Shreekala Kurup, COO, CrackVerbal
As the head of Sales and Operations at CrackVerbal, Shreekala is responsible for growing CrackVerbal from a 3-member operations handling a few hundred students in 2011 to a 20-member team spread across 4 centers and serving 1000s of students today. She draws upon her strong background in operations (PMP, Six Sigma) that she accrued as a Project Manager during her 7-year stint with Hewlett-Packard, where she worked in client facing roles for marquee customers across the world. She is also a fellow of ISB Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurs program. In conversation with Dominic Rebello, she reveals her passion for finding solutions to clients’ problems
What drives you?
I started my career in the product industry. My clients were all big businesses and I had no idea how my work, creating and fixing code, impacted their lives or businesses. At CrackVerbal, when I talk to students, when I give a client a solution to their problem, when I read an email from a student thanking us for having touched their lives - I want to do more! What drives me is the thought that my company is helping improve the lives of students – whether it is a better job, more money or even better clarity of what they want to do in the future!
How big is the potential for a business like yours: Any statistics to compare with international standards?
The reported number of students taking GMAT and GRE in India is around 30,000 and 85,000 respectively. However, each year, the number of students appearing for these exams is increasing. Most of these candidates also require help to apply to MBA and MS programs the world over. We offer test prep and admissions services and so are a one-stop solution to students aspiring for a global degree. We estimate the market to be over Rs.1000 crores. Also, as compared to 10 – 15 years ago, people now have more confidence, and they aspire for more – whether it is to work outside India or to apply for a highly ranked MBA or MS program. As the confidence and aspiration levels keep rising, the market size will also keep growing.
How do you plan to scale up; raise funds through seed or venture capital or simply grow the old fashioned way through rising turnovers?
We have been bootstrapped since the inception of our company, and we do not have plans to seek funding for now. We plan to grow the old-fashioned way, through our services – GMAT coaching, GRE coaching and Admissions Consulting.
Who would primarily be your consumer audience?
Our consumers are higher education (MBA and MS) aspirants. We cater to students who are aiming for a higher education in India as well as those who have set their sights on education abroad. These aspirants seek our help at various stages of their application journey. First, we have students who are preparing for the GRE or the GMAT. We offer GRE and GMAT courses in various formats – Classroom, Online and Personal Tutoring. We are a dominant player in the GMAT & GRE classroom coaching arena, with over 4 centers across Bangalore and Chennai. A little down the application journey, we have clients coming to us for help with their application essays and college interviews. For this business area, we leverage our captive market of our own students, besides reaching out to prospective clients. Our Admissions Consulting services range from 90-minute career brainstorming sessions with industry mentors, to comprehensive application services that stretch across 3 weeks.
Where do you see yourself five years down the road?
I see myself helping establish the CrackVerbal brand beyond Bangalore and Chennai by setting up classrooms in other metros such as Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi. Alongside, we plan to invest in marketing our GMAT and GRE Online products to reach a wider audience. In the next five years, we want to distinguish ourselves as the predominant player in the online education vertical. As Admission Consultants, our goal is to be the go-to solution provider in India, both for clients applying to top-tier Indian schools such as ISB and the IIMs, and for clients who aim to make it to the most elite B-schools in the US and elsewhere around the world.