Overview

Role: Founding Product Manager

Domain: EdTech / Community / Mental Health

Stage: Discovery → MVP → PMF Validation (Pre-Launch)

Timeline: April 2026 (Ongoing)

North Star Metric: Verified Weekly Active Contributors (VWAC)

What this case demonstrates: Full founding PM accountability — from first-principles problem discovery through positioning, pricing, PMF definition, GTM strategy, and outcome instrumentation. End-to-end ownership of a 0→1 product across eight experiential layers (expression, career, mental health, upskilling, discussion, video, mentorship, life support) with verified trust architecture at the core.

The Problem (Evidence-Backed)

Market Context

India has 43 million students enrolled in higher education across 42,000+ colleges. Fewer than 500 are Tier 1 institutions. The remaining ~41,500 colleges produce graduates navigating a system that wasn't designed for their reality.

The Core Problem Statement

Indian Tier 2–4 college students lack a verified, anonymous, college-specific channel to access honest career guidance and peer emotional support from people with direct contextual experience of their situation.

The knowledge exists — in seniors, alumni, and counselors — but is structurally inaccessible:

• It expires with every graduating batch (no persistence mechanism)
• It's calibrated for Tier 1 students and actively misleads Tier 3
• It requires identity exposure students can't afford in tight-knit communities
• It's fragmented across 5+ tools with no integrated space

Quantified Evidence

Career Guidance Gap