Sanat Srivastava and Asavari Savarikar from Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) started an online classes platform 3 years ago. Through which they prepare students from across the country for competitive examinations. A team of 10 members is associated with them. This online platform has millions of subscribers on YouTube and social media. This startup started with just 25 thousand rupees, today it is earning more than 1.2 crore revenue every year.
Asavari says, "When we started preparing for the exam, it came to know that apart from hyper economics, microeconomics and Indian economics, economics is necessary for many things like- public economics, international economics, environmental economics. We started watching videos of professors from home and abroad. We participated in the conference of the Indian Economic Association. However, even after this, we did not get proper guidance.
Then the only way was understood that by reading the subjects themselves, they should be understood. I heard the faculty speaking that if you want to understand the subject well, then explain it to someone in easy language. This was the reason we did and started making videos from a room in the house. By then the NET result was also out. Sanat passed the exam on the first attempt and Asavari on the second attempt. After this, both of them started teaching in a college in Bhopal as Assistant Professor. Along with teaching in a college, he kept on making videos as before.
Asavari says, "When I went to college to teach the students, it was difficult to explain complex subjects. To overcome this, we made some videos. We made these videos to clear our doubts, but also to make students learn about them. Many people praised us. Then we realized that we should take this work forward. People want such videos.
In the year 2017, both of them together created a channel named 'Ecoholics' on YouTube. After this Sanat started uploading the videos. These videos, made without the help of any gadget or resource, received a lot of views. Sanat then quit his job and started working full-time at Ecoholics, while Asavari continued to make videos while doing his job. Sanat explains, "In the first phase of any new job, one has to face a lot of hardship.
Recalling this period, 27-year-old Sanat says, 'We started shooting videos from a single room in the house. The camera was also borrowed from one of our friends who had made about 800 videos. We did not even have money because of this sudden decision and the family was also angry. Asavari, 29, says, "We had a moat on one side and a well on the other, so we immediately decided to follow this path. In 2019, I also quit my job of teaching and started working for my YouTube channel full time. Gradually our work increased and other teachers also joined us. We currently have a team of 10 members with us.
Right now both are teaching students through their respective apps and YouTube. He has about one lakh subscribers on his YouTube channel. Anyone can access lectures on this channel. The registered company named 'Ecoholics Edtech' now has two models on the app. First- free of cost model and second- subscription model. As the name suggests, the free model allows anyone to access the videos, while the subscription model charges different courses.
Asavari says we have the largest number of students preparing for Indian Economic Service, Economics Optional for UPSC, and UGC NET. So far 2000 people have subscribed. In recent times, many students studying here have also been selected for different examinations. The demand for online classes has increased in the last few years. Most of the students have shifted to the online platform after the corona pandemic. This is the reason that many new startups have emerged in this sector.
