MyCaptain: Shaping Future Innovators with Skill Development

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations.

As a teenager, discovering and following your passion is difficult in India as neither the education system offers ample time, relevant knowledge, and the right motivation nor the society supports it. We are judged based on our ability to memorize content and attend classes. This is one of the core problems in EdTech that Zeeshan and the team are trying to solve through MyCaptain. Climber Knowledge and Careers Pvt Ltd is the Parent Company of MyCaptain.

MyCaptain is an online mentoring platform where, young achievers from across the globe, mentor school and college students in their fields of interest and passions. Read this article to learn more about MyCaptain company, products, shareholders, revenue model, business model, growth, founders, challenges, achievements, and future plans.

MyCaptain Company Details

About MyCaptain Company and How it Works
MyCaptain - Industry
MyCaptain - Founders and Team
MyCaptain - Startup Story
MyCaptain - Products and Courses
MyCaptain - Name, Tagline, and Logo
MyCaptain - Startup Launch
MyCaptain - User Acquisition and Growth
MyCaptain - Business Model and Revenue Model
MyCaptain - Financials
MyCaptain - Funding
MyCaptain - Shareholding
MyCaptain - Challenges Faced
MyCaptain - Advisors and Mentors
MyCaptain - Recognition and Achievements
MyCaptain - Future Plans

About MyCaptain Company and How it Works

MyCaptain is an online platform where you can learn what you love, live, and online with young Professionals. The MyCaptain team believes that students need to be able to make informed career choices and they envision enabling a societal mindset shift when it comes to different offbeat and traditional careers in the country, and eventually the World.

The Core belief of the team behind running MyCaptain is that everyone deserves to explore the magic of all the professional fields and potential careers out there.

Mentors conduct one-month-long online, live workshops for students to help them learn the basics and get an idea about career opportunities in their interest field.

The regular online sessions are one-to-many, but separate one-to-one sessions can be scheduled in case of extra queries. Any such extra session is free, and students can discuss their questions even after the program is over.

MyCaptain - Industry

In 2022, the global education market was estimated to generate $5.76 billion in revenue. By 2029, it is expected to grow to $11.83 billion. The Indian education industry is currently worth around $117 billion and is expected to grow to $225 billion by FY25. The K-12 segment plays a major role, contributing approximately $48.9 billion. Meanwhile, India's EdTech sector is booming, with several startups reaching unicorn status.

MyCaptain - Founders and Team

Mohammed Zeeshan (CEO and Co-Founder), Sameer Ramesh (CPO and Co-Founder), Ruhan Naqash (CMO and Co-founder), and Fatema Hussein co-founded MyCaptain in 2013.

Zeeshan was Sameer's school friend back from Nagpur and had shared a common interest in sports, music, and the desire to impact people around them. Zeeshan met Ruhan while in College (SRM University), while one was pursuing mechanical engineering and the other Electronics and communication. Sameer was pursuing a B.E in Industrial Engineering & Diploma in Experiential Education. The trio eventually decided to come together and build MyCaptain.

The current company size is 170 people, and the average age of all the team members is 23. The founders are the oldest (26, 25, 25). The company's culture is that of ambition, perseverance, and celebrating achievements.

They also believe in being the most caring when it comes to their customers (mentees). The startup hires young people because they believe that the problems of the young generation can only be solved by young people. More recently, to further scale, they have been recruiting more experienced people who have the vigor for education and want to make a change.

MyCaptain - Startup Story

The idea of MyCaptain was born out of a hostel room discussion. Zeeshan (CEO and Co-Founder) wanted to become an Astronomer, Sameer (Co-Founder) wanted to become a Tech blogger and Ruhan (Co-Founder) wanted to become a Writer. But when they approached their parents for the same, they were met with criticism, and cynicism and eventually all three ended up studying Engineering, a subject they were never passionate about.

While in college they met amazing potential filmmakers, designers, developers, photographers, models, and whatnot, but unfortunately they all were studying subjects they had no interest in. This led the founders to believe that the problem of making uninformed career choices or not being able to follow their passions was a problem that their entire generation faced.

They launched MyCaptain in 2015, after trying out a lot of models and learning modules. They even validated their ideas by conducting offline boot camps and workshops and slowly moved them online. This is how MyCaptain began, where students could learn whatever they loved, Live and Online with young professionals.

The initial people that they talked to about their company were their target audience i.e. college students, and their parents. And everyone they talked to, said the same thing: “I wish I had something like this right now/when I was in college”.

