Best Place To BuildJEE Prep LIED to You: Here's Why You Need To BUILD a Career After JEE | Propelld CEO on BP2B S2 Ep.5
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Propelld in one sentence: education loans at scale with low NPAs
The host sets the stage at IIT Madras and introduces Victor Senapaty, CEO & Co-founder of Propelld. Victor quickly outlines Propelld’s scale (AUM, student count) and highlights a standout metric: very low NPAs compared to typical industry levels.
- •Propelld provides education financing as an NBFC
- •Scale indicators: ~1200 Cr AUM and ~2.5 lakh students financed per year
- •NPA explained in simple terms (loan money not coming back)
- •Propelld’s NPA ~1% vs industry ~10% (claimed)
- •Near-profitability and operational maturity
Why Propelld underwrites education differently than a personal loan
Victor explains the company’s founding thesis: education is an ‘investment’ and, in India, a family-level decision—unlike many consumption-driven personal loans. Propelld therefore evaluates intent and ability through academic track record and institute/course outcomes rather than only current income/credit history.
- •Education is framed as an investment; personal loans are framed as expense
- •Family plays a central role in both funding and ROI of education in India
- •Higher inherent intent to repay in education vs consumption loans
- •Signals used: student academics + institute/course quality + expected outcomes
- •Ability to repay is projected from post-course earning potential
Making underwriting scalable: standardizing institute & outcome risk
The host challenges the practicality of assessing academic performance at national scale, given varying boards and mark sheets. Victor responds that Propelld optimizes ‘wholesale risk’ by building confidence in institute/course outcomes rather than trying to pick individual winners everywhere.
- •Difficulty of trusting grades/marks uniformly across India
- •Propelld focuses on institutional/course outcome data as primary risk signal
- •Wholesale risk approach: back strong institutes rather than hunt for outliers
- •Importance of feedback loops to validate published outcomes
- •Risk-optimization mindset over pure credit expansion
Victor’s pre-Propelld ‘practical MBA’: three startups before fintech
Victor traces his entrepreneurial path through three very different ventures that built his learning curve: a portable planetarium business (Astroworks), hyperlocal grocery delivery (StockUp), and an apparel brand (Pristine Cut). Each venture taught distinct lessons about product, scaling, and unit economics.
- •Astroworks: teaching astronomy via portable planetarium in schools (2014–15)
- •StockUp: hyperlocal grocery delivery; traction increased losses (unit economics lesson)
- •Realization: some businesses require massive scale to become profitable
- •Pristine Cut: apparel startup with strong margins and profitability (sales and profit figures shared)
- •Propelld becomes the 4th startup, built on accumulated execution learnings
Co-founders and long friendships: from school, Kota, IIT to building together
Victor describes how founding relationships formed long before the company—through school in Bhubaneswar, Kota prep, and IIT journeys. He also addresses the psychological challenge of repeatedly choosing startups over a safer job path.
- •Bibhu and Brijesh are long-time friends; deep trust built over years
- •Shared background: Kota coaching, Olympiad camps, IIT journey
- •Discussion on doubt: ‘Should I just take a job?’
- •Startups were often consciously shut down or pivoted—part of growth
- •Entrepreneurship framed as progressive learning rather than linear success
The idea and mission: affordability gaps and education as a ‘social expense’
Propelld’s origin is tied to rising education costs and the risk of excluding capable students. Victor links the company’s mission to the broader societal value of education (inspired by Milton Friedman’s framing) and contrasts India’s trajectory with the U.S. student debt problem.
- •Bibhu originated the Propelld idea; team shut down prior venture to pursue it
- •Education costs rising; savings often fall short by large margins
- •Education benefits family/community—should be treated as a social expense
- •U.S. cautionary tale: high tuition vs slower wage growth and long repayment horizons
- •Propelld supports learners at different stages, not only at admissions time
Getting to IIT Madras: counseling, the ‘beach myth,’ and campus realities
Victor recounts how he chose IIT Madras over closer options like Kharagpur—driven by a senior’s pitch and parental beliefs about South Indian academic discipline. The segment blends nostalgia and realism about campus life (including the famous ‘lost bicycle’ trope).
- •Physical counseling era and first impressions of IIT Kharagpur vs Madras
- •Senior’s beach narrative influenced choice; parents supported Chennai decision
- •Humorous reality: beach isn’t next to the back gate; logistics matter
- •Campus culture details: losing bicycles, negotiating autos (pre-Uber era)
- •Sets context for the ‘IIT is a beginning, not an end’ theme
JEE coaching’s ‘admission is the goal’ myth—and why it hurts careers
The discussion turns into the episode’s core message: JEE preparation often frames IIT admission as the finish line. Victor argues this mindset creates complacency; students need structured reorientation to view IIT as a powerful starting platform for building careers and projects.
