I started a democratised career counselling product impacting over 50,000 students in India, Indonesia and UAE

In one line, what do you do and what is your most significant achievement?

I started a democratised career counselling product impacted over 50,000 students in India, Indonesia and UAE.

Who are you and what business did you start?

I am a solo woman founder, who's graduated from IIT Kharagpur and IIM Lucknow having studied statistics, data and finance. After moving to Singapore, I taught in premier institutions and was an admission panellist for IIMs. I founded LifeVitae four years ago and have been running it ever since.

LifeVitae is the world's first AI-powered platform that allows individuals to curate the most important skills of their life. We provide a unique and engaging experience by mapping achievements and passions to uncover life skills, strengths and much more. We then facilitate targeted recommendations on the platform by curating resources that accelerate higher education readiness and profession pathways. We help users leverage their work and life experiences to discover potential careers and succeed in their life journey.

What's your backstory?

Everybody around me thinks I was ‘successful' when I graduated from IIT and IIM. However, I feel I started on my real success only after I actively worked in tertiary education, and started observing how children felt trapped in the wrong career paths. I realised that children were often clueless as to why they were there in college. Traditional counsellors can be expensive, while societal and parental pressure can push them to paths that aren't optimal for their skill-set. More importantly, they don't have an idea of their own strengths and passions. I resolved to go out and tackle this issue so that students are better placed and empowered to make the right decisions for themselves as they move out of high school.

What should be the first steps to take to enter your industry?

To have a product that addresses a pain point and places user experience and interests at the core. It should be a customer first service foremost.

How did you spend your First 100 Days of launching your business?

I spent my first 100 days building awareness of our product, connecting with educators and educational institutes and exhibiting at various shows and conferences. It was important that we got the word out and made connections with a variety of people. We also became part of an incubator, which provided us with additional support starting up.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain partnerships/customers?

Our democratised approach has helped majorly in attracting customers, as our product is much cheaper than our nearest competitors. We ensure that we pass our value back to the user. Ours is a service delivery approach - so our user acquisition process does not stop with sign ups. We make sure each sign up has their money worth, and we handhold them until they are satisfied with the product and their experience. We also run weekly check-ins with new users to check if they are struggling.

What has taken you from 0 to 100?

My own active networking and connections with like-minded people.

What is one underrated thing in your industry that business owners should start doing/using?

Service delivery

What was one failure you had to go through that others in your industry should look out for?

To be sure of your hires. In the beginning, I had some mismatched hires that really slowed us down.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

We use Canva for data visualisation, Figma for design, Slack for company communication, Nero for web services and Google Sheets/Slides/Docs.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

We are at the cusp of breaking even, having signed around 100 schools, and are looking to double or triple our numbers in the next fiscal year. We're looking to continue building our platform and listening to market feedback to keep improving all across the board.