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MyCaptain - Products and Courses

MyCaptain is an Online app (and web app), where they conduct 4-week learning journeys for students in fields right from stand-up comedy to Machine learning. The 4-week learning journeys consist of International level and relatable content (both video and text), amazing projects, and exciting Live Video Classes with Young professionals and Achievers from these fields.

Each program is designed in a way that by the end of the program, the student has something tangible - Like the students from the MyCaptain novel-writing program have the first chapter of their novel ready and edited by the end of the program. The students from the MyCaptain web development program have their first website ready and so on.

The company offers skill-based courses, advanced courses to get a job, and a lot of content on your interest. An Overview of MyCaptain Courses is as follows:

The problem that this solves is it gives the students a kickstart into their field of passion by not only helping them build something tangible in the field but also connecting them with the right mentors to get guided and get a real-life experience of the field as well.

Initially, they launched a magazine called Inking Pages back in 2013 - 2014, which was written by college students pursuing various degrees in different colleges and was meant for school students to make a more informed career choice. However, they had failed to realize that online content consumption was way higher than print. But to be able to conduct online programs, the team needed experience in creating great learning experiences. So they started with offline boot camps and eventually moved to online programs.

In August 2020, MyCaptain announced the ‘Freemium’ version of its mobile application and website. This will allow its users to take Free Live Sessions, micro-courses, and demo classes covering 40+ Potential careers and subjects, such as Photography, App Development, and Music Production to name a few.

With 100,000+ paid users in 2020, MyCaptain wanted to go the extra mile by providing a platform to each and every individual who wishes to explore their passion, which will help them evolve in their career as well as personal lives. In this endeavor, the company decided to launch an unpaid version of its Live Online Courses for the first time ever.

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MyCaptain - Name, Tagline, and Logo

On a train journey for a B Plan competition back in 2014, when the founders were still in college, they decided to watch a movie called “Dead Poets’ Society”. The movie in their head changed the role of a teacher and how it should evolve with time and also featured the famous poem “O Captain My Captain” by Walt Whitman. This was a turning point for them as they understood how Education and learning were not just about textbooks, videos, or lectures and had a deeper reliance on human relationships, and mentoring as well!

The tagline for MyCaptain is “Learn what you love”. It clearly talks about their culture and vision as an organization.

"We want to facilitate your learning and professional development in the field that you truly love! The logo has a hand in it, which is a symbol of being offbeat, and breaking the norms for us. We are perceived by our stakeholders, and mentees as a revolution.", said Ruhan Naqash, co-founder of MyCaptain.

MyCaptain - Startup Launch

In February 2015, just a month after the founders formally launched MyCaptain, there was a Fest at SRM University (Zeeshan and Ruhan’s College). The team put up a stall there, with only 4 programs under their belt at that time - Entrepreneurship, creative writing, Ethical Hacking, and Astronomy. They saw a whopping 192 people pay upfront for these programs on the very first day of the Fest. This led to them having a strong belief that this product was something people wanted and it solved a real solution.

They started mentoring by delivering live online sessions on the free version of WizIQ (an E-learning delivery platform) and used WhatsApp groups to communicate and interact with the mentees. They used to share videos and other such learning materials via Google Drive.

MyCaptain has evolved over two years, and now they use their platform with a lot more added features and customization that suit the needs of mentees for the live sessions.

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MyCaptain - User Acquisition and Growth

MyCaptain has a very strong presence in colleges and runs arguably India’s largest Campus Ambassador Program with more than 600-800 active campus ambassadors every month. Their marketing campaigns inside colleges, where their tone has been brash (for example “Has your professor ever built an app? Our mentors have! Learn App development with us”) have gone viral within campuses.

This has led to conversion rates of 20-25% on the potential leads that they generate from these campuses. The startup has scaled to more than paid mentees so far through their Campus Ambassador Model, and a strong online advertising strategy.

MyCaptain runs operations all across India and has its headquarters in Bangalore. Their revenue in the financial year 2021 was south of 1 Million dollars and has had a paid user base of 80,000+ which is equivalent to highly funded companies like Unacademy and Vedantu from the Education sector. All of this is completely bootstrapped without raising a single penny. Their NPS is above 50+ which is one of the highest for Education products all across the World.

MyCaptain also raised funding of $3 million in order to further scale course offerings, acquire more users, increase revenue, and grow the team.

MyCaptain - Business Model and Revenue Model

MyCaptain has been generating revenue and is profitable right from the first day. Students pay 1,000 rupees for a month-long workshop. Mentors get a part of this amount, and the company gets the rest.

