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Sign in to unlock →A 2nd Runners Up PM deck from IIT Delhi that proves India’s exam prep crisis is an execution failure — not a content problem — and builds the system to fix it.
ProdWars is IIT Delhi’s flagship product management case competition — a high-stakes PM challenge demanding systems thinking, user empathy, and execution-ready product design. Team Bhole Chature from IIM Rohtak (Maanik Ahuja, Harjaap Singh, and Sai Prasad) secured 2nd Runners Up against top engineering and management institutions, presenting PrepSaathi — an execution operating system for India’s most underserved exam aspirants.
India’s government exam market hosts 40M aspirants spending ₹13k–17.5k each on preparation annually — yet 80% drop out mid-cycle, 48% skip the actual exam, and only 2.6% clear prelims. The ₹531 billion market leaks ₹12–35 billion every year to dropout waste. The failure is not content — YouTube, Telegram, and coaching centres supply it abundantly. The gap is execution: no daily structure, no real-time feedback, no accountability system. Tier 2–3 cities, home to 15–17M aspirants on 2G/3G networks, are the most underserved segment and the most defensible opportunity.
The deck opens with a razor-sharp aspirant preparation lifecycle — a four-stage failure map (Access → Confusion → Drift → Dropout) that proves the problem is systemic, not motivational. The team then identifies Banking and SSC exams as the beachhead market — predictable syllabus cycles, large repeat-attempt base, strong peer comparison behavior — before building a full consumer persona around UPSC AIR-1 Anudeep Durishetty as the archetype for system-driven success over raw intelligence.
PrepSaathi is structured around a four-step execution flywheel: Commit → Execute → Prove → Reinforce. Its standout design choices are a WhatsApp-first architecture for low-bandwidth access and peer accountability squads built on loss aversion and social proof — not hollow gamified badges. Implementation follows a trust-driven acquisition model: coaching group entry → guided onboarding → early proof → organic expansion → paid conversion. A rigorous unit economics appendix anchors the financials with benchmarks judges can’t dismiss.
Five tactical takeaways:
Market: 40M aspirants; ₹531B valuation; ₹12–35B lost annually to dropouts. Annual prep spend: ₹13k–17.5k/aspirant. PrepSaathi: ₹999/year vs ₹25k–80k for coaching centres. CAC: ₹180–220; ARPU: ₹240–260; LTV (3 years): ₹650–750; LTV:CAC ~3.2x–3.8x. Break-even: Month 22. Y1 targets: 8,000 DAU; 15,000 active consistent users; D7 retention >40%; paid conversion 35–40%.
PM aspirants targeting edtech and govtech product competitions will find the execution flywheel and beachhead selection methodology immediately replicable. B-school students prepping for consulting or strategy cases in the education sector will sharpen their problem framing and market-sizing instincts. The unit economics appendix alone is worth studying as a model for presenting SaaS benchmarks cleanly under competition pressure. CaseBuzz has the full library of winning PM and strategy decks to level up your prep.
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