ENTREPRENEUR / STARTUP SPECIAL (4)......... Achhe Din in Jhunjhunu

ENTREPRENEUR STARTUP SPECIAL (4) Achhe Din in Jhunjhunu





His failure to make it to IIT prompted Ashutosh Modi to start online test preparation startup EntrancePrime

Ashutosh Modi needs an introduction, but the place he belongs to doesn't.

“Billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is from Jhunjhunu,“ Modi says proudly.

For the 30-year-old owner of EntrancePrime, an online test preparation startup, Jhunjhunwala unwittingly has been a saviour. Whenever Modi is confronted with the bugging yet persistent question about the geographic location of Jhunjhunu, he smiles and retorts `Jhunjhunwala'. The queries abruptly come to an end.

Jhunjhunu, a nondescript town in Rajasthan some 180 km from the capital city of Jaipur, is the unlikeliest of places for a startup. That didn't deter Modi when he started EntrancePrime in July 2013. In less than two years, the test preparation startup has managed to garner 1.5 lakh registered users, including 9,000 paid members. Although it's yet to make a profit, it posted revenues of `80 lakh in 2014-15 and has set an ambitious target of `2 crore for the current financial year. “It's a realistic target,“ maintains Modi.

But why Jhunjhunu and not Jaipur or any other top city? “It helped me invest more time in my product and stay focused,“ contends Modi.

The business Modi chose was born from the pain of not making it to an Indian Insti tute of Technology (IIT). Coming from a business family that runs a chain of schools in Jhunjhunu, Churu and Sikar in Rajasthan, Modi settled down in his hometown to help his father after working for L&T Infotech for three years in Mumbai.

But the failed IIT aspirant was still not able to come to terms with the bitter truth that the lack of access to quality educational resources had ruined his IIT dream. He wanted to do something on his own but the thought of leaving the family business was intimidating. Finally, in 2013 he mustered courage and asked a loan of `1 crore from his father to start a website.

“My father was flabbergasted. `1 crore for a website! You must be joking,“ recalls Modi.But the spunky engineer -he graduated from a private engineering college in Jaipur -managed to convince his father and other family members.

EntrancePrime, which has a range of packages for students starting from `299 and going up to `10,000, has opened offices in Noida, Pune and Kota. It's easy to start in a smaller town like Jhunjhunu but you have to move out to bigger places for growth, feels Modi. So he has zeroed on in Pune for technical talent and Noida in the National Capital Region to meet his sales and marketing needs.

While it was cost effective to set up a startup in Jhunjhunu in terms of infrastructure and manpower, after a few years of operations the flip side became evident. Lack of access to a startup environment, the absence of mentors and feedback from industry specialists, and the dearth of investors started bothering Modi.

“Eventually moving out to a bigger city will become an imperative,“ admits Modi.But that doesn't mean he will wander away from the roots. Value investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is doubtless an inspiration, but as far as this entrepreneur is concerned he “would like to become the Ashutosh Modi of Jhunjhunu“.

Rajiv Singh

ETM31MAY15