price, as this wealth is priceless. It changed my life.
I remember how his quotes inspired me to positive thought and action in my struggling phase, especially his thoughts like
- “Dream is not that which you see while sleeping, it is something that does not let you sleep. And thoughts result in action” or
- “Thinking is the capital, Enterprise is the way, Hard Work is the solution”
- "The youth need to be enabled to become job generators from job seekers."
- "Small aim is a crime”
The youth of India should take these to heart and aim big. Rather than choose the easier way out, one should take calculated risks and tread the long winding path of growth and fulfilment.
Another icon I closely follow is cricketer Rahul Dravid. I watch his memorable innings' on YouTube the moment I have some free time. I do this again and again and can’t explain in words how this repeated viewing motivates me and energises me no end. I have watched one special goosebumps moment at least a thousand times, that of Rahul Dravid giving vent to his feelings without restraint, lifting the trophy ecstatically after India’s T20 triumph. His gesture was more powerful than a thousand words and shows for how long he was absorbing the disappointment of not winning a major tournament despite coming close to lifting the cup. I tune in to inspiring songs like ‘Aaarambh hai Prachand’ and ‘Aashayein khile dil ki’ in my free time. They work like super chargers for me.
Could you share a family fact file?
As I told you before, I lost my mother about seven years back. My dad shuffles between Patna and Bangalore, but these days he is mostly in Bangalore with us. He runs a small business to keep himself busy. I have a great equation with my brother who is also settled in Bangalore and is doing very well in the IT sector. He got married recently. We meet regularly and plan trips together. I also have a couple of cousins in the city as also a circle of great friends. One of them is a travel freak like me and we go on trips together.
My kid is 6 years old, and a student of M S Dhoni Global School in Bangalore. I love my remote work model as it allows me lots of time with him. I love becoming a child in his company. Last but not the least, about my life partner. We were friends from our B. Tech days and fell in love at some point. After a fulfilling career as a bank manager with ICICI, she switched to her passion of training aspirants and is now a teacher at the Manipal university. She helps students of the BFSI sector prepare for various examinations and teaches key finance concepts.