SAKSHAM GUPTA

Directing EDUDITE Consultancy With The Mission to Deliver Quality Education to Students

“Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you. Believe in yourself and don’t be afraid of experimenting. Be aware of what is happening around you be it in politics, education, world news, innovations, as you never know you might be the next big name. Keep hustling and keep growing,” asserts Mr. Saksham Gupta.

An inspiring entrepreneur & organized leader focused on producing realistic goals, developing ways to efficiently achieve and often exceed those goals, and producing results, Saksham Gupta leads EDUDITE Consultancy as the Director.

A constant learner at heart, International Consultant in Education Sector, he has portrayed various roles in the education management industry. Owning rich experience in relationship building, customer acquisition, international admissions and sales, Saksham has travelled to over 25+ countries representing EDUDITE, delivering & facilitating conferences, government relationships building, expansion of Indian universities in SAARC and African regions.

He is an alumnus of The Shobhit University and Lovely Professional University and is intensely passionate and determined at accomplishing the tasks with excellence and having a long-sighted vision. As the Founder of the company, Saksham has been able to achieve some notable milestones. A few of those are:

• Establishing 10+ offices across the countries.

• Network of 500+ universities across the globe.

• Mobilizing 1000+ students to India and Europe as their Study destination.

• Launching of www.indiadmission.com

• Holding numerous amounts of exhibitions and fairs across East Africa.

• Currently working team of from 1 to 10 people as of today.

In the five-year journey, Edudite has facilitated 300+ collaborations between universities, 100,000+ students were positively impacted during this period whereas 1000+ students were assisted to study at their dream destinations. “I with my team travelled to 30+ countries ( covering South America, Asia and Africa) in the last 4 years to facilitate the abovesaid projects,” affirmed the leader.

AN INTERNATIONAL & ADVISORY FIRM

An ISO 9001:2015 certified, Edudite is an International Consultancy and advisory firm managed by a team of professionals with a combined experience of 40+ years in the Education Industry, from the Academic, Government, and International Business background with its head office in India.

It is on a mission to provide Quality Education (United Nation’s SDG #4) to students all across the globe, by helping them to secure admission in the best of universities and courses as per their requirements and utilizing its overall experience to benefit the students in a best possible manner.

“We understand the stress, the queries, and all the doubts a student faces before making a decision and that is why we have the right solution for every need of a student with this venture”, said Mr. Saksham.

Edudite is not only an overseas education consultancy that not only firmly assists you in connecting with a spectrum of colleges but also a community of well-connected, experienced personnel and students spread across the globe to push you forward in every sphere of the experience. They not only help you choose the right place and college for yourself but also help you in housing, travelling, profile building, socializing, and practically everything that you may need guidance with.

The Inception Story

As soon as Saksham graduated, he started working at a university in their International department handling relations for them and representing them at various events and conferences in India and abroad. In his short time of 5.5 months there, his work gave him a platform to build his idea of business. He started the business by helping Indian universities and colleges form relations with universities outside India for student and faculty exchange programs and joint research work. Over the period, the team grew and they added study abroad and study in India products in their basket and managed to expand their major base in the African continent with offices spanning across 10 countries and now with www.matchmyuni.com, they want to target customers from all walks of life to spread awareness and give opportunities to make an informed decision and simplify study abroad for them.

Dealing With The Unprecedented Challenges

In such times the group chairman, Mr. Sandeep Gupta who is Saksham’s father, becomes the guiding light of the team. Yes, he does perform SWOT analysis every now and then, and especially during unfavourable times. Even during the pandemic which took the world and many businesses by storm, they continued to grow and achieve new milestones.

The Most Satisfying Aspect Of The Entrepreneurial Journey

“When a student walks in or calls us to say “Thanks for changing my life”, which makes me realize the impact that Edudite is creating every day, is the most satisfying for me. Also, I love the flexibility and the playground you get to experiment and test your limits, sometimes we don’t even realize the potential an idea can hold. The need to be on toes and always be available for our stakeholders is also something that I cherish,” Mr. Saksham proudly shared.

