Building a Thriving Enterprise SaaS Platform, An Exclusive Interview with BenchPrep’s COO and Co-Founder

BenchPrep’s COO and co-founder, Ujjwal Gupta recently had the opportunity to sit down with Mixergy’s Andrew Warner to talk about BenchPrep’s history on Mixergy’s podcast.  A long time fan of Mixergy and the platform’s ability to link listeners to experts whose stories are powerful motivation drivers to help others create change, Ujjwal was happy to share his and BenchPrep’s CEO and co-founder, Ashish Rangnekar’s story.  

Today BenchPrep is quickly establishing itself as a market leader in the e-learning industry, but that success didn’t come without some tough lessons learned along the way.  In this exclusive interview, Ujjwal and Andrew discuss the trials, tribulations, and some fun facts about what it was really like to build a startup, find its market fit, and drive continued growth.  

Two Educated Individuals, One Great Idea:  

Both with very strong education and business backgrounds, Ujjwal and Ashish had an entrepreneurial itch to build something great, make an impact, and make money.  

Ujjwal recalls that they would have weekly calls.  “One of us had to come up with an idea and the other had to play devil’s advocate.  And this was right around the time that the iPhone came out with the AppStore, and everyone was building these 99 cent applications, so we decided to build an app.”  

Having previously studied for the GMAT while living and working in New York City, Ashish had to lug around heavy test prep books everywhere he went to take advantage of any free time during his day.  With no easy way to study on-the-go, this annoying inconvenience made him realize a major gap in the test prep market. The two friends decided to solve this problem by building a GMAT test prep app on the iPhone.  They hired a friend from Penn State to build their first app and as payment, bought him a MacBook to learn iOS app development.  The product’s original name was Watermelon Express… however you’ll have to listen to the podcast to learn why.  

Listen to the full podcast interview:  

The Ah-Ha Moment:  

BenchPrep did not start as the enterprise-level, solutions-based, learning system for companies that it is today, but as a consumer product that students could purchase to help them prepare for a specific exam.

When they first uploaded the app to the Apple Store, it was available to learners at a high price (at the time) of $9.99.  Under the assumption that Apple would need at least a week to review and approve the app before making it live, they didn’t bother to check for purchases.  To their surprise, they generated more than $2,000 in revenue in seven days. This was the ‘ah-ha’ moment when they realized people wanted and needed their product.

Finding the right market fit:  

The co-founders received thousands of emails and phone calls from students saying their scores improved or they passed because of BenchPrep.  At that point, they knew the product was extremely useful for learners, but the lifetime value for customers was low, with little to no opportunity for cross-selling or upselling.  They needed to find the right product market fit.

With a successful product in hand, they realized the benefits of pivoting their business model from one that sold directly to learners to partnering with the official testing and certification bodies who owned their own content and exam material.  Through these B2B partnerships BenchPrep could help organizations deliver their content to millions of learners through an effective platform to drive outcomes.

Knowing this was the right move for the business, they were faced with several challenges throughout this transition.  From company restructuring, to funding needs, and other obstacles along the way, they continued to invest their time and money in the belief that the product was important.  

“I am a firm believer the idea is not what differentiates you, it's the execution.” - Ujjwal Gupta, BenchPrep Co-Founder

Fast forward more than three years to today, BenchPrep is a profitable organization that has doubled its employees in the last 12 months with over 40 now, and has a brand new office space on the 57th floor of Chicago’s iconic Willis Tower.  

Staying true to the mission:

As the business took off and revenue continued to grow Ujjwal notes, “we could have converted this into a lifestyle slow growth business, but that’s not what Ashish and I signed up for.  We want to reach millions and millions of learners because I personally believe that education can solve world problems. And technology is the best enabler to solve those problems. So money has always been part of the equation for us, but accessibility and providing capabilities to other companies at this point, or as many users across the globe as possible, is a huge part of our mission.”  

Practice what you preach:

Workplace training today is more important than ever.  With an ever-changing market, the concept of lifelong learning is creating enormous buzz for training and continuing education leaders.  For example, if an employee was certified in Google Analytics three years ago, but has not continuously followed up with technological advancements, their certification might not be relevant.

At BenchPrep, we leverage our own platform to onboard new employees.  Becoming familiar with the product and all of the nuances of the business on one platform, exposes employees to the benefits of what they’re selling, building, and marketing every day.  

Want to learn more about BenchPrep’s story?  Listen to the full Mixergy interview: