Q1. Can you tell us about your company, overview, and leadership?
MiM-Essay is a leading foreign education consultancy, our specialization is assisting students in getting admission into colleges around the globe. We specialise in Master’s degrees in management, finance, engineering law and marketing. Another thing that I proudly flaunt is that we have a success rate of 97% and 90% of our clients are currently studying in the top B-Schools worldwide.
Our work ethics helped us achieve these numbers, we work on the application of our clients as if it is our own, and provide end-to-end services. Our focus has always been on personalization.
Q2. What is your role in the management and development of The Mim-Essay?
My designation in the company is that of a founder and CEO, me and my co-founders have distributed our work very dextrously, we make sure that each person handles the things that they specializes in. Sales and marketing are handled by me because that’s my forte. Tech is handled by Abhiyuday, and Rohit handles the content and operations department.
Q3. What are your company’s biggest achievements in the IT development industry?
Rather than achievement, I like to call it an ah-ha moment. See, the domain in which we are working, there are a lot of our competitors that are raising funds, there was a time when we too felt as if we need to raise funds, but after we talked to some people, we concluded that we do not need to raise funds. You need funds when you are not profitable, but there has never been a time when we are not profitable.
And after seeing other ed-tech startups raising funds and all that, being completely bootstrapped from the start is what I feel like our biggest achievement.
Q4. Please tell us the development process of your company- from the beginning to the end?
The MiM-Essay was born during my college days at ESCP only, when I came back, I decided to scale this business because I saw a huge gap between the students and foreign universities, and I wanted to bridge that gap and help students fulfil their dreams. During this journey, the only thing that has helped us is the knack for learning, we always focused on learning new things, and making innovations. See, we had good services, but our aim was to look for better, when you keep on looking for better options, the journey never ends, but you become the best and that’s how we became one of the big players in this market.
Q5. How to schedule the development phases of the apps to promise the timeline to your clients?
The first step is simple, recognizing our clients. The time and efficiency is important but if you don’t know your clients, you are done for. Here at MiM-Essay we try to take as much feedback as possible. We let out clients talk and employees listen. Basically, we believe that the best service is customer satisfaction, not a big package or impressive names.
Next step is getting your services in front of your clients. The technical phases are just to get everything done, which is done accordingly between the process. However while presenting our services, we try to put our most effective offers. It’s always nice to present better instead of more.
The closing section here can be described as consistency. Till our clients get to their goal, we work consistently without ups and downs. At MiM-Essay we believe in value based service. Instead of getting very good at some points, we maintain consistency. Its the best tool to keep running a business.
Q6. Tell us, what clients have you worked for? What are the industries you serve?
Our clients have been students and working professionals. Fresh graduate students have been our clients most of the time. I know you may be wondering, how come working professionals. See, there are some degrees such as MBA that require applicants to have some years of experience, and some degrees such as MiM are also there that do not mandate the working experience and we cater to both of them. The industry that we serve is the Ed-Tech industry. We are foreign admission consultants.
Q7. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose? And what is the average app development budget of your company?
We have two engagement models namely, CPA and Premium. We have an extensive technology that helps the clients choose which model they would like to choose. There is an option for free profile evaluation on our website, in which the client can get their profile evaluated and afterwards, we evaluate what would be the best option for them to choose from. The client can have a telephonic conversation with our experts or have a walk-in discussion with the consultant they have scheduled their meeting with.
Q8. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?
“In the coming years as well, we will remain in the same industry only that is Ed-Tech, but we are planning on for a different product in our arsenal. We have started a new type of service that is MentR-Me, it is based on a deferred revenue model. If I had to give a glimpse about this, then I would say that this product will run on a self-service model, where students can access the services themselves.
Luckily, we have a great team of valuable people. The distinctiveness of our workforce is that we always do value-based hiring, not skill-based. In my opinion, skills can be taught, but values are something that remains with a person forever. All our workforce have a curiosity of learning, therefore we do not need to worry about their adaptability.
Q9. What is your outlook for 2021-22?
For the future, I would like to first focus on the new brand MentR-Me, I would like to make it have an identity like that of MiM-Essay. We will also be going for fund-raising this time, Until now, we never had any strong reason to raise venture capital, but for this new model, we can go for some fund-raising. Also, I would like to tell you that last year we have doubled all our numbers- our growth, satisfied customers, everything. So this time I am looking forward to tripling those numbers in the coming next year. Also, innovation will never be left behind, we are still looking out for making our best things, better!
Q10. What do you think, is the future of Ed-tech companies like MiM-Essay?
With all the experience that I have collected until now, I feel that there is a very huge area for growth in the Ed-Tech industries. When we combine anything with technology, then there is definitely scope for better outcomes. The pandemic has taught us that with technology, we can improve anything and come up with solutions even in difficult times.
So, I feel companies like MiM-Essay and MentR-Me will see a huge opportunity in the coming years. And there is are alot of areas for upscaling these types of businesses, and I myself believe that even if the something seems best, there is always a room for making it better.
Abhyank Srinet
MD/Founder, MiM-Essay