RentMyText.in: Vishesh Jayawanth's online book hiring facility helps engineering students save costs
Engineering is an expensive degree, not just in terms of the tuition fee, but also the prohibitive cost of books. Realising how it impacted the students from low socio-economic groups, Bangalore-based Vishesh Jayawanth decided to do something about it. The result? RentMyText.in, India's first online book renting store for engineering students.
The 24-year-old stumbled on the idea while studying at Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, Bangalore. Ranga, the social platform he started to get college students to teach soft skills to children in various orphanages in the city, opened his eyes to a sorry state of affairs. "I realised that even if these students make it to good colleges, the cost of the books was daunting. They end up spending thousands of rupees on books that are used only for one semester," says Jayawanth.
After getting a degree in business management (BBM) in 2010, Jayawanth started working with MentorSquare as an entrepreneur-in-residence, where he helped SMEs start and scale up their operations. It was in mid-2011 that he revisited his books-for-rent idea. After a year of calculations, worksheets and power point presentations, he launched his company, Online Guru Educational Services, in September 2012, with three employees. The aim was to make education affordable and accessible by introducing innovative, student-friendly concepts.
To kickstart it, Jayawanth put in a seed capital of Rs 27 lakh, borrowed from his father, a businessman. "It's a loan since I plan to return the money when we break even, which is likely by the end of the year," he says. The money was used to buy books and rent a warehouse at Jayanagar, Bangalore. The firm stocks about 5,000 books on various subjects. Initially, he offered packages that allowed students to rent entire sets listed in the syllabus. However, within a couple of months, Jayawanth noticed a flaw—students did not need all the books in each semester. So he tweaked his model to offer separate books.
Here's how the website works: students can pick any book depending on the semester, pay a refundable deposit, which is the maximum retail price of the book, and have it delivered at their doorstep in 1-5 days for a price. There is no limit on the books that can be rented and there are two payment options: cash on delivery, or transfer money to the company's account. After the semester ends, one needs to return the books in mint condition to have 60-70% of the deposit refunded.
While it results in a saving of up to 60% of the cost of books for students, it also offers a green advantage—saving on paper.
The facility is currently limited to Karnataka, but Jayawanth claims the response is encouraging, with nearly 500 students having signed up so far. Since it is a cyclical business, demand varies and at its peak, they get about 20 orders a day. Jayawanth is now planning to enter the entire south IndianBSE 1.54 % market, a hotbed for engineering colleges, and is considering launching payment gateway options.
The nine-employee company also plans to start renting books for medical and law courses soon. "Medical books are as expensive and we'll be able to help a lot more students," he says.
The 24-year-old stumbled on the idea while studying at Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, Bangalore. Ranga, the social platform he started to get college students to teach soft skills to children in various orphanages in the city, opened his eyes to a sorry state of affairs. "I realised that even if these students make it to good colleges, the cost of the books was daunting. They end up spending thousands of rupees on books that are used only for one semester," says Jayawanth.
After getting a degree in business management (BBM) in 2010, Jayawanth started working with MentorSquare as an entrepreneur-in-residence, where he helped SMEs start and scale up their operations. It was in mid-2011 that he revisited his books-for-rent idea. After a year of calculations, worksheets and power point presentations, he launched his company, Online Guru Educational Services, in September 2012, with three employees. The aim was to make education affordable and accessible by introducing innovative, student-friendly concepts.
To kickstart it, Jayawanth put in a seed capital of Rs 27 lakh, borrowed from his father, a businessman. "It's a loan since I plan to return the money when we break even, which is likely by the end of the year," he says. The money was used to buy books and rent a warehouse at Jayanagar, Bangalore. The firm stocks about 5,000 books on various subjects. Initially, he offered packages that allowed students to rent entire sets listed in the syllabus. However, within a couple of months, Jayawanth noticed a flaw—students did not need all the books in each semester. So he tweaked his model to offer separate books.
Here's how the website works: students can pick any book depending on the semester, pay a refundable deposit, which is the maximum retail price of the book, and have it delivered at their doorstep in 1-5 days for a price. There is no limit on the books that can be rented and there are two payment options: cash on delivery, or transfer money to the company's account. After the semester ends, one needs to return the books in mint condition to have 60-70% of the deposit refunded.
While it results in a saving of up to 60% of the cost of books for students, it also offers a green advantage—saving on paper.
The facility is currently limited to Karnataka, but Jayawanth claims the response is encouraging, with nearly 500 students having signed up so far. Since it is a cyclical business, demand varies and at its peak, they get about 20 orders a day. Jayawanth is now planning to enter the entire south IndianBSE 1.54 % market, a hotbed for engineering colleges, and is considering launching payment gateway options.
The nine-employee company also plans to start renting books for medical and law courses soon. "Medical books are as expensive and we'll be able to help a lot more students," he says.
Source : ET Bureau, Amit Kumar