- •Mindset shift: reaching IIT can feel like ‘pinnacle’ with nowhere to go
- •JEE-driven goal-setting is useful short-term but limiting afterward
- •Proposal: onboarding/counseling to tell students it was a ‘half-truth’
- •IIT as a leverage point: peers, alumni, facilities, and opportunity density
- •Theme: build skills/projects early rather than waiting for placements panic
Placements as a reality check: from objective scores to subjective evaluation
Victor describes how stressful placements are—especially for students used to single-number evaluation (JEE rank/CGPA). He explains the sudden need to manage multiple parameters (communication, grooming, cases, coding) and how that realization pushed him to take growth more seriously.
- •Placements are many-parameter and subjective vs JEE’s objective scoring
- •Late placement experience amplified stress and urgency
- •Soft skills, resume-building, and company-specific prep become critical
- •Regret is often about ‘omissions’—what you didn’t do at IIT
- •Trigger for ‘Victor 2.0’: treat every new platform as a stepping stone
MBA at FMS and the pivot to entrepreneurship: impatience with traditional careers
Victor shares how he pursued an MBA to fully exploit a new platform—joining projects and global finance competitions. He then recounts joining investment banking, feeling disillusioned with early-career work, and deciding that his ‘impatience’ was better directed toward building companies.
- •FMS experience: deliberate effort beyond academics; rediscovered joy of learning
- •Goal: top finance job achieved, but day-to-day work felt underwhelming
- •Traditional career ladders require time before intellectually rewarding work
- •Victor frames impatience as ‘right impatience’ when learning is low
- •Transition point into early startup experiments (Astroworks onward)
Propelld’s early execution: cold-calling institutes and piloting in Kolkata
Victor explains Propelld’s initial go-to-market: direct outreach to institutes, many rejections, then one forward-looking institute partner in Kolkata. Being physically present at a single institute made underwriting simpler and enabled rapid iteration on a small-ticket upskilling loan product.
- •Early validation via cold calls; most institutes said no
- •First believer: institute leader with global exposure invited them to pilot
- •On-ground presence enabled trust in promoter quality, teachers, student intent
- •Initial loans were smaller and focused on upskilling courses (e.g., data science)
- •Expansion from 1 institute to ~600–700 institutes over time
Scaling from 3 founders to 300+ people: signal vs noise and long-term focus
Victor reflects on how scaling changed both him and the organization—from a tiny office to a 300–350 person team. The key leadership evolution was learning to separate signal from noise, choose a few priorities, and align the entire organization to row in one direction.
- •Org growth arc: founders → accelerator → tiny office → 300–350 team
- •Leadership skill: distinguishing signal from noise and prioritizing top inputs
- •Balancing tactical wins with durable long-term value creation
- •People management and organizational alignment as scaling constraints
- •Strategic horizon expands as execution unlocks new ‘steps from 10 to 100’
Crisis as advantage: pandemic surge and leapfrogging competitors
Contrary to typical lender fears during COVID, Propelld doubled down based on its belief that people invest more in education during uncertainty. Victor describes tough board discussions, the validation through stable NPAs, and how this period helped Propelld leapfrog better-funded competitors.
- •Contrarian thesis: crises drive upskilling/education investment, not collapse it
- •Hard investor/board conversations: ‘why turn the tap on?’
- •Success metric: NPAs held steady—key proof in lending
- •Competitors retrenched; Propelld gained share and became #1 in segment
- •Lending framed as ‘evaluating and buying risk’—not avoiding it entirely
The BYJU’S meltdown: why core principles protected Propelld and reset trust
Victor explains how BYJU’S collapse affected the broader edtech and lending ecosystem by eroding trust and creating large losses for lenders. Propelld avoided exposure because the product-risk didn’t fit its underwriting principles, and used the moment to reinforce its role as a trust-builder for education finance.
- •BYJU’S success/failure influenced funding and perception of the entire sector
- •Mis-selling and poor product fit led to large lender losses (high NPAs cited)
- •Propelld had no BYJU’S exposure due to not understanding/liking the product-risk
- •Reinforced focus on course/institute outcomes and ‘good vs bad risk’ framing
- •Positioning: build lender trust in the education ecosystem so capital keeps flowing
How fintech lending evolved in India: regulation cycles and tech’s real role
Victor outlines fintech’s evolution through regulatory and infrastructure phases: early digital rails (eKYC, experimentation) enabled rapid growth, followed by crackdowns due to abuses (illegal apps, collection malpractices). The industry has shifted back to more NBFC-like models, using tech primarily for better risk systems and operational efficiency.
- •Fintech is highly regulated; regulation tightened after illegal lending abuses
- •Phase 1 (approx. 2016–2019): digital rails open up; experimentation and new licenses
- •Phase 2: clampdowns shift investor/entrepreneur mindset toward traditional models
- •Current norm: NBFC-like fundamentals + tech to improve underwriting and efficiency
- •Propelld’s tech focus: institution risk evaluation, monitoring triggers, model iteration, and process automation
