[Super Student] Sometimes an engineer, sometimes a MBA, but always an entrepreneur - Abhineet Kumar

In the past Student Story has seen a bunch of students who have endeavored technology to their liking and have contributed their part to it. Today our super student Abhineet Kumar, does not have a technical background, but has a good hang of business tactics. Though he did obtain an engineering degree, he later figured out it was not his cup of tea. In the last three years he has excelled profoundly as a student entrepreneur. He co-founded two ventures during this period and heads the North India zone as a Kairos fellow(The Kairos society is a global network of top students and global leaders, using entrepreneurship and innovation to solve world's greatest challenges).

Engineering to management: a career switch

Abhineet was brought up in Gaya (Bihar), his parents had earlier played a huge role in improving the healthcare sector of the town, which made a positive impact on him. After his schooling, like any other student unaware of what to do next he opted for various national engineering entrance exams and attempted to get into the finest engineering college in the country. “To be honest, I chose engineering over medicine just because it was an easier route. And, today I know it was a wrong way of going about things,” he reminisces.

The results came in his favor, and he got into IIIT Hyderabad. But on the road to this prestigious college, his theories of moving on the easier route was shattered. Not only the curriculum of computer science was the best in the country, Abhineet couldn't generate interest needed for the stream. “When I joined college, I thought it would be an easy ride and I could do whatever I wished to. But as it turned out to otherwise! ”

By the end of his second year, he made up his mind to quit the engineering course and pursue something which he is more passionate of. Marketing and management made more sense to him and so in 2011 he opted for a BBA in Marketing and Sales at Amity.

Increase of pocket allowances and Entrepreneurship

Abhineet’s journey of entrepreneurship started in the college itself when he and his other friends started pondering on different means to add to their pocket monies. In the second year of his stay at IIIT Hyderabad, he co-founded a content outsourcing business and started serving the content development needs of various clients via Freelancer. “It was quite simple: we needed more pocket money to spend and our quest stopped at Freelancer. The interesting part was that as students we were getting paid in dollars.” The quest for money paved his way to entrepreneurship and he started reading more and more about the same on the internet.

Later at Amity(2012) he along with his friend Kshitij co-founded Kcik, where they provided digital marketing solutions to small businesses under one roof. This student-run digital marketing agency catered to around 20 clients around the country. Their work on social media, SEO and app development was molding up perfectly but then the ground to build something substantial out of a service model seemed out of reach and so they opted out of it.

Mastering of skills and social work  

During one of his summer holidays(2010) at IIIT, he along with other schools friends started Path-Shala: a summer coaching camp for poor students in Gaya. Path-Sala was an initiative to provide a crash course for students who cannot afford quality coaching. At Path-Shala he was responsible for the marketing and started collaborating with different schools. The total turnout of students was a good 120 that year.

Later in the year 2011 he got an internship as a writer with Penn Olson (now known as '‘Tech in Asia'), an online technology news startup. Then in September (2011) he again co-founded Hungry N Foolish, which was a blog on entrepreneurship (primarily on student entrepreneurship) along with his friends. Hungry N Foolish was started on a note of promoting students who were defying convention and trying to start up. The site had a decent readership and was quite popular among students. However  Hungry N Foolish was recently hacked and the founders have not been able to restore it.

Future for this student entrepreneur

Abhineet is leaving for Washington DC in August this year for an internship under the Prudential Foundation Global Citizens Program. And next year, after college he has plans to start up full-time.

“I’m glad I realized what my passion was! I think entrepreneurship is not at all about simply making money. It’s about solving problems around us through business. I think we can create more jobs, and strengthen the economy while we attempt to solve these little problems around us.” he point outs.

If you’d like to check out more about his work, connect with him on Linkedin, or drop him a message at Twitter.

And if you think you deserve to feature in this column or know anyone who does, you can drop a mail at [email protected]