“I have always had an entrepreneurial bent,” says Karan Goel, although he good-humoredly admits that he couldn’t get VCs to buy into many of his ventures as a middle- and high-schooler. In a desperate attempt to combat boredom as he graduated from high school, Goel says he thought long and hard about what he knew he did well. “And the only thing that I thought I really stood out at was taking standardized tests. I was never the most intelligent kid in school but I always did very well on tests,” he quips. Goel contacted Avichal Garg who he admits was the smartest person he knew. Realizing that they had no experience in formal tutoring, they enlisted the help of Joel Jewell who had co-authored and edited Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to the SAT.
Three bright youngsters put their heads together—Goel, who is the youngest student at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business; Garg is a student at Stanford University; Jewell has won a Rhodes Scholarship—and PrepMe was born.
According to Goel, what sets PrepMe apart is their high-quality curricula written by top scorers; curricula that continually adapts to each student’s individual needs; and provides personal tutoring and essay coaching from students at elite universities. PrepMe accepts nothing less than high scorers who are put through a rigorous screening test before admission to the program. Finally, PrepMe offers the unparalleled convenience of being completely online, a feature that instantly wins with parents tired of chauffeuring kids to a variety of classes.
Founded four years ago, PrepMe is a growing business venture which is also engaging not-for-profits to help get its courses out to underprivileged students who may not otherwise be able to afford it.
PrepMe has approximately 20 graduates with another 40 students currently enrolled. “I would like to believe it was our well-balanced team, our strong advisory board, backed by a solid product that has already shown great results … saying anything more would be presumptuous of me,” says Goel modestly with a hint of ambition for the future. www.prepme.com