The rest of the compensation for mentors happens by helping them get mentors for their research or work. They are also given LORs, and the startup even helps them get funds for their research or startup.

An example of one such event is the 'Indian Youth Conclave' which consists of sessions that help students gain useful insights into their field of interest. The event spans over a couple of days and covers topics from various domains.

MyCaptain - Financials

MyCaptain has experienced fluctuations in its financial performance over the past few years. The company has shown revenue growth but has also faced increasing expenses, leading to sustained losses.

MyCaptain Revenue:

The company has seen a strong revenue increase, growing from INR 12.4 crore in FY22 to INR 17.3 crore in FY23.

MyCaptain Profit/Loss:

MyCaptain’s losses widened from INR 7.4 crore in FY22 to INR 21 crore in FY23, primarily due to higher expenses.

MyCaptain Expenses:

Expenses more than doubled from INR 19.9 crore in FY22 to INR 38.3 crore in FY23, driven by increased employee costs and other expenses.

Quick Summary:

• Revenue Growth: Increased by INR 4.9 crore (from INR 12.4 crore in FY22 to INR 17.3 crore in FY23).
• Higher Expenses: More than doubled, increasing by INR 18.4 crore (from INR 19.9 crore in FY22 to INR 38.3 crore in FY23).
• Losses Widened: Increased from INR 7.4 crore to INR 21 crore due to higher operational costs.
• Major Expense Contributors: Employee benefits and other expenses saw significant rises.

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MyCaptain - Funding

The education technology start-up secured INR 14 crore in funding from angel investing platform Inflection Point Ventures, along with MyNavi, Piper Serica, Super Capital, and Ankur Capital in March 2024. MyCaptain has raised $4.7 million in a total of 2 funding rounds.

MyCaptain - Shareholding

MyCaptain's shareholding pattern as of April 2024, sourced from Tracxn:

MyCaptain - Challenges Faced

One major challenge was faced when the founders went bankrupt and were in heavy debt before starting MyCaptain as their magazine didn’t take off.

At the end of 2014, they had subscribers for their magazine but did not have the resources to cater to them. They were liable to print 12 more issues of the magazine, but the founders didn’t have the funds to do so and were in debt of around 2.5L.

The idea of MyCaptain was born during this phase. The revenue from the first few months of starting the company helped them clear the debt.

Another challenge MyCaptain faced in the very initial days (5 years ago) was acquiring mentors when their credibility was low. This was overcome at the time, after the IIM Bangalore incubation, that the founders got right after college. They also used a strong network effect of vetting and referral from their then-mentor pool. Right now MyCaptain has a pool of 250+ mentors.

MyCaptain - Advisors and Mentors

The company's chief advisor has been Mr. Naga Raja Prakasham who is an investor and also a startup mentor at IIM Bangalore. His advice has been very precious for them.

MyCaptain - Recognition and Achievements

• MyCaptain was incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore in 2016.
• SDSN awarded MyCaptain as one of the top 50 youth-led solutions in the world working towards Quality education and Decent economic growth and work.

MyCaptain - Future Plans

MyCaptain plans to expand into new cities, set up regional sales centers, and introduce more courses, including placement readiness programs in content, design, visual arts, finance, and business. Additionally, it aims to build a full-stack career platform to help early professionals discover their passions, develop practical skills, and secure empowering jobs. MyCaptain targets over 50,000 yearly enrollments and aims to reach Rs 100 crore in bookings by FY 2025-26.

FAQs

What is MyCaptain?

MyCaptain is an online mentoring platform based in Bangalore where young achievers across the globe can mentor school and college students in their fields of interest and passions.

Who is MyCaptain Founder?

Mohammed Zeeshan, Sameer Ramesh, Ruhan Naqash, and Fatema Hussein are the co-founders of MyCaptain.

When was MyCaptain founded?

MyCaptain was founded in 2013.

What are MyCaptain Courses?

MyCaptain offers various Courses in several fields:

• Business (Entrepreneurship, SEO, Business Analytics, etc.)
• Visual Arts (Photography, Short film making, Fashion design, etc.)
• Creatives (Creative/Novel/Humour/Content Writing, Journalism, etc.)
• Technology (Web Programming, Full Stack Development, Java/C/Python, etc.)

Who are the competitors of MyCaptain?

Some top competitors of MyCaptain are:

• Coursera
• upGrad
• Udemy
• Udacity
• Edureka
• Simplilearn
• Imarticus Learning