With 20K students and 3X growth in B2B segment, Mindler helps young to choose a right career

Saurabh Kumar, a designer in an e-commerce company, studied computer science before he decided to follow a profession in designing.

He regrets that he lost precious years of his life in learning something which he didn’t intend to follow as a profession. He realised his potential in art and designing after he was enrolled in the engineering institute.

“It was not easy for me then to quit college and join a completely new stream. I was stuck with engineering for the next four years. Had I got a career counselling, I would have saved my energy and the lost years,” laments Kumar.

Kumar is not the only case. There are many students who go through the same.

A study says that some 92 per cent of students don't get any career-related guidance from their schools.

“The struggle faced by students is real. They are unaware about available career options, besides they are also unable to make the right career choice in the absence of right information,” said Prateek Bhargava, Founder & CEO of Mindler.

Launched in 2016, Mindler is a technology-enabled platform that provides career planning to students that allows them to discover their unique potential and take well-informed career decisions.

He elaborated that the challenge is not only for students but for career counsellors as well. They also have limited tools to assess the capability of students and help them choose the right career options.

The Delhi-based platform is solving all the challenges through algorithm-based machine learnt programmes and providing counselling to students; helping teachers and counsellors to assist students to make an informed decision.

“Mindler’s focus is to help students zero in on a career choice which is not determined by peer pressure, family opinion or any other external influence, but is based on individual skills, traits and faculties. With a scientific assessment of the student’s profile, it evaluates students on over 56 dimensions, and generates career recommendations that follows the student’s style, interest, personality, aptitude, and emotional quotient,” added Bhargava.

Mindler model works three ways

As the company’s offering is spread around students, educational institutions and counsellors, so are the sources of revenues.

The platform has three business models—business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and collaboration with NGOs, institutions and government bodies.

Under the current business model, the platform allows students to buy various assessment programmes categorised for students of class 8-9, 10-12 and graduates. The price point differs for each category.

Besides, counsellors buy subscriptions from the platform which provide them with all the tools and help them in offering career counselling utilising the features of the platform.

The schools and colleges take a complete package for students for which the platform builds the whole curriculum. Apart from this, Mindler also provides training to teachers within the school environment.

Taking Mindler to the global platform

Mindler claims to grow 3X times in B2B segment and 3.5X times in B2C space over the past one year. It says that it has over 20,000 students as consumers in B2C category while 80 partner counsellors have subscribed with the platform.

Buoyed by the numbers, it also has decided to explore new markets outside the country. By tieing up with educational institutions in West Asia, Southeast Asian countries and Nepal.

Content is the key to gain users

Bhargava explains that the platform has been able to reach the current stage through content. “We have prioritized content from the very beginning which has been driving traffic on our platform and that later converts into users.”

The platform covers various topics around career and counselling and also shares various researches and studies on it.

Testimonies

The platform shares various life-changing stories. Of various testimonies, the story of Pranav is very similar to Saurabh Kumar. Pranav, a first-year engineering student, had been experiencing failing grades and he believed he had chosen a wrong career path.

In this case, Mindler came to his rescue and helped him evaluate his options to find a career that utilised his strengths, and one that he could be successful in. Currently, he is successfully pursuing his BBA and is now a top ranked at his university.