This case study summarizes the story of Sharp Edge, a startup founded by six entrepreneurs to promote digital education. They developed innovative online content and training to address gaps in technical and soft skills education. Their content is tailored to engineering programs and uses multimedia like lectures, 3D images and interactive materials. Within 11 months, they gained over 20 clients and now employ 60 people. Their success is due to addressing the needs of both students and employers through a scalable business model of selling customized online content and training.

1. CASE STUDY ON SHARP EDGE
LEARNING
INNOVATIVE HIGH TECH
ENTREPRENEURS
This case study is for the students of entrepreneurs. I have prepared this case study
based on interactions with Mr. Paresh Gupta and team on 18 July 2012. This case
study highlights strategies of innovative entrepreneurs in emerging high growth
sector. It gives learning on the process of development in start-ups. It should be
studied in the perspective of strategic management, marketing management,
business plan formulation and entrepreneurship. The author is grateful to Paresh,
Arpit and Chirag for their valuable inputs.
Author : Trilok Kumar Jain
Jain.tk@gmail.com
7/18/2012

2. Today I met Paresh Gupta. He along with his five
friends started a company to promote digital
education. His friends are Arpit Mehta, Chirag
Maheshwari,Harshit Gupta, Mohit Agarwal and
Sourabh Gupta. These six persons had a dream and
they made it happen. Each of these six persons
could have opted for a job (infact a few of them left
their lucrative jobs), but they decided to do
something on their own. They had a passion and
this passion drove them to innovative business.
They found a huge gap between the expectations
and reality so far as technical education is
concerned. As most of them are from engineering
background, they decided to focus on domain skills.
They realized that a lot can be done to impart
better training in terms of domain skills and soft
skills for engineering students. They launched a
company called Sharp Edge - to give an edge to the
students. Their endeavour is to sharpen the
students coming out of Engineering institutions.

3. Today they are able to give employment to 60
persons. They admit that these 60 persons could
have got higher package elsewhere, but they are
working with their team because it is a start-up in
an innovative sector.
Success of great start up depends on innovative
idea, scalability, and its ability to remain exclusive.
Their ideas are to give a support system to
engineering colleges across the country. They can
easily scale their operations across the globe. They
have prepared contents which can be used in
classrooms. These contents give a better idea about
technical concepts. They have used latest
technology to craft this content. The content that
they have developed, consists of lectures, 2D and
3D images of machines and systems, factories,
interactive study material etc. All these contents
have been designed under the guidance of experts
including professors of BITS Pilani.

4. This start up is due to an inspiration by an
academician. Dr. Maheshwari, former Vice
Chancellor of BITS Pilani encouraged and motivated
this team to launch this start up. BITS Pilani is
providing them infrastructure support and
mentoring. Within a short span of 11 months, this
group has been able to get over 20 clients.
Innovative Idea : -
The team has weaved their business model around
the basic idea of developing students for the future.
They have tried to look into the perspective of the
employer and found that there are many aspects
the employer look for, but probably the students
don’t have those capabilities. They have therefore
created a business model which provides
specialized training and guidance to the students in
following sectors :
1. Domain skills : specialized training / class room
programmes for providing technical training

5. 2. Soft skills training – from development of
resume to mock interviews to discussions about
career – from very minute issues to complex
issues like career planning
3. Webinars by experts : to guide the students and
to motivate the students about their career and
future
4. Digital Contents for better education :
development of contents and supply of those
contents to colleges / students
5. Use of latest technology to create 2D / 3D
contents for better visual and better
understanding : this content has been
developed by experienced software developers
under guidance of experts
Need and rationale : -
Following issues give us the reasons for the
existence of Sharp Edge : -

6. 1. There is an acute shortage of quality faculty
members in engineering colleges across the
country
2. There is an acute shortage of good laboratories
and equipments for proper display and
experimentation
3. Digital classes provide better understanding of
technical subjects though audio-visual inputs
4. There is a direct relation between level of
domain skills and soft skills among the students
and their placement, thus Sharp Edge can
ensure better placement support to the
students
Revenue Model : -
Sharp Edge sells its contents to the engineering
colleges / engineering students. These contents are
tailor made as per the syllabus of the engineering
college. They depict entire contents of the syllabus
through digital mode. Their team gives support to

