Meet Pravin Sharma founder of Eshiksa mixing Education & Technology for the better future
We are educated to become aware and advanced. Education is the omniscient character in the story of our life. There are many institutes who are providing online education and digital solutions to the students and no doubt it is flourishing. With technology taking over everything, we are introduced to a new way of living. People are finding it more convenient indulging in the technology and making the best out of it. But, our education system, according to Pravin Sharma, CEO of Eshiksa was found wanting in terms of technology. Technology is something which spread like a wild fire once it was understood by the people and people accepted it whole-kind heartedly. However, our education system still feels insecure in adopting to the means of technology. And not only in teaching, but other educational assistance needs to be made aware of the powers of education.
Eshiksa has built a platform under the leadership of Pravin Sharma which can solve all these problems and ensuring maximum growth of people and students. He came up with the idea of Eshiksa, a cloud-based platform for accessing various information, learning and value added services including online fee payment. With Eshiksa– “the hitches in the smooth management of affairs of an educational institute” can be eradicated. It is a window to the educational learning and managing affairs of an education system. It is smooth and hassle-free to work with. Let’s go through his interview to find out how he managed to establish a big change in the outlook of our education system.
1.What is the Name of Your Venture? Any specific reason for this name?
The company name is Eshiksa Technology Services Pvt Ltd and the portal is http://eshiksa.com/
2.Who is your target Audience/clients?
Our target audiences is Education Institutes and Students/Parents.
3.Where is your venture based (city, state, country) & What are your geographical target areas?
We are based out of Jaipur and we are working currently in major parts of India. We have also launched our solution in 2 countries. Another 3 countries in pipeline.
4.What problems does your venture resolve? What are your products or services?
We are providing solution to the Education Institute and their users ie Students/parents with a single platform on the cloud for accessing various information, learning and value added services including online Fee payment.
5.Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it came to an existence? What motivated you to start your own venture?
During my working days as a Sales Head of a leading Payment Processing company Atom realized that education is one sector where technology is not being used widely specially smaller and mid sized Institutes and also its very costly for them even if available. The idea for Eshiksa came from those interactions with Education Institutes to provide cost effective and digital solution/services
6.Who are your biggest competitors and how do you differentiate yourself from them?
There are players in the market who are offering the solutions including fedena, NIIT, TCS etc.
7.How did you identify your co-founder? Tell us some thing about your co-founder/s
We are in the process of getting good people on board who can work same way as I do.
8.How did you hired your first team members? What skills Do you want in your employees/team?
The first team members were people mostly fresher’s hired through known people. We see only one thing that is dedication and the focus to learn new things. For most of the team mates this was the first job.
9.What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We plan to on board 5000+ Institutes on the platform in the next few years with a user base of more than 5 million on the platform using the services.
10.Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?
After achieving success with my venture want to give back to the society and try a different life with more social component into it.
11.What are your goals over the next 1, 3, 6 and 12 months?
We want to touch a base of 1000+ Institutes in the next 12-18 months and enable more services on to the platform. Today we have 450 + Institutes with more than 200000 users.
12.Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
Yes we raised initial funding. We are in the process of raising more funds in the next 90 days.
13.What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
The biggest problem we faced in the initial days was the outlook of the Education Institutes towards adaptability to technology and digital solutions. Lot of efforts have gone in getting the initial set of clients and training them to use the technology for their works and services. Things have also changed in the last 3 years since initiatives like Digital India which are creating awareness among the clients to go for digital services.
14.Are you married, single or in a relationship?
Yes married.
16.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
I like to meditate and go to peaceful places. Like to watch cricket matches whenever I get time.
17.Whats your favorite food & holiday destination?
Simple Home food. Would love to explore Europe.
18.Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
Sachin Tendulkar has been the most inspiring person in my life. My father has been the biggest motivator to me, he has always backed me with simplest of the words which has encouraged even in toughest times.
19.What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
Entrepreneurs can create opportunities for many people and also you have the freedom to express yourself to the fullest.
20.If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I think will start the same way, the journey has been very good so far despite tough times and hurdles.
21.How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
Nothing has changed. I was the same when I was in Job. In fact never been into Job I feel, always gave the same time and attention in the working days also. Yes family and social life gets affected big time as sometimes don’t even get few mins with them.
22.Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
Startup is a journey which you should enjoy each moment of it. There is nothing a failure or success, its all an experience which matters most as you started this coz you wanted to do it for yourself not for others. So chill and enjoy the ride…
23.Tell us something about your education & family background.
I have completed my graduation and MBA from Kolkata. I come from a traditional family.
24.What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domains.
We focus to offer a one stop solution platform for our users.
25. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?
The biggest threat is access to right mentors and guidance and I feel regional platforms will solve this problem in the coming days.
26. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?
I feel yes because I am able to do what I wanted to do.
27.Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person
Pravin Sharma (CEO and Founder) – Pravin is the person instrumental in starting this venture as a founder. He takes care of entire operations of the company through the team and also takes care of the strategic alliances. Pravin started Eshiksa after working in the service Industry for more than 13 years including Payments, Trading solutions, Stock Market and Mutual Fund distribution. Prior starting this venture Pravin was working with Atom Technologies Ltd as National Sales Head and played a key role in rolling out various innovative products for Atom Pan India.
Website : http://eshiksa.com/
Contact : Pravin Sharma, +91 7726000209, [email protected]
