E-Paper
Startup Mantra: Colleges in tier 2 cities get a ‘community’ upgrade to IIT levels, thanks to Eventbeep
Eventbeep is an early-stage edtech start-up that is two parts Facebook, three parts Microsoft and the rest, all IIT
Eventbeep is an early-stage edtech start-up that is two parts Facebook, three parts Microsoft and the rest, all IIT.
Consider that Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are the inspiration for founding head honcho Saurabh Mangrulkar, and you can see why. IIT has the blueprint that Eventbeep is aiming to replicate across its target metaverse (cue McZucky) - colleges in India – specifically, in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Seed funding of ₹1.5 crore is what has put this early-stage edtech startup based in Pune on the way.
The back-story, however, is rather Netflix-ish; in terms of an Indian drama with all the necessary ingredients for a multi-serial binge-boiler; A female founder, not supported by her family joins this startup run by a male founder, still on-boarding his family to the idea and their CTO sitting in Bengaluru.
Founded by Saurabh Mangrulkar, Rakhi Pal and Venkatesh Prasad in May 2019, Eventbeep is a next-generation virtual community platform, empowering students at every step of their college life through the ever-changing world of education and work.
Eventbeep provides space to get inspired, ask questions and network with experts, build connections with students from other colleges, share ideas, gain recognition, and ultimately receive support from people with shared interests and values.
Eventbeep also closely works with colleges and universities to transform their campuses by building intra-college communities, “gameifying” the college experience and opening up a a world of opportunities and learning for its students, by connecting them with other college students and campuses.
In the beginning…
Says Mangrulkar, “My journey started pretty early on. When I was 15-years old, I used to read lot, including listen to audio books. I was inspired by Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. In 2011-12, I started an NGO ‘Nature Lovers’ to organise events for students. I gained lot of practical experience. As I started going to college, I faced another reality. Everything was bookish and students were wasting a lot of time. I thought this was very wrong and these students should come out of the classrooms to make their career. Thereafter, I built a ticketing platform for events for college students and tied up with several colleges. We crossed ₹1.5 crore in ticketing sales volumes on our platform. It was a hit. As I went to other colleges, I realised that the problem was much bigger and lies at the root of our education system.”
Winner of the Global Student Entrepreneurs Award, USA, Mangrulkar (CEO at Eventbeep) has done 500+ college tie-ups in India. A student of MIT and COEP, Mangrulkar met the other co-founder Rakhi Pal at a startup pitch event. While he was interested in entrepreneurship, Mangrulkar’s family members felt that that he should study further or get a job. Mangrulkar organised 20+ events with 6,000 participants netting a profit of ₹10 lakh, after which his family agreed to let him pursue his dreams.
He says, “Slowly, the resistance from family started to decrease. I showed them inspirational YouTube videos and TV shows, but they were concerned about my income.”
Originally from Uttar Pradesh, Rakhi Pal (COO) also faced a similar situation except that her family is still not on the same page. For the first two years, Pal had to hide the fact that she is a startup founder from her family. Investor pitch or other outstation visits for business purposes were “field visits” or “extra lectures”, during those days. A student of Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pal completed her Mechanical BTech in 2019. She was also selected for a six-month Volkswagen OML program.
The third co-founder, Venkatesh Prasad (CTO) hails from Chennai but lives in Bengaluru. He got connected with Mangrulkar and Pal through a mentor. Prasad completed his B Tech CSE in 2019 and has worked at IBM as a developer.
Founding Eventbeep
Mangrulkar, Pal and Prasad started their edtech journey in 2019 with the specific aim of changing the lives of students. Says Mangrulkar, “I had observed that the IITs and other colleges had only one differentiating factor – their community with access to top quality alumni, events, opportunities and peers. There were students who liked painting or photography but chose chemical engineering and were pursuing it unwillingly. If there were 500 events per year at IITs, not more than five were organised at other colleges. IIT students have role models who have been to Harvard and founded billion-dollar businesses, but other college students are looking for good placements and jobs. We thought we should build a rich community like the IITs for students from tier 2 and 3 institutes, which accounts for 92 per cent of Indian universities. Through EventBeep we’re democratising this ecosystem.”