7. the engineering college. They also conduct teacher
training classes, where they enable teachers to use
digital learning media for class room teaching.
Education is a growing industry and therefore, there
should be a great revenue model ahead. The team
is optimistic. They have spent last two years in
planning and visualizing the contents and now they
are able to develop the contents as per their
dreams. They are sure that the contents will offer
great value proposition for the colleges and
students. They modify and develop the contents as
per the requirements / syllabus of individual
colleges. They charge for tailor made contents for
one year of education. They also charge for giving
specialized training for the purpose of placements.
Thus these charges reflect a very reasonable
amount to be charged from the college / students.
They can easily replicate their success in different
colleges / universities and spread their wings
abroad also. Their business model is scalable and

8. can be stretched across the globe. At present their
costs are mostly manpower costs. They are
employing 60 employees who are paid between Rs.
3 lakhs to Rs. 7 lakhs per annum. They have
developed three offices / content development
centres. One centre is in BITS Pilani and two are in
Jaipur – one in Malviya Nagar and one in Jawahar
Nagar. They are able to save rents and associated
costs as they don’t have to pay any rent for any of
these centres (the two centres in Jaipur are run in
their homes and the one in BITS Pilani is supported
by BITS in the form of infrastructure, space and
mentoring). They are able to have networking with
a large number of alumni of BITS Pilani and other
eminent experts, who are willing to provide
guidance and mentoring through web (through
Webinars). Thus they are able to have the best
possible guidance and support.
Organisational structure and leadership pattern :

9. Mr. Gupta and his team is well prepared for the
organization of the future. They understand that
they are shaping an organization of tomorrow.
Knowledge based organizations require different
types of structural and leadership variables. Mr.
Gupta said that his focus is on building a strong
team, which shares the passion of the founders. He
told me that in order to develop his company, he
has taken a number of initiatives like a flat
organization, open organizational culture,
mentoring by experts etc. He was able to introduce
all these practices because he is an MBA. His
masters in business administration helped him in
evolving appropriate strategies for a high-tech
venture. His understanding of modern business
practices enabled him to formulate an innovative
business proposition.
Marketing and Networking :
Sharp Edge has been making news from the
beginning. They were awarded as EduStar and were

10. covered by many websites for their innovative
business venture. They were awarded as an
innovative start up by many organizations. Their
strong team and a strong mentoring team (faculty
members and alumni from BITS Pilani) enables
them to establish credibility very easily. Success
begets success and so they are also able to spread
success and increase their clients. Out of six
founders, three focus on content development and
innovations in product designing, while three focus
on marketing, relations with clients, field work and
in giving presentations. They travel extensively and
give vivid presentations in colleges. They have been
able to establish rapport with thousands of
students, and academic community at large.
Mr. Paresh Gupta (chairman of Sharp Edge) is an
MBA and his understanding of modern marketing
practices enabled him to serve over 20 clients in a
very short span of time. From the beginning they
are able to get guidance from thought leaders and

11. great academicians. They are able to get regular
guidance from Dr. L.K. Maheshwari (former, Vice
chancellor, BITS Pilani), Mr. Vinay K. Nangia, Dr. Raj
K. Gupta, Mr. B.R. Natarajan,
Mr. Bikramjeet Gupta Verma,
Mr. Arumugam and other
eminent thinkers. They are
able to establish their identity
among academicians through
their linkage with BITS Pilani.
Awards and Recognition
They are reciepient of eINDIA Champion Innovators’
Awards: Showcasing Emerging Startups and
Technology Trends in December 2011. [The eIndia
Champion Innovators' Award is an exclusive
competition for Technology Startup companies in
India. eINDIA 2011 the seventh edition of India’s
largest ICT, organised by Department of Science and
Technology, Government of Gujarat, and Gujarat
Infomatics Limited hosted by the Government of
Gujarat was co-organised by Department of

12. Information Technology, Ministry of
Communications & IT and All India Council for
Technical Education (AICTE).]
They are also recipient of award of Edustar- 2nd
best educational startup company in the country by
www.yourstory.in in May 2012.