How Sanjay Purohit turned iProf into a successful venture
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Sanjay Purohit, an ordinary boy born in an Indian Brahmin family from the Raj Purohit subgroup, never knew that one day he'd become the inspiration of so many students. What motivated him, how did he become the man he is today and what he did to reach here, let's have a look.
A burning desire for knowledge
Purohit always had an insatiable hunger for learning which took him to the greatest places of education this country has to offer. He holds a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbia and is a Gold Medalist in MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
That's not all; Purohit's first job also led him to serve the country as an IAS officer. In past, he also worked as a Managing Director with New York-based business restructuring firm LMCO, where he looked over the restructuring aspect of prominent organizations.
A life-long dream
Growing up, Purohit saw a lot of talent never coming to fruition due to lack of resources. It has always been his dream to eradicate this issue from the country. And what better way to strengthen the roots of his homeland by revolutionising the way education works in the country. Education is one of the most primal components required for the economical and overall growth of a country, more so in developing nations like India, where Educational resources are only concentrated to major cities.
Purohit aims to take education to the remotest places, provide it to all on an equitable basis and give a fair chance to everyone for turning their lives around. Inspired by Steve Jobs and books such as The Bhagavad Gita, The Innovator's Dilemma and Future Shock; Sanjay wants to use technology to change lives for the better.
An affair with entrepreneurship
Back in 2007, Purohit felt the time is right for the realisation of his long seen dream.
India was in the midst of a technological revolution at that time. Though it still is, but the easy and affordable access to technology and a growing market for it led to the conception of iProf. iProf aims at taking education to each and every corner of the country on an equitable basis and provide every student the means and resources to succeed in their lives and realize their dreams.
Inception of iProf
Bootstrapped for the first two years before raising $6 million from Norwest Venture Partners & IDG Ventures India, and $9 million in series B funding from a consortium of investors; iProf was started in the year 2009. Since its inception, iProf has grown into a much larger player that not only caters to the needs of students, but also professionals and people from other walks of life.
Last year, iProf bagged the "Fastest Growing Company of 2014' award by IDG for showing enormous growth of 456 per cent year-on-year. This clearly signifies the pace at which iProf is chalking out its expansion plans.
The start-up claims to be the first company in India to launch tablet-based education in 2009 and has since then pioneered in Tablet/PC-based education content delivery in India. iProf recently launched m-learning Android App – iProf-Study Buddy.
With more than 300 streams of courses available, iProf enables its students to study online via app or website or offline with the course material preloaded on SD Cards or pen drives shipped right to their doorstep.
iProf live has two-fold benefits. First, it helps student to connect with the best teachers in their locality, get demo classes, and choose the teacher they like and understand most and start working on their progress. Secondly, it helps teachers to connect with thousands of new students and share their knowledge while building a business and a reputation for themselves.
