I had written about Rodinhooder, Mayank Gupta, on 30th December 2013, for the New Indian Express. He was a classmate at Kozhikode and a colleague at L&T, before venturing out.

Rise of the Geeks

Mayank Gupta was born and brought up in Delhi. Although he studied in a public school, and later at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Shalimar Bagh, a significant part of his education was at home, because his parents are teachers. Their constant guidance encouraged him to excel in his endeavours. He graduated in instrumentation and control engineering from Netaji Subash Institute of Technology (NSIT), New Delhi, and then majored in finance at IIM-Kozhikode.

Gupta was known as the studious boy next door during school days. Olympiads, Quiz Competitions and Talent Search Examinations left little room for the regular pastime of TV, gossip and movies. He would spend a lot of time reading comics, fiction and sci-fi books. Travel was another passion, something that Gupta indulges in even now. “As a person, reading and travelling has made me emotionally stable, culturally sensitive and well aware of my surroundings,” he explains.

Gupta started his career with L&T Infrastructure Finance at their Delhi office. He then moved to Bank of America, before the desire to do something innovative brought him into the education field. He led the sales and marketing team of Educomp’s mass education school business, before leaving to start Edukart with Ishan Gupta, his classmate from NSIT, with whom he shared the entrepreneurial passion since college days.

Ishan had already co-founded a venture during college days and that gave them confidence in taking the ‘risky’ path of entrepreneurship. Wanting to go beyond the obvious, and find an innovative solution to an existing problem was their goal. They decided on the education sector, because it was a core area in our country where there is a tremendous scope of improvement in the way content is delivered.

Edukart was started in April 2011. It is now India’s leading online platform for higher education courses, with a range of Indian and international degree and diploma programs. They provide online study material, doubt solving sessions, and alumni support, trying to bridge gap between the experience of a distance education program with that of a full time program. Additional certifications with Industry endorsement are also available for those who want to enrich their profile.

According to Gupta, “We often underestimate the role of mentors and role models in our lives. I have been fortunate to have people at different stages of my life in the form of parents, teachers and now professional advisors, whose unbiased guidance and advice has helped me steer through my life journey so far.”

Rohit is an entrepreneur in the elearning space and makes business simulation games that are used for assessments by colleges and recruitment / training by companies. He has been writing for The New Indian Express since 2011, and currently has a weekly column that features entrepreneurs in the education space.