IIT and IIM graduates start MyNewsStudio to capitalize on CAT market
CAT is a tough nut to crack, and understandably many aspirants focus on the written test. But the Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) can be cause for some worry if ignored.
To tackle this problem, Sumedh Chaudhary along with Nitin Tyagi, who was his wing mate at IIT, came together to start MyNewsStudio. The other founders joined in later. Sumedh says, “While studying both in IIT and IIM, I realized that one of the toughest times was the placement season. Apart from knowing about the subjects, one also needed to be well versed in current affairs to ace all GDs and interviews. And as a young student, though I did read newspapers, it was never enough. I wished that there was one platform which provided me with all the latest happenings to help me prepare comprehensively. And that is where the idea of MyNewsStudio came from.”
What is it?
Started in January 2014, MyNewsStudio brings relevant news from different sources together to help students prepare for their interviews. At present, they are focusing on preparing CAT aspirants and students for various business schools by helping them with GDs, PIs and Writing Ability Tests (WAT).
Some of the important features of MyNewsStudio are:
1. NewsGraphs- NewsGraphs provide unique visual essays for thorough analysis of major business, politics and technology topics.
2. News Aggregator- News Aggregator is a platform to get access to hundreds of major news sources at one place.
3. StudioView- StudioView provides a distraction free reading environment for better grasp of study material.
4. Visual Dictionary- It is a new type of dictionary based on the Picture Superiority Effect, which means people are more likely to remember things if they are presented as pictures instead of textual information.
5. Quiz- A platform to test one’s knowledge.
Revenue model
They provide a free demo to new users, post which they have to subscribe for three months or six months paid subscription. At present, they have over 4,000 registered users on their site and over 10% of the users end up buying one of the subscription packages. Sumedh is very confident about this model. He says, “According to our estimates, the total addressable market of our current offering is somewhere between Rs 500-600 M annually. Our USP is that we understand the pulse of the customer as we have been there, which therefore governs our product development – ‘if it is not needed, it is out’. The beautiful and lucid design of the website uses UX research into the most optimized reading pattern for users. This allows for fast and efficient browsing of news stories thus saving time. All these factors differentiate us from our competitors.”
Team
There are 14 people in the team, including four co-founders. Nitin Tyagi is the CEO and Sumedh's wing mate from IIT Roorkee, Nishtha Mehrotra, takes care of Design and UX. Romesh Khaddar is also from IIT Guwahati and is the CTO.
Lessons
Talking about their journey, Sumedh shares their most important lessons:
1) Starting up a new venture requires dedication and commitment. There will be times when you will question yourself, but if you have the right reasons (and not because you want to run away from your job) then remember “this too shall pass.”
2) Entrepreneurship is a lonely journey, so make sure you have some form of support system – either family, friends or colleagues. You do need a place to vent out your frustration.
3) The startup community is very helpful. You just need to reach out and people will surely help you and share their experience with you.
Click here to visit MyNewsStudio.