This week we invited another young entrepreneur – Rahul Arulkumaran, co-founder at Widhya, for an interview with us to share his journey and his experience with our community. Rahul has an analytical and entrepreneurial bent of mind. He is solving one of the major problems through his startup, Widhya.
Widhya is an e-learning platform, that helps students learn, by giving them a taste of the industry even before they formally get into the industry through an internship or a job. It focuses on a “Learning By Doing” approach, thereby removing the concept of rote learning.
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your startup please;
I’m Rahul Arulkumaran, a final year undergrad, pursuing my major in Computer Science and Engineering from Mahindra École Centrale, Hyderabad. Creating an impact in the lives of people is something I’ve always been inclined towards. In my leisure time, I tend to think about problems that exist in our society and try to come up with possible solutions for the same and that’s when I came across a problem that most students in our country face. I spoke about this with my roommate, Rishabh, who is also my Co-Founder now and that’s when we came up with our solution, Widhya. Most students in our country are being termed as “Not Industry Ready”. This is because most students don’t learn concepts, but study for the sake of exams to maintain high grades. While that is important in its own way, what is even more important is, to understand concepts and get some exposure in the industry to get a feel of what it takes to be a part of the current day, fast-paced industrial environment. At Widhya, we focus on adopting a “Learning By Doing” approach, thereby removing the concept of rote learning, by exposing learners to real-time industrial tasks. Essentially, we are an e-learning platform, that puts forward tasks to learners in a stream of their choice and helps them learn concepts in a progressive manner by actually solving some real industry problems. We give the learners a path to follow and a set of resources, which they can use, to solve these tasks. Our core focus at Widhya is on quality. Top performers over a set of tasks, purely based on their quality of work and not marks or grades, are rewarded with internships and job opportunities at Widhya and its partner organisations. If you notice closely, Widhya is an e-learning platform, that helps students learn, by giving them a taste of the industry even before they formally get into the industry through an internship or a job. We’re currently a team of 11 dedicated students working on this problem statement, including my Co-Founder and me. We’ve launched a pilot and we have 5 companies who’ve signed up with us. We’ve helped these companies find interns for marketing, full-stack development and data science. One company also took our services to help them find their CFO, CMO and COO.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship?
I’ve always been someone who loves to explore and experiment with different things. Since childhood, I’ve loved taking on responsibilities and have always been able to empathize with people. In my 2nd year of engineering, I came across various obstacles and had a lot of negative energy in me. But I decided to put that negative energy in the right direction so that I could grow as a person. That’s when I met a colleague of my father’s and in a conversation, we came across a certain problem that I thought needed to be addressed. The condition of research in our country has not been up to the mark. So I decided to build a product called ResearchFLO(part of my first startup FreeFlo, which we shut down recently) along with a small team comprising of my friends that focused on addressing the problem by building a platform that removed cost factors and language barriers while incentivising the process of research. This product of ours got into PayTM’s Build For India Initiative and that’s how the journey started for me. That’s when I realised how big an impact I can create using technology in the lives of people and since then, I’ve been inclined towards building products for the greater good.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
Well, that’s a simple question I suppose. My hunger to grow as a person and help others grow by creating a positive impact in their lives is what keeps me going!
Tell our audience about the challenges you’ve faced so far? How should one bounce back?
That’s a really nice question! One major challenge I faced in the very beginning was lack of confidence. Although I’ve been very keen on exploring new things, I wasn’t sure if I could give my best in this domain. I wasn’t sure about how to go about things. I didn’t have a mentor. My head was filled with doubts. Sometimes my confidence was so low that I’d end up conveying the idea and the product in the wrong manner. But as time progressed, I gained that confidence. It’s all about getting your hands dirty and talking to people. And that’s the beauty about Widhya because that’s exactly what we’re trying to convey through Widhya. We’re trying to instil that confidence in people by helping them get their hands dirty with some industrial experience. This is when I realised what Steve Jobs meant when he said, “You can never connect the dots looking forward. But you can always connect them looking backwards”. Another major challenge I faced was in forming a team. The only 2 people that I was sure about were me and Rishabh Singh, my Co-Founder. Obviously, the 2 of us can’t do everything. The only good thing here was that I’m primarily a technical person with some non-technical experience while Rishabh is more of a non-technical person with some technical experience. So we complemented each other really well and we still do. The problem with building a team was the shortage of funds. Yes, we were making some money but the inflow wasn’t consistent. So we found it really tough to find the right people for our team. But after a long hunt, we’re now a team of 11 self-motivated individuals, working together on solving the gap between students and industries.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
Both go hand in hand, to be honest. I mean, we as individuals spend money to buy things that satisfy our wants and needs. We get a sense of happiness, which is an emotion. At the same time, when we as individuals are motivated towards achieving something and making a difference, money comes as a by-product. Having said that, for me, emotions come first because I believe that emotions are the foundation for anything you build and this is what will keep you motivated. Also, if one doesn’t understand the value of emotions and relations, how are they to understand the value of money!
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I prioritise and take exactly what fits on my plate. I’ve had instances where I’ve taken a lot on my plate and the pressure of working on all them made me underperform in each of those things. I take breaks regularly, go out with friends, sleep and spend time with loved ones. These things give me a sense of relief even in the most hectic of times. It’s all about finding the balance between work and other things in life. The balance varies for everyone. Once you find out what’s your balance, you’re never going to feel stressed or pressurized again.
What advice would you give to someone starting out, particularly to aspiring entrepreneurs?
The first I’d say is, don’t worry about anything else and start out if you have an idea. Give it a try and see how it goes because you’ll never know how your idea will be perceived until you take it to the market. Talk to people about your idea. You will face criticism, but treat criticism as your best friend. Sometimes, the criticism is baseless, but a lot of times, you will get different perspectives to things and this will help you build a better product. Most importantly, don’t give up. It’s not always possible for your product to gain traction or pace immediately. It takes time in most instances. Don’t worry. Give your best and surely, things will go your way.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, Stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
