Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Michael Wharton: I founded EduAims, a boutique education consultancy catering to students across the globe, along with my friend and partner back in 2011. We had just completed our education from prestigious international universities and identified a gap in the education consulting market. Most education consultancies at the time did not focus on guiding candidates to achieve top admits but rather sent students to lowly-ranked universities, with which they had a commercial tie-up. We aimed to challenge the status quo and founded one of India’s first organized ‘unbiased’ education consultancy. We have helped over 10,000 students gain admissions and $50+ million worth of funding from top universities across the globe. We have expanded globally and now have an office in the UAE, which caters to students in the Middle
Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by EduAims
Michael Wharton: Our services include ensuring students secure admission at world's renowned universities, and in their best fit courses. For this, we provide high quality training for SAT / GRE / GMAT / TOEFL / IELTS examinations and personalized-holistic Admissions counselling services.
Great Companies: What makes EduAims different from hundreds of other Education Consultants?
Michael Wharton:
I believe that our constant drive to innovate and our student-centric approach are what makes us unique. In a rapidly changing world, we strive to keep redefining ourselves and our approach. We remain updated of the best-possible practices to ensure robust services that deliver what we strive for.
We do not really have institutional competitors, as most competitor institutions end up tying up with universities and bringing ‘bias’ into their business model. In fact, it is this uniqueness that has allowed us to expand beyond the borders of India.
Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?
Michael Wharton: There are many struggles that any entrepreneur faces and being in the education-services sector, the biggest we have faced is ensuring that all quality-based practices are delivered even while growing. Very early on, we realized that we may need to sacrifice growth to ensure ‘zero’ compromise on our vision of providing ‘unbiased and informed’ career guidance. With patience, and exceptional work-practices we have managed to live this promise and hope to do so in the future as well.
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for EduAims?
Michael Wharton: Our vision is to positively impact every life that comes in touch with us. We take our work of ‘career-guidance’ with extreme seriousness, and for us, this is not just an enterprise but an institution of dreams. In the future, we hope to keep reinventing our organization so that we can keep getting better at what we do. We are confident that if we ensure high-quality services, growth will follow.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Michael Wharton: I regularly advice young entrepreneurs to take out time for themselves and their family. It is easy to forget everything and focus only on your work (dreams) but taking time away from work is what will allow you to thrive in the long-run.