 "Out-of-school learning: Not just education, ThinkVidya.com helps you nurture your passion")
When Rakesh Kalra moved back to India after 11 years in the US he found it difficult to find good teachers for his children’s extra curricular activities. The choices were limited and he would only hear of instructors through his personal acquaintances.
The ordeal gave Kalra, 38, an idea - he would organise the chaotic out-of-school learning sector and create a platform to bring instructors and students together. And that’s how Bangalore-based ThinkVidya.com was born.
The website allows teachers and institutes to create profiles listing the skills and services they offer. Students and parents can either search for a specific teacher or institution or post their learning requirement and the site helps themconnect with relevant instructors, schools or courses in their preferred location.
But the idea was actually in the works for a few years before coming to fruition.
After completing his bachelors in mechanical engineering from PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh and getting a diploma in computer science from CDAC, Bangalore, Kalra worked in India for about a year before moving to the US.
The concept of helping clients find what, or who, they needed was one Kalra had explored in America.He was part of Care.com, an online marketplace that helps people find caregivers for children, elderly or sick family members. His earlier jobs in the US were as the lead technology man for a variety of start-ups.
Once his children were ready for school, however, Kalra decided to move back home which is when he embarked on one of the most dreaded phases in every parent’s life -kindergarten admissions.
Unable to find a consolidated list of dates and particulars for schools on Bangalore, Kalra set up3pundits.com, to connect students, parents and teachers. Parents could ‘follow’ schools and get alerts every time there was a new development in the admission process like form distribution or collection.
“We found it really hard to monetise 3pundits on the school side,” Kalra said, “So we moved to the out-of-school learning segment.” After acquiring Teacherji.in, a platform similar to 3pundits, but targeting higher education institutes, Kalra took ThinkVidya.com to town in May 2011.
Fortunately, with a vibrant start-up community in Bangalore,getting the word out about Kalra’s new venture wasn’t that big a task. Word of mouth worked so well that Kalra says he did not have an official sales team until last year. It also helped that Kalra had a strong background in the digital marketing, was comfortable with search engine optimisation and invested in search engine marketing.
The site’s user base, of teachers and students combined, grew from 45,000 as of end-2011 to 3.6 lakh as of December 2013.Each day, about 30 new courses and 400 new teachers and institutes are registered with the site.
ThinkVidya’s classes are broadly divided into three segments - academic, like tuitions and exam prep classes; professional, like English-speaking classes and digital marketing; and hobbies and craft, which includes tutoring in fields like photography, Reiki and music.
Revenues are brought in by charging for premium subscriptions that come with extra perks. While students, teachers and institutions can create free profiles there are limits to the number of direct messages they can send per day. But with paid subscriptions, the cap on messages goes up considerably. Students are charged Rs 500/month while teachers pay Rs 400/month to be notified of general learning enquiries posted on the site.
As far as institutions go, they get services similar to teachers at Rs 2,100 for 3 months. They also get access to ThinkVidya360 - an all encompassing solutions software that manages routine tasks like admissions, fees receipt, finding faculty etc.
ThinkVidya.com also charges a commission of about 20 percent for every course seat sold through the website.
The focus on teachers and institutions as the main revenue source is because Kalra realised that these groups were more willing to pay to reach the students than the other way around.
Kalra does believe that there is still room for further price discovery, “especially across different categories like dance versus IIT-JEE prep, which have different value.”
After putting in his own money into the venture, ThinkVidya.com finally broke even in August 2013 and Kalra has been re-investing the revenues to expand the company ever since. The company grew four times from 2012 to 2013 and hopes to replicate the same pace this year. ThinkVidya.com also managed to get funding from an investor who requested that the terms of their deal are not shared.
But Kalra did share what he would do with the funds - expand ThinkVidya’s physical presence in multiple cities across India, targetting Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi, focus on product innovation anddouble the current team strength from 30 to 60.
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