This is a transcript of the interview with Nitin Narayan Goyal, the CEO and Founder of OnlineXm.com. In this exclusive interview he shares with us some memorable events and struggles that went behind establishing OnlineXm. So read on to know about the current scenario of the online exam and preparation platforms from the expert in the field himself.
Q. Please tell us about the inspiration that led you to come up with OnlineXm, the online exam preparation platform.
I always wanted to catalyze something that would help the society and make a change. About 15 months ago in a meeting regarding IT Services with an institute, I came up with this idea. Most of the exams being conducted in online mode, from the exam notification to result announcement, everything happens online. I have seen many students struggling for these updates. After analyzing year 2016 data, we observed that out of 2-3 crore only 20-30 Lakhs students are using online platforms for exam preparation; still the 90% of the audience is unaware. So when we analyzed the audience size and the opportunity, we decided to come up with this concept.
We are providing a complete exam preparation platform for students in terms of everything that includes Exam details, online tests, Quizzes, Job and Exam Alerts. We also provide B2B platform services that we cover by reaching to institutes/coaching & educational bodies. Institutes provide offline test series to students even when exams are going to be conducted online. So we look after for institutes/coaching to provide them fully managed online test series services from their own portal and mobile app.
Q. Can you take us through the initial journey of OnlineXm?
Coming into a business is extremely difficult. But the motivation was that many players were doing things incorrectly and 90% of the audience remains unaware of online exam preparation platforms and it has vast market and audience size of various classes. So we began this in a pair of B2C & B2B models, with a better manner in single platform using website & App covering all the exams classes like SSC, Banking, MBA, GATE, ESE, Engineering Entrance or Medical Entrance that are fifteen with one hundred exams.
It took 4-5 months to build the online test platform and on 31st may 2016 we launched fully functional website ‘www.onlinexm.com’. Our IT experiences worked out to create an easy UI and UX, and we created an awfully smart platform in terms of web and mobile app each.
Q. Explain us your role in the entire journey. I mean the sacrifices you made, the landmarks you achieved and much more.
We were running an IT company from past five years and worked on 800+ projects including websites, ecommerce, mobile apps, software & SEO. So technology, design and architecture were not a big deal for us. From this experience we designed and developed the platform in a very good manner comparatively.
Then the problem was about content development and we were lucky to find best content experts in our team. Another challenge is to find some good institutes to deliver our B2B services so that revenues can be managed. This was a big concern to us, because from starting to now we are bootstrapped. We don’t have any external funding till date. So my role is to be a centralized body to connect all the domains including design, web development, App development, content development, digital promotion, marketing, sales and customer support.
If we speak about sacrifices, I don’t think something has worth in front of your dream, So I have made no sacrifice as a result of OnlineXm, which does not have any worth from that I will compare, rest ups and downs in business is usual.
According to me if you are the founder & CEO of a company you have to be passionate about your work and keep believing in you and your idea.
In starting because of less content fewer users used to land on site. But from past 3 months we have registered 50,000 users and they have attempted 1.2 lac+ online tests on our website. Over 40 Lac questions have been attempted.
Q. Apart from all the Hundreds of good self-preparatory sites & Mobile apps found online, kindly enlighten us with the features of OnlineXm that gives you a competitive edge.
Why 90% of the audiences are still unaware of Online Exam Preparation Platforms? Answer of this question gave us a competitive edge and encouragement to make it better.
Following unique features bettering us:
– Students find easy UI & UX to use.
– Plenty of free test series.
– Regular Each and every updates about exam notifications, job alerts or current affairs.
– PDF Download option after completion of test with solutions.
– Daily current affairs and monthly current affairs quiz and PDF.
– Live question & answer board, where student can share queries and details among them for discussion.
In B2B model we have added big 10 institutes from Jaipur with us to manage their online test series for their thousands of students using our platforms in backend.
Q. What is the student’s reaction to your platform- OnlineXm (Web & App)? What are the important lessons you have learned from those reactions?
What we learned is – Student doesn’t need fancy features; they need quality content and Error free Platform. And according to feedback we are providing all these features in single platform.
We are getting 97% of the positive feedbacks from our users. Day by day we are working on OnlineXm, to make it better and get the 100% satisfaction of our users.
Q. What steps have you taken to enrich the entire online experience of taking an exam on OnlineXm? I mean about the layout, the interface and the entire idea behind the smooth functioning of the website.
This is the question I eagerly wanted to answer and which makes us different from others. From starting we worked on prospective of a student. If you want to succeed always take care of your users. Student were struggling to get all content on single platform with simple user interface So we created all in one platform where student can get everything.
Q. Any massive pitfalls that you have overcome and would like to share with us.
It happened twice in my journey of 6 years; 3 years ago one of my big overseas clients of IT denied me to pay and just disappeared. I had many running projects with him and many team members were working on them. So it was a big turning when I had to step back and the other one was when we failed with our startup in real estate sector. I think these pitfalls are the part of game; and I have learned from them and move ahead.
Q. So what are those core moral values and ethics that has made Nitin Narayan Goyal the person he is today?
I follow only one thing in my life; do what you do with ethics and honesty. If you fail at any place, first look at yourself wherever you place lesser efforts or less input rather than blaming anyone else or blaming conditions. I always work with my business ethics given by my father. I belong to a business class family where from birth I saw the only business. From the age of 12 I used to help my father in our family business. So from that age I started loving Numbers.
Q. What are your future plans of action for OnlineXm?
Now our target is to reach 1 lakh registered students till 31st March 2017. Recently we have launched our fully featured android app and getting very good response and feedback from users.
The ultimate goal of OnlineXm is to reach each and every student who is appearing for any exam in India. Also we want to move ahead in online education services like Marketplace for study material and anything related to education, online training and sessions for technical courses etc.
Making Exams Accessible for Everyone: Insights from Nitin Goyal
