My First Tech Startup ... An Accident?
Tags: startup, webdev, beginners, programming
Published: 2023-10-19 08:29:12

How solving a problem for my college mates gave me a glimpse into the world of tech startups 

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## **Prelude :**

Let me begin by stating that it would be a <u>long stretch</u> for me to even call the humbe website I built for a few hundred people while still at the university, a <u>legitimate startup</u> .

<br/>
Heck , I didn't even code it ... just went on <u>[Google Sites](https://www.sites.google.com)</u> and used predefined templates to put together a functional static website .

<br/>

At that moment , it was more about solving a problem I had myself, so that others like me would not have to struggle with it as much as I did.

<br/>

However , it did use <u>digital technology</u>  to address a <u>pain point</u> , so I'll stick to calling it  a <u>tech - startup</u> !

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>**<u>Scenario </u>** : 
>
>Every year students have to appear for _2 main exams_ , **a unit test** and submit a couple of _assignments_ that are taken by <u>180</u> people of a specific Course ( MCA )
><br/>
> As per exam paper trends , About 60 - 70 % of the Topics / Questions are repeated from the last 5 years papers in every subject
> <br/>
> Theoretically, if you come prepared with the answers to the past 5 years' exam questions, then you will be able to pass the exam without buying any books, making notes, or attending classes (of course, you should keep attendance in mind)
> <br/>
> <u>**The Problem**</u> : Digital Copies of Question papers are <u>non-existant</u> , and the only way to get ones hands on the previous years papers is to go to the 2nd floor of the University's Library and take a zerox of each and every question paper .   
>    
> And this needs to be done by everyone who wants to benefit from the question papers .
> 
>  So , theoretically , 180 people will have to go through this arduous process <u>**EVERY YEAR**</u>

>**What I <u>did not</u> consider at the start :**
> 
>1. How would I scale it ? ( will it even scale )
> 
>2. What's the monetisation stategy going to be ?
> 
>4. How will I market it ?

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>**What I <u>did</u> cosider at the start :**
> 
>1. Will people actually benefit from it ? ( does solving the problem have value )
>
>2. Will it  make the life of even 1 person a bit better ?
> 
>3. Will it solve a recurring problem ? ( i.e Will solving this problem have a long term impact , albeit , for a small group of people  )

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><u>**Some metrics :** </u>
>
> <br/>
> <br/>
> _Starting Assumtion_ : Maximum Number of people estimated to be helped at any point in time : 60 * 3  = **180** ( 3 batches of classes ) 
>  <br/>
> _Actual Number of page visits per month on average_ :  **<u>33.52</u>** ( Google Analytics )
> <br/>
> _Actual Number of unique visitors throughout the lifetime of the website_ :  **<u>1106</u>** ( Google Analytics )
>  <br/>
> _Maximum number of people to ever visit the website in a given month_ : **<u>120</u>** ( Google Analytics )
>  <br/>
> _Money spent on marketing the product_ : **0**


<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dde6rnocj/image/upload/v1693197970/Screenshot_2023_08_28_at_10_14_21_AM_91e769a412.png" alt="google_analytics" width="400" height="200"  target= "_blank" />

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## Simply put , the problem that I was trying to solve was the lack of digital resources for students to study for upcoming exams.

## To address this problem, I decided to create a website that would  host digitally scanned exam papers.

## I used my own Google Drive to store the scanned papers, and I made it simple for students to access them through the website.

## The website was designed to be user-friendly and easy to navigate, mobile responsive , with a clean and modern design.

## The website gained a lot of traction since its launch.

## It has received positive reviews from students , who have found it to be a helpful resource for their studies and their careers.

## The website has also received favorable reviews from users on Quora and Facebook.

>**Quora** : **"**![Screenshot 2023-08-28 at 11.36.53 AM.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/dde6rnocj/image/upload/v1693202993/Screenshot_2023_08_28_at_11_36_53_AM_75894d0887.png)                 **"**

## However, the website did not generate any sponsorships / income for me. ( but then , that was never the objective )

## In conclusion, my startup project was a success ( or at least how i defined success for this particuar project ) .

## I was able to solve a real-world problem by creating a simple website that hosted digitally scanned question papers that catered to the needs of a few hundred students .

><u>Concluding Thoughts</u> : 
><br/>
>How would I have scaled the startup, had I chosen to !
>
>I could have made the website usefull for all the students at the university ( <u>More than 1,000,000 students</u> ) by making it easy for individuals from all courses to submit scanned papers to the website
> <br/>
> Which feature would have made the website <u>10X more usefull</u> ?
> 
> **M.L algorithms** that would have scanned question papers and predited the questions to be asked with high accuracy for all courses .
> <br/>
> How could I have monetise the startup ?
>  
>  Google Ads  
>  
>  Ed-tech sponsorships 
>  
>  Mentoring Framework ( 1 to 1 ) from industry exprets 
>  
> Premium Question paper generation with highest % of accuracy
> 
> <br/>
> How would I have marketed it ?
> 
> Posting about the website on Facebook groups of all the courses , along with the accuracy of the website to predict upcoming exam questions would have generated suffiient buzz and impetus for people to start using and contributing to the website 

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>( p.s : I did not purchase even a single text book during the 3 years of my masters and solely relied on Google Search+ Digital Question papers to prepare for my exame )

>( p.p.s : I spent <u>**no more than 6 hours of prep time / subject**</u> using the exam papers and scored above 60% in  aggregate) 

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<u>_[Click to View the Website: In case you wanted to have a look](https://sites.google.com/view/usictmca)_</u>

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