Academic Excellence Is Not Necessary for Success in Life: Hear from the Founder of this Exciting New Digital Education Platform. Many educational platforms are emerging these days to help people qualify for various types of entrance examinations. But what about the students who don't want to take the traditional path, the ones who don't rank among the top 10 in the classroom yet still aim high in life?
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
![](https://assets.entrepreneur.com/content/3x2/2000/1721374141-IMG-1828.jpeg)
Many educational platforms are emerging these days to help people qualify for various types of entrance examinations. But what about the students who don't want to take the traditional path, the ones who don't rank among the top 10 in the classroom yet still aim high in life? There is currently no single educational platform that teaches online business models like marketing agency, eCommerce, saas, etc. under one platform. That's why CEO Society was created—to help these individuals achieve their goals and aspirations, without necessarily taking the traditional route.
"We don't oppose the conventional route or encourage anyone to drop out of their academics. Instead, we aim to help those who don't find happiness in traditional classrooms and feel they don't fit in. Our goal is to help them achieve what the other 90% cannot," says Dev Chakravarti.
On being asked about Dev's personal journey and what led him to start CEO Society, here's what he had to share with us, "I dropped out of school and was introduced to the world of online marketing in 2010. I started as a freelancer and gradually built multiple seven-figure businesses in e-commerce. When I wanted to diversify, I decided to build an international marketing agency. I invested in a high-ticket course from a well-known online guru, only for him to suddenly shut down the private WhatsApp group and stop providing the promised support. This experience made me realize how untrustworthy and unorganized the online business learning space was.
I started CEO Society to fix this issue by creating a trustworthy, beginner friendly platform for aspirational, free thinking students like myself. Our goal is to guide them from the beginning to successfully landing clients and building a robust team for sales and service, helping them evolve from freelancer to CEO."
When asked how CEO Society can help people achieve this, Dev said, "Our platform helps people build and grow their online businesses. The programs are designed so that anyone, whether an absolute expert or a beginner in the online business world, can achieve six figures with the resources and support provided. And by the way, these are all proven business models that we run ourselves."
In response to a question about the best way to determine customer needs, Dev said, "Over the course of a year, we engaged with our social media followers to understand their pain points and identify the areas where they genuinely needed help. The most common issues were team building, the sales process, and maintaining motivation. That's when I realized that a normal course wouldn't be enough to address these problems. So, I developed a complex yet user-friendly website and app that can be accessed from a laptop or even a smartphone."
Deciding on the features of our website, particularly the program 'Agency Fastlane,' was another significant challenge. We had to address several common problems our followers faced. One of the top issues was difficulty closing clients in Zoom meetings, so we added weekly sales classes. Another issue was weak English skills, so we included English communication classes to improve their fluency. Some followers struggled with losing motivation, so we introduced accountability managers. Others needed more interaction, so we added weekly live lectures for real-time engagement and feedback.
We also realized that many users struggled to complete programs due to the dull video format. So, we created a finely curated website that functions as a living community, far surpassing inactive Facebook groups. Here, you can communicate with others in the lobby and access your programs in a much more refined way. Our video lessons are designed with VFX to keep them engaging, unlike other courses. They guide you from kicking off solo and landing your first client without spending anything to building your dream team for sales and service fulfilment. Ultimately, you start as a freelancer and level up to a CEO by the end of the program.