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Bridzed set to revolutionize the $40 billion coaching industry.
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This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Coaching Industry is like a stock market. It is a place for risk takers. We have witnessed many entrepreneurs who entered this industry but have burnt their hands and now are too afraid to continue. The problem with the existing players in the industry is the lack of knowledge about the industry. It sounds ironical, but sadly it is true.
To quote some numbers: Indian Coaching Industry is a $40 Billion industry growing at a CAGR of 35%. These numbers might look promising to many entrepreneurs but we are yet to see some significant strife towards doing something good in this industry. Bridzed will be the first company to do so. The founders at Bridzed took almost a year just to understand the industry and design the product accordingly. They are starting off with a basic product of providing free information to the students and free listing to institutes and later on expanding by launching products that will have a significant impact on the industry.
Students want everything for free!
This is the basic rule that governs this industry. If your business model stands on the pillar that feeds itself by charging students for using the service, it is surely doomed to fail. Edukart is the finest example of the same. Backed by One97, Edukart could not sustain itself in the market merely because it failed to understand this basic notion.
Bridzed realized it long time back and has designed the business model in such a way that it will become a personal assistant to students, providing information and service free of cost.
"The problem with the industry is that it is highly fragmented, unorganized, and unregulated and yet it is growing at a CAGR of 35% and valued at $40 Billion. 35% of Indian Students are dependent on this industry but not everyone is satisfied. We believe if all the stakeholders are equally satisfied then all the problems will fade away slowly. So we set out with a simple aim, to ensure satisfaction of students and institutes.The solution consists of two parts, first, getting students to the institute who serves their needs and second, for institutes to adjust themselves such that they can provide best service to students while being lucrative." adds Vardan Aggarwal, Co Founder, Bridzed Labs.
Building a brand
Even though coaching industry is a bit complicated one. Yet, Bridzed believes it can crack the industry. "It is about creating values on the both sides of the coin. We will empower both students and institutes, we are not focusing on one side of the coin." says Mohammad Mohtashim, Co Founder, Bridzed.
Friends from Hindu College, Vardan Aggarwal and Mohammad Mohtashim have been in close contact with this industry throughout their life and they are familiar with the ins and outs of this industry. They believe, the problems they faced as students will be not faced by other students in the presence of Bridzed.
Bridzed plans to become the personal assistant of students simultaneously providing value to institutes by helping them target students more effectively.
"We spoke to few institutes, they realized they need marketing experts or 'marketing guy' as they call it. This gave us another unique selling proposition. We will not just be a static platform. Bridzed will be their 'marketing guy.' We don't want to be an aggregator for them, if we are personal assistant to students, we will be the salesforce of the institute thus generating value to them" adds Mohammad Mohtashim
Coaching Market is a game of search and win
Imagine yourself strolling down the lanes of GTB Nagar in Delhi. You will witness something like this:
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GTB Nagar, Delhi
It is literally impossible to search for the institute that will address all the needs of the students. Students generally roam around the streets looking for institutes and most of the time end up admitting themselves in institutes which are not really fit for them. Bridzed is going to change all of that.
"Our cognitive search engine is designed in such a way that it is going to learn from the students, redesign the search and provide the best possible results which will be in perfect coherence with the student's needs." adds Vardan.
The websites of coaching institutes are flooded with information and it is almost impossible to compare institutes based on the information provided or find the relevant information from the website. Bridzed will be providing a specialized space to institutes to design their profile which will serve as a mini website for them. It will be a singular point of contact between students and institutes.
Every industry is going digital except coaching industry
Even today, coachings follow the age-old methods of advertisements- little realizing the fact that the ROI on these advertisements methods is quite low.
Speaking of advertisements through Bridzed, Mohtashim, Co Founder, says, "Bridzed offers not just one but many different ways of advertising that serves the purpose of billboard and pamphlet to Ads on google and Facebook."
Bridzed will follow the bidding system for advertisements and will give full freedom to institutes to design their own digital campaigns based on their advertising budget.
Bridzed plans to target 15000 institutes from all over the country and bring them on board by 2018. On the students' side, the company is targeting to bring about 500,000 unique students by 2018. When asked about the mission of the company, Vardan comments, "Our mission is to make sure that no student joins a coaching institute that is not fit for him. Continuously innovate,fill the gaps and provide a transparent flow of information between a student and the coaching institute. Be a marketing‘guy’ for every coaching institute."
Vardan further adds, "We are following the wheel model. The center of the wheel is our core product i.e. the web platform. With time, we will be introducing different spokes to our wheel that will stabilize our wheel and help it run forever. These spokes will be the source of our revenue. Each spoke will be bringing a new source of revenue which will be independent of other spokes."
The Market
Indian parents are known to spend any amount of money when it comes to the education of their child. 35% of Indian students take coaching in their lifetime and 33% of the middle class income is spent on their children's education. 50% of the total income spent on education goes in coaching. These numbers make this industry count up to INR 270,000 Crore, growing at an enormous rate of 35%.