Company

Insight Education

Founded

Founded 1999; Acquired in 2004

Website

www.insightcollege.com

Name

Ajit Jain, 31, Partner / Operations Director
Purvi Mody, 30, Partner / Managing Director

Hometown

AJ: Mexico, Toronto, Canada
PM: Santa Clara, California

Current residence

AJ: Bay Area, California
PM: San Mateo, California

Education

AJ: Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA (2004); University of Toronto, BASc Civil Engineering (1998)

PM: Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA (2004); Stanford Graduate School of Education A.M. (1999); Universiyt of California - Los Angeles (UCLA), Major in Psychology, Double Minor in Business and Education (1998)

Work experience

AJ: Mimosa Capital (Founded in 2004 with goal of acquiring an existing company), McKinsey & Co. (2003), Turner Construction Company, Construction Management (1998-2002)
PM: Destination-U.Com, Director of Content

Ethnicity

AJ: North Indian Jain and Mexican
PM: Indian, Gujarati

About company

Insight Education, LLC (formerly Insight College Prep) was founded in 1999 by a team of Stanford Graduates with the long-term mission of helping students gain entry to the colleges of their choice. Insight applies a unique personalized approach when working with high school students to guide and assist them through all stages of the process including (and not limited to) academics, standardized testing, extracurricular activities, honors and awards, leadership, and volunteer work. We strongly believe that every student possesses a unique set of characteristics, strengths, and passions. We work with families to help cultivate these traits.

What are your day-to-day responsibilities?

AJ: Manage day-to-day operations which include finance, marketing, sales, and human resources.

PM: My primary responsibilities include working with clients and curriculum development. My partner and I work as team on business planning and strategy.

Most notable milestones

AJ: Led acquisition of Insight College Prep Centers in the Fall of 2004. Spearheaded the transformation of the company through brand overhaul, new and expanded service offerings, and optimized the pricing structure directed at an expanded and more diverse target market. Posted a 10% increase in revenues during first year of new ownership and a 28% increase in revenues during Q1 2006 compared to Q1 2005.

PM: Our first class of seniors successfully completed the college admissions process and recently graduated from high school. Many of our students are going to some of the best schools in the nation and many are also the first generation in their families to attend college.

What's the niche?

AJ: We refuse to pre-package students for name brand schools that aren’t well suited to their unique personality. Rather, we strive to work diligently to learn everything there is to know about out students in order to set ambitious goals for them that we can achieve through a personalized approach to educational counseling.

What's in store for the future?

PM: We hope to grow the company by expanding our locations and areas served. We have currently opened a small office in San Mateo and hope to reach Fremont before the end of the summer. We also hope to expand our service offerings to meet the needs of younger students.

Unexpected learnings along the way

AJ: Entrepreneurship isn’t always sexy. I have to wear my business hat at the same time as I try and fix the Internet and help grade an SAT test. But at the end of the day an owner must know their business intimately.

PM: Conflict is unavoidable no matter how hard you work.

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