Krishna Kumar, an Electronics and Communications engineer from NIT Surathkal, Mangalore, Karnataka, started Simplilearn in 2009 to help professionals across the globe realise their dream careers. They cater to professionals across different industries, offering training material for certifications in Project Management, IT Services Management, IT Security Management, Quality Management, Financial Management and Technology Certification, SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce and many more skill sets. Simplilearn has trained more than two lakh professionals in over 150 countries, including participants from leading Fortune 500 companies (an annual list of companies published by Fortune magazine, which ranks top 500 companies in the US based on their gross revenue).
Simplilearn offers different modules for each certification exam, for the students to learn at their own pace, and budget. For the popular Project Management Professional Certification, they offer four days of classroom training at `14,000, online self learning for `6,550, 16 hours of instructor-led online classroom training at `19,999 and five sets of practice tests for `750. Another popular programme they offer is the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner certification conducted by the Project Management Institute. The two-day classroom training programme costs `14,000, the online self-learning module costs `7,100, the 16-hour instructor-led online session costs `12,500 and the practice tests cost `750.
Over the years, they have won leading awards like Golden Bridge Awards (Global) 2014 Best Blog (Gold), New Products and Services (Bronze); IAMAI-India Digital Awards-Best Website Category, 2014; Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India- 4th rank; Global E-learning award- E-Learning Leadership Award 2013 and TiE Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award 2012.
Krishna started his career with Infosys, where he worked for a very short period, before the entrepreneurship bug bit him. He started his first venture, TechUnified, in 2000, with some friends from college, to develop products in the areas of mobile banking, voice banking and telecom self care. Their customer base included a number of foreign banks and telcos, and they were able to successfully exit in 2007, by selling the venture to ORG Informatics, a public listed company.
“My short stint with corporate life taught me that if you have an idea and believe in it completely, it doesn’t take much to build it. That is how Infosys was also built. It is important to have a great team to build an idea and take it to great heights,” explains Krishna about his entrepreneurial thinking process. “We wanted to do something worthwhile and make a mark. I had ideas and the zeal to make the ideas work. The trigger was to do something good and make a difference,” he says.
Born and raised in Patna, Krishna did his schooling in Patna before going to NIT Surathkal. He was involved in a lot of debating and extempore that really helped him improve his thinking and speaking capabilities, and build his confidence. He was also into adventure sports and cross-country running, which taught him perseverance, one of the most important traits for an entrepreneur. He loves watching movies and reading books of all genres, especially about successful entrepreneurs like Steve jobs, Michael Dell and Warren Buffett.
Rohit@learnbizsimulations.com