Journey to $100 Million: Mettl, an Indian Online Assessment Startup

The case can be used in a session on entrepreneurship, disruptive technology innovation, or focus as an aspect of strategy. The case profiles Mettl Inc., an Indian online assessment startup, as it lays the groundwork for becoming one of India's first software as a service (SAAS) companies to breach the USD 100 million thresholds. Solving for flexibility, system resilience, dispersed geographical spread of candidates and test integrity, Mettl was looking to develop a viable alternative to traditional assessment methods. The case provides an outline of the assessment industry and the factors that influence Mettl's market strategy. Using the personal journeys of Mettl's founders Ketan Kapoor and Tonmoy Shingal as a narrative hook to play itself out, the case traces the conception of their initial vision and examines the market forces that led them to pivot and build a technology platform that delivered assessments. It goes on to chronicle Mettl's journey from the garage to a dedicated office in the Indian National Capital Region (NCR). Successes, setbacks, and the factors on which they are predicated are discussed in detail. The case also chronicles various rounds of funding and provides critical insights into the thinking of India's pre-eminent early stage venture capitalists. It then ventures to put this initial success in perspective and asks the hard question about the future of the enterprise: How would Kapoor and Shingal traverse the road to 100 million?

Learning Objective

• To help students see that technologies, while they have the potential to be disruptive, need to be stewarded to market to be ultimately successful.
• To set the stage for a discussion on "focus as a key construct of strategy.