When and how did you start?
I started building GroupClap when I was in the 3rd year of my college. After going through a few experiences during those days. I recognized that there is a huge gap between student’s community and they are facing many issues while there is not a single platform for them to solve all those issues, says Mr Avinash Dwivedi Co-Founder & CEO GroupClap.
How did you come up with the idea? Your inspiration moment?
The sole idea of GroupClap occurred to me during the 3rd year of my college. I ( Mr Avinash Dwivedi ) used to do a lot of freelance based project to cover my expenses and to support my family. Most of the times I had more projects in hand than I could do. I thought of providing these extra projects to other fellow students so that they can also learn and earn some amount along the process.
I ( Mr Avinash Dwivedi ) was surprised to see that even with all the social media and connections we have, I was unable to reach out to interested students. I discovered there is a huge gap between students community. This seeded the basic idea of GroupClap and inspired me to do something for students and provide them with a platform which will be a guide and friend to them.
After analysing basic problems any student faces during college years, I started shaping a platform to solve these issues. It was a very challenging job as I had to do it keeping in mind that I don’t hamper my college studies in any way. Still, I used to miss classes after sleepless nights of coding and forming a super tight business model out of it.
Apart from college and start-up, I was also running my own coaching centre near Ruby Hospital as I had to make money. As a student who was studying under the debt of education loan, the most difficult part for me was to tell my family that I am not going to take the job I got during placements rather I would roam with the uncertainty of my start-up.
Due to poor family condition, I entered in business field since I was in 7th grade and my family has witnessed that I can survive very well on my own. So, they always believed in me that whatever I am doing I have thought of it very well. Once my family was convinced I was highly motivated but soon my motivation started shattering as any tech-based start-up need funding to cover a lot of expenses, says Avinash Dwivedi.
I tweaked more than 200 connections and dedicated my one whole year building a rockstar team and trying to find investment. Then I got my 1st investment after a year. But I think that also happened for a good reason as till I was done raising funds I already had an awesome team which matters the most in any start-up. Since then GroupClap is growing rapidly and now we have around 11 employees and a full-fledged office in Noida.
Brief about organization and founding members
GroupClap (groupclap.com) is an Ed-Tech social media platform specifically designed for the student to help them out with their most common problems during college years. We provide them with a platform where they can hunt Internships, jobs, find like-minded people and collaborate to achieve overall development.
Founding members of GroupClap are:
- Avinash Dwivedi – Co-Founder & CEO (B.Tech IT, IEM batch of 2014-2018, Kolkata)
- Ritesh Bhalla – Co-Founder & CMO (B.Tech ECE, DIATM batch of 2015-2019, Durgapur)
- Pankaj Nath – Co-Founder & CBO (Businessman)
The detailed journey, like what all you want to share with readers.
Starting with GroupClap was one of the most difficult parts as the Co-founding members were college students when they started, with no experience of running a start-up and with no idea about growing a company. But we chose to stick with the idea and a lot of time was given towards market research, meetings & discussions which later helped us targeting our market and growing rapidly. With the passage of time, we learned a lot of things and did a lot of modifications in the way we were operating.
It’s all about trial and error until you are determined to learn from your past mistakes. It doesn’t matter if you are in college or you have a lot of experience until you choose to stick to a great strategy and keep your minds open to knowledge and suggestions.
About funding, plans on growth
GroupClap is a bootstrapped start-up and still we are able to generate descent profit out of it.
Challenges and Opportunities/ Marketing Strategies
Since our target audience is students, and us being students, it was not that difficult to point out the problems we were facing and it was easier for us to do the market research but, coming up with an idea and executing it are two completely different things. Execution of any start-up idea requires dedication, proper planning, team work, and knowledge to build the solution.
Building a fully operational social media platform with a lot of different features incorporated for students is definitely not an easy job as it requires a lot of technical knowledge and revenue. Since our idea was new and unique we didn’t have any prior idea that how the market was going to react to it. Luckily our idea was appreciated and accepted widely.
Future plans and funding
We are planning to raise funding in the next 3 months to expand our team and take it to pan India level. We are looking forward to enhancing a lot of features and UI of the platform.
A quote from the founder on the journey or any inspiring moment.
The moment you think you are complete, you make yourself incomplete. Always keep an open mind as you can learn something great from a toddler too. The most important thing is to embrace yourself by your failures and make them a lesson for the rest of your life.
EXCLUSIVE: Founder’s advice to budding entrepreneurs
There will be times when people will doubt you and your start-up, keep in mind to never include yourself among those people. Self-doubt will be the first thing to kill your start-up. Any start-up goes through ups and down, remember to hustle very hard till you reach the summit.
Your website / apps / and contact details
Main Website : https://groupclap.com/
Explanatory Website: http://groupclap.in/
App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aviavin.alokraj.groupclap&hl=en
Email: contact@groupclap.com
Contact: +91-6299660012
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