Definition Of Success

According to Mr Saksham, success is the journey and not the destination. Every day if one can move closer to his vision, one step at a time, he is on the right track. Here, he also revealed the top two skills that can help any leader become successful areDecision making – In an entrepreneur’s journey, there are ups and downs every day. It is very important to stick to your decisions, at least that’s what I do, and have a very strong head, and believe in your product.

Sales – Every entrepreneur has to be a marketer as well as a salesman. If you can’t sell your product then don’t expect it from your employees.

THE INNOVATIVE WORK CULTURE & SOCIAL INITIATIVES TAKEN

EDUDITE’s work culture is very flexible, Saksham does not believe in bounding a person by time. As they are in the service industry, he only ensures the traits of prioritizing and discipline in Edudite employees are maintained, so no stone is left unturned to make the customer have the best experience with them.

For CSR activities, they have a scholarship fund of close to 800,000 USD for 2022 intake that prospective EDUDITE students can avail themselves.

Plans Ahead

The visionary wants to inaugurate Edudite offices from 10 countries currently to at least 30 more and impact at least 10 million students in the next 5 years with www.matchmyuni. com becoming a household name in the study abroad sector across our targeted nations. “To be honest, I have never given a thought for the next 5 years, I want to keep learning and growing and contribute to Edudite’s success for as long as I can”, apprised Saksham

FROM THE FOUNDER’S DESK

Since early childhood, I have always been an extrovert and had an outgoing personality whether it was sports, extracurricular in school, or public speaking opportunities as and where I got. This has a lot to do with the kind of background I come from. My parents have been in the Education sector throughout their career and I was raised in an academically influenced environment. My mother is an IIT Roorkee alumnus and my dad is an engineer and served in central government as a scientific officer for 20+ years. They both lead a stable life with secured jobs for about 20 years in their career and decided to resign from their respective jobs and came into a full-time business to become an edupreneur, to serve and uplift the community by providing better education. This all happened when I was around 16 years old and it gave me a very solid base to make my decisions. In my college life, I led a local chapter of the world’s largest youth-run organization AIESEC which allowed me to travel, explore and see the world from a new perspective. The combination of the above, I believe, lead me to work in the education sector and that’s how I launched Edudite Consultancy Private Limited.

EmbarkingOnVoyage Digital Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Embarkingonvoyage

“When it comes to marrying online with offline efforts, technology is not a driver, but it is critical in making it happen.” – Alison Corcoran, CMO, and President of Dentaquest Partnership.

There is no doubt about the fact that digital transformation is no more an option but a necessity. And, to make this possible, the existence of digital and data engineering services companies becomes extremely important. EmbarkingOnVoyage Digital Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is one such company that is known for its excellence in work and delivery. This has been made possible under the leadership and guidance of Abhishek Nag, the Founder and CEO of EmbarkingOnVoyage Digital Solutions Pvt. Ltd. The belief and hard work of Abhishek Nag make him absolutely eligible to be included in the upcoming edition of “The 10 Ace Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2021”.

Innovation Meeting Excellence

EmbarkingOnVoyage is a digital and data engineering services company, where innovation meets excellence. Product and Data Engineering has been the roots of belief and excellence, hence the team takes pride in delivering high-quality digital solutions.

The Pandemic Gave Birth To Embarkingonvoyage

As Abhishek quotes, “It was the pandemic (during the first lockdown) which made me realize how much it has affected the whole world. It gave a sharp reminder of our fragility giving true sense to the meaning that Money is nothing but a way to earn living.”

Further, he recalls, “In October 2020, my entire family was Covid affected. During this testing time, I was retrospecting myself, my learnings, achievements, ups, and downs during my 12+ years of employment. Finally, I summarized my side of professional experiences and expectations to myself. Priya and I had a long discussion on the same and, we decided to pursue our experience and knowledge for a broader purpose. A purpose which not only takes us to level up as an individual but also, lets us contribute towards economic growth and prosperity. In December 2020, we penned down entrepreneurship, identified a few additional core stakeholders, noted down goals, purpose, mission, vision, and how we wanted to pursue (delivery model). I never believed or targeted high-level plans because such plans never conclude meaningful contributions, instead, we did ground-level work. We started working with clients, initially, we failed at a few but that became our solid foundation and learning ground, which eventually become our strength.”

