Mota Chashma : A Disrupting Education Tech Startup

In today’s world where everything is going digital, education is an area which is experiencing the next level of digital transformation. So, this sector holds a great amount of interest for startups. Mota Chashma is among such startups which are making efforts to disrupt the process of bringing opportunities closers to young students. Whether its scholarships, entrance exams, auditions, results or finding the books that help you in various endeavors, Mota Chashma is becoming a one-stop shop for all your needs. Additionally, all the services provided to students are free of cost.

In an interaction with Faiz Askari of SMEStreet, Ankita Sabharwal and Lokesh Sabharwal, founders of Mota Chashma explained their entrepreneurial journey and shared some of the key trends that are becoming true disrupters of this sector.

On the Entrepreneurial Voyage:

How it all started?

Lokesh Sabharwal& Ankita Sabharwal, the founders of Mota Chashma, always wanted to bring about a change in the education sector. Prior toMota Chashma, Lokesh successfully ran another startup“BRIDGE”, which hosted a 2-day flagship event named “Paathshala 2 Profession”in Roorkee.The event provided counselling and learning support to students in nearby regions free of costwith help ofprofessionals from various streams. Lokesh got support from many well-known personalities. Later a case study published on the company in Asian Case Research Journal (ACRJ) at the National University of Singapore. Thereafter, he completed his MBA from XIMB, Bhubaneshwar, where he met Ankita and together both decided to go digital. Both have done a lot of ground work to understand the need of students throughout schools and colleges. Ankita during one of her projects in past jobs did a study under MHRD on reasons for dropout of students in elementary level. This provided them with deep insights regarding the issue prevalent in the market.

Founders of Mota Chashma

Initial Challenges:

What challenges been faced as a bootstrapper?

The couple bootstrapped Mota Chashma in 2013 from their living room in a Delhi Apartment. The initial challenge was faced in setting up the website. Lokesh took help from old friends to set up the website. Another friend Ram Soni, designed the logo for the company. After setting up the website, getting clients was another big challenge. Clients were reluctant to work with a company operating put out of the living room of an apartment. The team had to work hard to show their capabilities. And gain the trust of big clients. That’s how they made the company profitable. And with continuous expansion, Mota Chashmahas now moved on to its 4^th location. “We did good work with our clients, gained their trust and requested them to join in mutually beneficial long-term contracts,” says Lokesh. Mota Chashma started partnering with big players of the education sector in as early as 2014, just a year after initiation and turned profitable soon after. Even without any external funding, Mota Chashma has kept going strong and efficient, always following its vision “Mota Chashma aims to become the most authentic and trusted source of information for students, parents, schools, and colleges.”

Current scenario

Explaining today’s trends

Mota Chashma has now become a well-known name in the industry. The website has good reach among the users and targeted audience. The highest Alexa rank achieved was 1400 in India. Highest single day traffic recorded is 1,71,925. Highest single daily average traffic in a month is 94,084. The revenue of the company comes from advertisements and branding for our clients. Mota Chashma works with few of the biggest brands of the education sector in India. Recently Mota Chashma was selected as one of the 10 Best Startups in Education Sector in India in 2017 by Reputed News Magazine.

Future Roadmap

Please unleash some of your expansion plans.

Mota Chashma is expanding continuously. Currently, they are looking to expand the team and get new talent. Also, there are plans for redesigning the website to serve the user needs better and efficiently handling the traffic. Lokesh has always emphasized on the use of technology to stay ahead of the competitors and plans to include some new segments in a website that would be helpful to users. The company is also looking for funding to expand into Indian market as well as overseas with time. The model they are following is sustainable and can also be implemented in other developing nation to cater to students globally.