Tech-first
The cofounders decided to go with app development first. A mistake. They outsourced the app development. Says Mangrulkar, “Ours is an edtech company so for us, our tech platform comes first. There would be no business if there is no technology. However, initial product development progress slowed down as the agency did not bother to make the changes and iterations on time. So, we decided to have our own tech team. Prasad and his team ensured that all the changes, features, iterations, and new product launches started happening quickly.”
Team building
Being young student-founders and building a team meant more learning for the trio. When Mangrulkar was exploring his options, he would offer literally any role to his friends. “That was the biggest mistake. My friends had different aims, goals and their family situation was different. Later, I also learnt that skills can be taught, but character of a person is very important. Identifying a good and hardworking human is the most difficult task,” he recalls.
With all the hard lessons learnt, Mangrulkar then started visiting colleges and the placement offices. He asked for lists of students who wanted to work with startups. “I made a form and spread it. Chose the best candidates after interviewing them. Some of them left later, but then I realised that hiring professionals is better than hiring students,” he said.
Product features
Says Mangrulkar, “The first set of 5,000 to 10,000 students we on-boarded was from COEP and MIT colleges. We had got the database from the colleges and started inviting these students to use our platform. Soon we realised that we had given such features on our platform that were not required or useful for students. Some features did not work and we started improvising the platform.”
Mangrulkar and his team started trials in 10 colleges including some MBA and engineering colleges under the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU).
Says Mangrulkar, “When we tie-up with any college, they provide student data. We collect information like mobile number, email id, year of passing Based on this data, we start giving them access to the application and later send reports related to attendance, lectures, subjects, interests, to the college management. At present, the app is open for all students without verification. We will take measures like ID card verification at the appropriate stage.”
COEP Bhau Institute’s role
Eventbeep has received support in terms of services like incubation, infrastructure, mentoring, from the Bhau Institute of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership at College of Engineering Pune (COEP). Although Bhau Institute, which is an approved incubator by Department of Science and Technology (DST), did not seek equity, the services are being provided on rental basis and at discounted rates.
Investor experience
Sharing their hard journey of seeking investment for their startup, Mangrulkar said, “We were not from IITs. Almost all investors were looking for IITians or experienced founders. It was difficult for us to prove ourselves. We took lot of efforts in the last two years. We pitched to more than 150 investors with emails, decks and interviews. However, the standard response from the investors was “Let the team and product become more mature”. On the other side, we had a product running with good responses but unable to secure funding. We knew we had to work hard.”
“Initially we put in ₹10 lakh to ₹15 lakh from the revenue of our previous startups. We did not take salaries, but we were getting stable revenues. Since our costs were zero, we were able to sustain. After Covid-19 outbreak, during the lockdown we did ₹60 lakh revenue in just four months. That was a turning point and investors started noticing,” Mangrulkar said.
Funding
EventBeep has secured seed funding in a round lead by SucSEED Indovation Fund, Uincept, Palimala Ventures and other angels including Vinit Deo and six others from Pune. “The total VC funding received is ₹1.5 crore which would give us a runway of 12 months. Thereafter we will be looking for another round of ₹10 crore at least,” says Mangrulkar.
What’s next?
Mangrulkar says, “On the product side, five years down the line we want to create a global community. Students across regions will be able to connect and work on their goals and careers. The app will be made more attractive and valuable for students by introducing new features including a mentor connect. On the growth side, we are onboarding more colleges and students.”
“When on-campus colleges will resume, we will offer students a ‘video challenge’. Students completing these challenges and posting videos of their challenge on our platform will be offered coins and rewards. Also, we will enhance the college digitising efforts by introducing more tracking points and upgrades. Based on students’ behaviour about their interest in the subject, teachers will be able to change their teaching methods accordingly.”
Investor speak
“Before 2020, the Indian universities and colleges were not allowed to offer more than 20 per cent of degrees online, but recently we have seen a disruptive change in the way education is being delivered. EventBeep is currently operational in 10 college campuses, it has received pre-orders from over 75 colleges and universities for bringing the platform to their campuses. We believe that with the distinctive rise of e-learning and the world revolving around digitisation, technology paves the way for education, by empowering students and creating limitless opportunities and making learning eventful. Our investment will further help to grow the technology base and to reach out to thousands of students helping them to reach their full potential,”says Lax Chepuri, Co-Founder and Partner, SucSEED Indovation Fund.
