Product details

Aspiring Minds (AM) highlights the challenges of developing and marketing a new product and managing rapid growth with limited human capital. In 2007, Varun and Himanshu Aggarwal founded AM and developed the AMCAT exam. For a small fee, graduating students could take the exam and make their scores available to potential employers. AM’s database of these scores facilitated employers’ search for talent. Private funding augmented start-up capital, allowing AM to develop test variations, hire sales staff, and begin selling the concept. By mid-2013, one million Indian students had taken the test; dozens of large corporations were tapping into the database. However, the brothers had limited management experience and faced many challenges. They, with their investors and advisors, discussed a possible strategy for growth: partnerships with organizations that had customer connections outside India. AM would work with them to distribute AMCAT. This strategy was still being discussed late in 2013. This case is part of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology free case collection (visit www.thecasecentre.org/legatum for more information on the collection).