Well, it all started in February 2019 with few enthusiasts discussed a need for an affordable platform for competitive exams. I, being opportunistic, pick It up from there, and we together as a team collaborated and decided to launch it on 1st MAY 2019.
With not much experience in hand of ed-tech but a zeal to serve students with our 5 C’s philosophy (C-Cost, C-Convenience, C-Comfort, C-Coach, C-Content ), We ventured into the online space with a price of Rs.250 for a one-year subscription. Happy to share that on the very first day we had 5000+ enrolments.
Initial Thoughts
Initially, we were questioned about our Business model, as we were high on expenses like we have content making cost, server cost (though quite high), editing cost, faculty cost, etc. and I was very clear that “I don’t know how, but we will do It for the kids”. Still, I envision that a student who is ready to learn should not pay a single rupee (if he/she can’t afford it) to learn. I wish to make GATEFLIX a learner’s Paradise.
In the first thought, we planned to charge some amount for video content then some amount for practice sessions, and another payment for doubts sessions, and so on. But we realized over the period of time that it will be quite difficult to ask students to pay again and again. Hence we dropped that model.
Challenges:
Though the venture has been quite successful, we had our own set of challenges as a newbie in the industry. Some of them being :
Product readiness:
There were only 20% of the videos ready by 1st May (our Launch date). Few in the team suggested that we should delay the launch and I was adamant about keeping it the same. We told students that content will float in packets. Like in May we will deliver 20% and In June we will deliver another 30% and in July the next 25% and Pending by August. Our students accepted it with an open heart, we cannot thank them enough for being so supportive in all these years and as a result, in the first 5 months, we successfully onboarded our 16000+ paid students on our platform.
Scaling :
After few months of a good start, we thought of venturing into other products and increase our average revenue per unit as this will enable us to provide better services for the students. But as we increased the price the number of enrolments decreased. We thought of reaching the break-even by end of FY 2021 but was hit by the worst pandemic in all our lives, the Corona Virus hit In 2020.
The covid era :
With online education going high due to the closure of physical classes, “Adding fuel to fire” was the covid-effect for GATEFLIX. We started with a bang but also witnessed the Blue Ocean converting to a Red One by many established players venturing into online space (by choice or by force). Hence a tough competition.
New thoughts over months
In order to be competitive and stay ahead of times, we launched new initiatives like the GATE crash course, GATE Live classes, Subscription model, GD /PI module, E-book Section. Also, we have identified the students’ feedback on certain subjects and have started our mission of incorporating all that our students demanded us to do, ever happily, including the addition of a lot more new content. The new version of Gateflix is complete and we are more than thrilled to see our students really appreciate the content with all their hearts!
What we pose to do in next 365 days.
With the vision to impart “quality and affordable education”, we wish to add more features this year for our existing students. We are not looking at how we can become popular and attract new students, rather we wish to focus on enriching our users’ experience of learning. There are few projects in our minds which we are working on like tracking a student’s progress, recommending him where he/she is lacking, or enabling a fantastic test series. A user’s a discussion forum for doubt solving. I think the best part of our journey has been, we are always open to suggestions, especially from our students. We expect that every student who prepares from any coaching institute should also subscribe to GATEFLIX for his/her preparation.
With all such thoughts In mind, we wish to make sure that all our students just say “ Thank you GATEFLIX”. At the end of the day, that is all that matters!