Abhishek says- During my groundwork, as a CEO, I concluded five basic things- Clear Communications, Collaborations, Partnerships, Employee Well-being, and Creating Career Roadmap for our colleagues who would eventually lead the delivery organization and ensure customer success. What else? Since then, we formally started with one client who referred us to many and we are growing through word of mouth and great client satisfaction.

This is how the idea of EmbarkingOnVoyage (EOV) was implemented!

Inspiration

The confident entrepreneur asserts, “Well, I believe that there are always new things to learn from each being and every one is unique. Many individuals in my life have inspired me during various phases of my career (Even the ones who weren’t kind to me). However, I am truly inspired by Mr. Ratan Tata who is a great visionary, risk-taker, philanthropist, and a true leader. Taking his thought leadership throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I aim to contribute towards Economic growth, Social upliftment, and a Greener environment.”

Abhishek voices his opinion by saying people make conscious efforts while entering entrepreneurship but for him, it was a radical decision. All elements fell into place and there was sheer willpower and confidence to do something better and the focus is completely on customer success through people empowerment.

Vision

The proud entrepreneur states, “I never say ‘MY’ vision or prospect. It’s ‘OUR’ company- What we are today, is because of our people and their trust in us. Our vision is to be recognized as genuine and valued digital engineering partners. We encourage each of our crew members (EOV employees are our crew members) to pursue their passion fearlessly. Passion has no boundaries and therefore, we nurture the Millenials and channelize their passions towards an exceptional career trajectory accompanied by innovation, excellence, and immense growth.”

HANDLING COVID-19

Abhishek elucidates, “EOV’s inception was itself during the pandemic, hence the new norms of the pandemic is a part of the basic skeleton of our processes. The pandemic has removed the geographic boundaries thus partnering talent with the right opportunity was smooth and has helped us grow in a positive trajectory. Any startup always sails through the challenge between project win and resource onboarding. As a Founder and Executive Leadership member, I am fortunate to have people who came forward and collaborated with the confidence that we can make a positive impact on our clients and took over the complete delivery. In fact, our team members support us by expressing their intent to deliver work even without pay. Yes, ‘Without pay’, it’s certainly a big thing to hear and this shows how the people who surrounded us trusted our vision for EOV and leadership traits. We are delighted that since we started functioning, we have been maintaining a positive cash flow, just by ensuring agile and on-time delivery following high-quality code and software development processes. EOV is 100% self-funded and bootstrapped.”

Differentiating Factors

According to the 2020-started company, EmbarkingOnVoyage is customer-focused, agile, and innovative; carrying three decades of combined leadership experience of engineering delivery with a ready-to-use accelerator for reduced GTM.

As far as EOV is concerned, we believe in delivering the right experience, with the right expertise at a rational price point. The primary focus is on quality, experience, and customer success, and hence most of the business leads are through customer references.

The Work Culture

Abhishek mentions, “What binds us as a team is our value system. Our value system is the pillar of our organization’s culture and we all abide by the same. It’s the experience that we as leaders can pass on to the team that counts which is reflected by the amazing 80% of our team headcount growth through employee references. EOV is confident to onboard close to 1000 team members just through the employee referral system. We aim to keep our employee referral on-boarding about 80%. We trust our people, they have always fulfilled their responsibilities and go the extra mile in delivering value to the customers and the team. We believe in empowering our team rather than micro-managing.”

Achievements

The luminary has been successful in terms of employee strength since they have grown from 1 to 30 in less than 6 months.

Also, within the first six-month of the launch, EOV has won a few Long Term Agreement (LTA) with Fortune 100 companies.

Future Prospects

The visionary acclaims, “As a part of our plans, we are confident to spread our arms in the enterprises and ISVs. Very soon, we will be onboarding a few leaders across Sales & Delivery to grow ourselves in certain geographies.”

Challenge Your Goals And Start Fearlessly

Abhishek conveys, “There is nothing called ‘Right Opportunity’. It’s you who has to grab the opportunity and make it right. Do not worry about the failures since those are a part of the learning process. Challenge your goals without worrying about your finances. Just start fearlessly because you do not have anything to lose but everything to gain. Work for yourself but have a bigger purpose where you can create a path for others towards a better life and together making the world a better place to live in.”