Student built paid alumni‑mock interview platform
An IIM Ahmedabad student created a platform linking juniors to alumni for mock interviews at ₹500 per session, scaling to IIM Bangalore and Calcutta and generating ₹8 lakh by placement season—this also directly led to the founder's job offer. It's a concrete example of incentive‑based alumni participation and peer monetization. (x.com)
The account about the student-run mock‑interview service appears only in a viral X thread; that thread is the primary publicly visible source for the specific story. (x.com) Searches across major Indian business and higher‑education outlets turned up no independent news articles corroborating the venture or providing a founder name as of March 26, 2026 (sample queries returned coverage about IIM placements and related social posts but not this startup). (livemint.com) Comparable commercial services targeting MBA students list near‑identical per‑session pricing and explicit “IIM mentor” positioning — for example CareerRai advertises mock sessions at ₹499 with IIM mentors. (careerrai.com) Scaled interview‑prep and mock‑interview platforms demonstrate market demand and feasible distribution to multiple campuses: InterviewBuddy cites 200k+ success stories, and Rehearsal AI publishes school‑specific guides for top institutes. (interviewbuddy.net) Established alumni‑network portals and institute‑run alumni sites are common verification and recruitment channels for mentor‑led products; AlmaConnect and official IIM alumni pages provide searchable member and mentorship features. (iima.almaconnect.com) Summary of investigation: I located the original X post as the only direct public account and found no press, company registry entry, or startup profile to confirm the platform name, founder identity, or financial filings, leaving the story’s specifics unverified beyond the social post. (x.com)
