It all started when Sandeep Jain completed his post graduation from IIT Roorkee and eventually joined De Shaw & Co. During this transition process, he noticed a hugely worrying problem- unavailability of guidance, instructions and first-hand experiences to help prepare for the interviews of the top companies. Such was the dearth of required content that he took it upon himself to create a portal to help aspiring candidates achieve their goals. This is how globally trusted Interview preparation portal GeeksforGeeks was born in 2008.
In 2016, Sandeep Jain, Founder, GeeksforGeeks decided to expand the horizons of imparting value education and established a parent organisation by the name of Sanchhaya Education Pvt. Ltd, with the help of 2 interns. Since then, GeeksforGeeks has grown into a family of 150+ employees. Sandeep is an avid promoter of programming and likes to interact with students. He is also a TED speaker and utilizes all of these mediums to motivate each and every student he can reach.
Some words by Steve Jobs that he loves- ‘Everybody should learn to program a computer because it teaches you how to think’
In an exclusive interaction with Motiverge, Sandeep Jain, Founder of GeeksforGeeks shares more insights about his venture, journey so far, motivation and more.
Below are the excerpts from the interview:
What is GeeksforGeeks all about? How did you finalise the brand name?
GeeksforGeeks – it is a Computer Science portal that fulfills all the requirements of the individuals for placement preparation. Whether it be quality content for Data Structures & Algorithms, Programming Languages, Interview Experiences, Practice Problems, tutorials of other CS Subjects, various online & offline courses – the platform provides you with almost everything that is required to prepare and crack the interview of any big tech company. Also, GeeksforGeeks allows you to write on a particular topic and share it with everyone using the ‘Contribute’ feature and you can get rewarded too for it via remuneration, internship opportunities, discount offers, or any other way. Other than that – various coding events, campus programs, webinars are held regularly for the individuals. Contentedly, it is one of the fastest-growing communities among programmers and all the tech individuals with a reach of around more than 10 million users.
The consistent delivery of quality content and learning resources is what GeeksforGeeks aims from the beginning and honestly, this can’t be done with the contribution of just 5 – 10 team members. And that’s why we planned to create an ecosystem where every geek out there will not only be able to access or read the content but can also contribute or write for other geeks. In simple words- here one Geek acts as a helping hand for another Geek and that’s the reason behind the brand name “GeeksforGeeks”.
What factors influenced or motivated you to start this venture? What seeded the ideas of a startup in EdTech sector?
Let me tell you first that I was having a passion for teaching since my college days. However, the idea to start a platform like GeeksforGeeks first strike in my mind during my graduation days itself when I found myself and other students of my batch struggling to prepare for the placements as there was no one to guide us about the recruitment process, to provide us the quality resources, to let us know what companies ask in the interview and other similar concerns at that time. Eventually, I realized that this is the problem of every second student and there is a need to come up with a platform that can help the students in this situation in all possible ways. This is the story behind GeeksforGeeks !
One of the primary reasons behind the idea of a startup in the EdTech sector is to make learning as much affordable as it could be to make it accessible for every student out there, and yes, that too without compromising with the quality. In fact, for a similar reason, we provide a majority of the content on our platform without any cost i.e., absolutely free. Moreover, to bridge the gap between the individuals and their dream jobs and to make the industry-ready also seeded the idea to come up with a startup in the EdTech sector.
What were the first few steps during and after the launch of GeeksforGeeks?
Initially, GeeksforGeeks was started as a blogging page consisting of very limited content for Computer Science students mainly for Data Structures and Algorithms. Then we started to onboard various experts from different domains and technologies to prepare quality content for the users. Currently, we are providing free tutorials for Data Structures & Algorithms, Programming Languages, core CS subjects, etc. along with various online & offline courses. Interview experiences, practice problems, coding events, etc. In particular, in the last few years, the platform has evolved exponentially and is helping the students in all possible ways to get them their dream job.
Tell us about your motivation. What keeps you going?
Hailing from an educational background, I am committed towards the development and growth of students and learn professionals. I believe that even an average student should be placed in a big organisation. My zeal to provide more and more help towards students is my motivation and I think I still have a lot to do and want to reach out to more students. This inspiration keeps me going.
How big is your team? How did you manage your team and business during COVID?
No one can deny that in recent times businesses are facing a hard time – not only in India but across the entire world especially due to the Covid pandemic. Though GeeksforGeeks also get impacted in these hard times but overall in a positive manner as it emerged as the saviour for everyone whether it be the students or working professionals by providing them the quality learning resources, placement preparation guidance, job opportunities, and other required things without letting them step out of their house. We also identified that preparing effectively for a tech interview is not only the only problem but to get adequate interview opportunities is also a significant concern in itself and keeping this in mind we made the GFG job portal open for everyone to help out the individuals in landing up their dream job without any hassle and make this tough time a bit better for them.
After the global pandemic situation, the responsibilities of GeeksforGeeks (and other ed-tech platforms as well) towards society has increased up to a greater extent and we’ve got ourselves ready for it.
What is the USP of your brand? What makes you different from your competition?
There are a couple of crucial aspects that we think set us apart from various other platforms available out there. For instance, GeeksforGeeks works for a vision to make learning as much affordable as it could be to make it accessible for every student out there, and yes, that too without compromising with the quality. And for a similar reason, we provide a majority of the content on our platform without any cost i.e., absolutely free for everyone. Other than that, the consistency of GeeksforGeeks in providing quality & latest content and other learning resources is also a significant factor that makes GeeksforGeeks different from other platforms.
In addition, other aspects like an enriching & easy-to-use interface, the ‘Contribute’ feature that is open for everyone to showcase their technical & writing skills, a practice portal to solve numerous programming problems, various industry experts designed courses with prominent features like schedule flexibility, premium lecture videos, GeeksforGeeks job portal, etc. give us an edge over others.
What role your brand is playing in Guidance and Interview Preparation of candidates?
First and foremost, GeeksforGeeks understands the needs of each and every student and subsequently provides the content, courses, or practice problems accordingly for each level i.e., from beginner to advanced. Also, the courses provided at GeeksforGeeks come up with features like schedule & location flexibility, practice & assessment tests, project-based learning, lifetime access, doubt assistance, etc so that students can learn at their own convenience.
Besides, we’re working on the integration of various advanced ed-tech tools and modern-day technologies like AR and VR, Artificial Intelligence, etc. to make the learning experience more personalised and better for students. Recently, we’ve launched GeeksforGeeks Premium also that offers you features like ad-free content, premium reading experience, etc. and we constantly work on the website UI and UX as well for the enhanced learning experience.
What are your messages or leadership lessons for budding entrepreneurs/young generation?
My message to young generation is that they should believe in themselves no matter what. Even an average student, if given proper guidance, can reach the pinnacle. Just focus on your goals and keep taking the appropriate guidance.
Hope this interview will motivate all the aspiring entrepreneurs. It is a part of our startup profiling feature story/interview series. We are on a mission to bring forward the inspirational journey of successful entrepreneurs in order to spread some motivation during these tough times.
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