On Admission Table itself, the institutions set the parameters which they consider will be according to them a qualified lead. For example some of them might want us to market all of their programmes while others just one within engineering. One school wants us to recruit just for robotics for example, while others may indicate from a certain part of the country.

The PIE: How do you get students with such specific profiles to even visit the platform?

“We are going to have a reach of nearly eight million students by the end of 2015”

DD: Let’s take electrical engineering. When we do the marketing campaigns on our community pages we only talk about that university and the electrical engineering programme. Only students interested in this programme are going to pursue that. The numbers may be small but they are students who are interested in this specific programme making them far more attractive than any average information seeker.

The PIE: How many students can you reach?

DD: We’ve been pretty successful. Today we have a reach of nearly three million students. We also have 44 universities from the US, Europe, Australia and the Emirates who have subscribed. We are going to have a reach of nearly eight million students by the end of 2015 so we need more universities where we can channel this volume of students.

The PIE: You launched about a year ago with seed funding from 500 Startups. What’s happened since?

DD: Apart from 500 Startups from Silicon Valley (500.co), a well-known VC from the education space and a couple of entrepreneurs from the mobile space also joined our seed round. With the seed money we made our product better. We added features like Peer Recommendation for universities and analytics tools to get a better sense of student’s online behavior. We have also been able to increase our university clients from six to 44 with a six fold jump in revenue in the last one year and a five fold jump in average revenue per university.

The PIE: So you’ve grown quite a bit in a just a year.

DD: Yes we have. I think much of it has to do with unmet demand. People say they’re going to do their own recruitment which is fine but we can help them spend their dollars more effectively. We don’t say cut your travel budget, or anything like that. Instead we tell you where there is interest for what you’re offering. The idea is to enhance existing recruitment efforts, not substitute.

The PIE: Are you only present in India?

DD: No, not at all. We help universities who recruit from India and South Asia, Vietnam, Africa and parts of the Middle East. We will be expanding to the rest of South East Asia as well as parts of East Asia soon.

The PIE: Can you use your model to recruit for non-university educators?

“In China there are six incomes for one Chinese student, while in India it is one income for six children”

DD: Not all students are designed for a university education. A lot depends on the kind of school that is trying to recruit and the kind of degrees they’re offering. It all boils down to what kind of careers are there. So even if it is a one or two year diploma and there are students who want to go there then yes we have space to cater to that.

The PIE: Numbers from China are set to decline. How do you see recruitment evolving?

DD: Those I believe are the projections. However, the same is not true with a lot of other developing country markets like India or the rest of south Asia, South East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

In India, this is also a generation whose parents have access to resources both in terms of loans, as well as, disposable income. But the difference between China and India is six for one and one for six. By this I mean, in the case of urban China there are six incomes for one Chinese student, while in India it is one income for six children.

They’re very conscious that for their children to succeed they must get a good education so you’re going to see parents being bullish and picky and savvy. Their focus is on ‘after the degree what?’ Parents and students are going to ask universities to predict the future and tell them what their degree will do for them. You had better have a solid answer, not just “it will open many doors and opportunities.” This generation is not buying that anymore.