In just three years of its existence Letsintern is one of the largest platforms connecting students and organizations today. Conceptualized by Rishabh Gupta and Pranay Swarup, the company was formed with a vision to enable India’s youth to get started early. Today Letsintern has footprints all across India and is planning to expand overseas in 2014-2015.
In an exclusive conversation with LifeBeyondNumbers, founder Rishabh Gupta shares the journey of Letsintern so far.
The Beginning And The Journey So Far
Letsintern maintains that this is not a job board and we are in the business of enhancing career paths of our users. This is a very different focus from what the job boards offer. The company lays a lot of emphasis on profile creation, enhancement, information dissemination and building connections. Letsintern has done a lot in growing the market ever since its inception. We have managed to bring bigger organizations within reach of students. Tens of thousands of connections have been created and they have launched new trends like virtual internships and pocket-money internships.
The company is now inching to getting revenues worth half a million dollars this year ever since its inception in 2011. We are en-route to reach 2 million unique students in 2014 – so it has been a very exciting journey.
Experience And The Challenges
Angel investors are a must. Find someone who can play a mentor role, has relevant connections and credibility in your core space and ex-entrepreneurs make better mentors and angels than professional investors. We haven’t understood the VC community well – and hence are not VC funded.
Key challenge I think as an entrepreneur is more an internal one – how big can one dream and then how can you convince the entire ecosystem – people, investors, clients, media – that you are the best person for the job to tag along and build this big dream.
Way Forward For Letsintern
Our plan is to build stronger relationships with our users. We do want to replicate Letsintern India model to international market. We have 2-3 markets in our site but would be announcing them in due course. 2015 should be exciting.
Advice For Young Entrepreneurs
Determine how your product will bring about a change to the world on a 10 year horizon and then break down to a 3 year mile stone. Prepare with persistence, focus and the hard-work, it’s the hardest journey of your life. But it’s worth it.
On asking Rishabh about his key takeaways of a successful start-up, he maintains his humility and says “I won’t know if we are successful yet, all we know is we are not a failure and are working hard to succeed not just in India but globally too. 2015, will see us expand internationally.”
Click here to visit the Letsintern website.