Exchange, Share, Explore. ‘Accessing’ books for a student or students in a college, even when accompanied by thousands of other students, Karan was pretty sure that it’s not the problem of just a college!
Studentdesk is a book exchange platform where students across the country can buy, sell, exchange, their books, novels or any kind of study material within their institute/city.
The broad vision is to make the books more accessible, economical and so on developing a vast, healthy community of book connoisseurs across the country.
The idea: Back in the 2014, Karan reminisce waiting for days to be able to buy used book from seniors or find someone to exchange his books because buying new books was very expensive. Additionally, He along with many of his friends preferred to buy books from their seniors but it was damn tedious to find someone willing to sell. Similarly, selling was equally arduous process. When he went to sell his used books to the bookstore, he hardly returned any money for them. Thus, he thought, directly giving books to his juniors would be uncomplicated, as this would not only save money of both parties but will also save time.
He saw the possibility of democratising knowledge. So, it started as a final year project and from his college hostel.
Meanwhile, he got placed in a reputed MNC right after his graduation. He was more inclined towards entrepreneurship, a few days at his first job made him realise that more and he left the job. He ardently set on mission of doing something that makes a positive difference.
In the earlier stages, He did not have more money so could he hire professionals to develop the portal and so he befriended online sources, channels etc. After his hard work for quiet long, in January 2014 studentdesk.in was launched.
What StudentDesk provides? There are average 4000 students in every college and they don’t know that the book which is in their wish list is already read by any other book reader of institute and they will not hesitate to share it with other book lover of their college, so at StudentDesk they are bridging this communication gap and connect book readers of institutes.
Reuse, Exchange and Circulation of books will not only make accessing book economical but will also help in building the sustainable environment.
Moreover, StudentDesk removes the discretionary need of middlemen in the market.
The pin-point: There are many classified websites but they, at StudentDesk, want to keep the process simple. Easy and free registration is all a user need to do. Once that is done, simply they can post a book which they want to buy/sell/exchange. They have given them this option.
The Journey has been aspiring. Over last couple of years, they have improved their portal, thus studentdesk.in has decent number of colleges and users, results in frequent uploads of books daily.
With his studies going on, in the first stage it was difficult to manage time and coping up with money. So on, the branding of StudentDesk. Fortunately, Binit Thacker (Founder www.yellowmedialabs.com) his roommate who already was working with start start-ups for their branding helped him with design related requirements.
A step ahead: Expansion and more efficient operations is what they want. They are team of five like-minded people operating their Start-up from Ahmedabad-Gujarat. They believe that Team makes the Dream alive and at StudentDesk they love to solve the problem.
With the aim to reach each and every college of this nation, very soon they are going to start Camus Ninja campaign, where they will select passionate students from different institutes who can contribute to the growth of Book Exchange initiative in their respective institutes and at the same time ensuring that they will get practical business exposure which will also help them to start something of their own.
A step closer: Transformation always starts from a small step and over the years when they look back, they realise this seminal idea kicked everything off. StudentDesk is one such a small, extremely simple, yet a powerful idea, which has the potential to taking India to insurmountable heights.
No one can deny the incomparable role books have played in our lives in knowing things, deriving inspiration and look beyond our own world we are caught in. “Patience, hard work, belief in ourselves”, is what they follow at StudentDesk and that will lead them to make Studentdesk.in, India’s biggest online open library for used books in shortest future.
Details of Startup:
Name: StudentDesk
Website: www.studentdesk.in
Launched on: 2nd January 2014
City: Ahmedabad
Founder: Karan Pujara (B.E computer engineering)
USP: Acquiring books is not so easy. As a student we all face problem regarding the high prices of the books we want to read. But should the prices define any one individual’s future. No. This is what StudentDesk aim to do. Educate, a step ahead.
Without any subscription charges, Studentdesk.in is a book exchange platform where students can buy, sell or exchange their novels, textbooks, magazine or any other study material, within an institute.