Lucknow: Rohit Manglik had been a backbencher in his school, who scored average marks. His family did not expect him to achieve anything grand in his life. But he proved everyone wrong and became the owner of a company with a value of 150 crore. 

Rohit completed his B. Tech from NIT Karnataka. He had dreamt of running a business of his own. So, that desire made him launch two startups. These first two startups could not gain him any profit and were unsuccessful. 

To get his life back on track, he earned himself a job with a 42-lakh annual package. But his job prospects could not satisfy him, and he resigned from his high-paying job to start his third business venture. 

Rohit’s third startup was called EduGorilla. After a few months, he suffered from huge financial losses. The situation was such that he could not even pay his employees’ salaries. But Rohit was patient; he continued working in his business with complete dedication. He had the faith of his employees with him. 

Gradually, his startup took off and turned into a success that he had dreamt of years ago. The estimated worth of his company is Rs 150 crores. 

Rohit’s school life

Rohit did not perform well in his class 10th exams. His parents were called to meet the principal of the school and were made to sign an affidavit which said that if he would fail the preliminary examination for class 12th, he would not be allowed to continue his studies in the school. 

Rohit and his parents were disheartened. But Rohit promised his parents and teachers that he would clear all his exams with flying colours. To everyone’s astonishment, he proved himself right. After the announcement of class 12 results, Rohit found it unbelievable that he was one of the toppers of the school. He secured 5th rank in his final examinations. 

His parents were extremely proud of him and showered him with all the love and appreciation.

Inspiration from role model

Rohit’s parents sent him to Kota for the preparation of competitive exams after his exceptional results. He secured a seat at NIT Karnataka; he was a student of IT trade. 

During his studies, he had the opportunity of meeting Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. He found Dr Kalam’s personality and intelligence inspiring and firmed upon the idea of building his own startup. Dr Kalam’s simple words “What do you want to do?” made Rohit rethink his life and he started building dreams of making his life better. 

The consecutive failures

Rohit’s first venture was a web development startup in his college. By the third year of his college, he was earning around 4-5 lakh rupees a month. But he felt that it was uninspiring. He wished to use his capabilities to the fullest. 

After completing his graduation, he came back to Lucknow and began selling career counselling courses. At that time, people were fond of making their kids doctors and engineers and no one considered any other paths. Rohit could not sell his courses and his second startup failed. 

EduGorilla

While doing an office job with an annual package of 42 lakh, he once visited his school in Farrukhabad. He had discussions about his life with students. The curious students were surprised to hear about his package and bombarded him with questions. They wanted to know about the right career paths, and the right kind of resources. 

This experience was enough for Rohit to work on his third venture. He studied the statistics and learned that around 11 lakh students study IT each year and more than 30 lakh students sit for constable exams of UP Police. He wanted to fill in this gap. 

Rohit started working on his dream project from his drawing room. He discussed about his venture with five more people and started working with them. Soon, he created a website and worked with a team of six people. During this time, he met the co-founder, Shashwat. 

What worried Rohit was the reach of his website. He wondered if the resources he was providing these students with, were proving to be helpful or not. 

Expansion of the business

EduGorilla created test series and resource materials for 1600 exams in just under 4 years. He studied his target audience and learned about the unavailability of internet in village areas. Therefore, for children living in remote areas, he printed 900 books for various competitive exams and made them available in these students.  

The turning point

The lockdown situation of the pandemic worked for the better for Rohit’s business. After the coaching centres were shut down, he contacted these centres and worked in association with them. Through his website, live classes and test series were provided to students. 

At present, his company works with 9000 coaching centres spreading over 7 states.