Nothing can define the life of a doctor better than the word “difficult”. The same for some is the driving force that results in success. Dr Goyal is an MBBS graduate with expertise in managing critical care patients. He hails from the city of Panchkula and has extensive experience working in SMO and INSCOL. His father is a businessman, which is why he was always inclined towards starting his own company. He always had a desire to help people and give back to the society that he had gained from. His stint at entrepreneurship came up after he started mulling idea of launching an education-based startup.
Prepladder is a Chandigarh based company that provides convenient and quantifiable learning growth to students preparing for competitive exams. With over 40,000 registered users (including 7000 doctors) in 7 months, they have seen a 50% MOM growth. Their B2B vertical started in November and they already have 20 partner coaching institutes in Chandigarh region. Deepanshu is currently looking after content and marketing of the medical part of the business and general operations
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
PrepLadder is a Chandigarh based edu-tech startup catering to students preparing for competitive exams. Our main focus is on providing convenient and quantifiable learning growth to our users.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
We came up with the idea once after we saw lakhs of application in UP for peon job at a govt office and the applicants included engineers and PhD holders. We recognized the gap, started with exams for govt jobs and grew into other exams eventually.
What is your life mantra?
Stop saying “I wish” start saying “I Will”
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
The biggest entry barrier for an education based start up is generating unique, high quality, credible content. We faced the same problem.
How did you overcome those challenges?
We overcame this challenge through our approach of enabling coaching institutes and not trying to replace them. A mutually beneficial partnership with seasoned teachers in our target subjects helped us overcome the issue.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
PrepLadder was initially self funded and is now cash flow neutral.
How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?
Being a new startup we haven’t faced that problem yet.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
Creativity, Dedication and Smart work in that order
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
Google Maps Oyo Rooms Ola Cabs No prizes for guessing, I love to travel
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
Making a to do list everyday and setting a deadline for every initiative I’m working on.
Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.
Getting distracted easily. I would like to have more focus.
Answer in less than 50 words
• One tip to success:
I don’t think there’s one tip to success. Everyone gets there in their own individual way.
• One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:
Overlooking your competition.
• One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:
Implementation is more important than the idea itself.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
In the next 3 years we plan to target more exams, reach out to a lot more people, engage the existing once more, increase the product line. It’s going to be an interesting time.
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
No matter what I do different, I would probably end up with PrepLadder again. And I’m not complaining.
What are your top three getaway destinations?
Goa, Manali and Gulmarg
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
“There’s no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs.”