Rifat M Huq is the Co-founder and CEO of Shikhbe Shobai, an online education company based in Dhaka. Founded in 2017, the company has grown significantly and built a widely recognizable brand in the online learning space within a short span of time. It offers paid courses on a wide range of subjects including graphic design, UI/UX, Web and app development, etc.
We recently caught up with Mr. Rifat M Huq, Co-founder, and CEO of Shikhbe Shobai, to learn about his path to entrepreneurship, how Shikhbe Shobai came into being, what is Shikhbe Shobai, how Shikhbe Shobai operates, the state of Shikhbe Shobai’s business today, its ambition going forward, growth lessons from Shikhbe Shobai, challenges of being a founder, lessons he has learned from his journey so far and much more.
Future Startup
Could you please tell us about your background and what you are working on now?
Rifat M Huq
I'm Rifat M Huq, you can call me Rifat. I specialize in User Interfaces, Graphic Design, Responsive Web Design, Front-end Development, Brand Identity, Digital Marketing, and Project Management. I enjoy work that allows for more user empathy and creativity. I believe it is important to pay attention to detail and focus on the little things that make a big difference for UX. As an end-to-end UX designer, I focus on Research and Interaction Design.
I am also skilled in completing Requirement/Data Analysis and UI. I’m an entrepreneur who loves to be part of a growing business. A UI/UX and Graphic Design Mentor who has been working in this sector for more than 6 years and trained almost 5500+ students. Currently managing a team of talented creative and multitaskers. I am Currently working as a CEO, UI/UX Mentor and Co-Founder of Shikhbe Shobai and Instructor.
I have completed my graduation from United International University. My focused area was EEE. I have solid 5 years of practical experience in online and offline teaching, trained almost 5030+ students all over the world. Also, I have started my freelancing career 3 years ago and successfully completed 250+ freelancing projects on the different global and local marketplace.
Future Startup
What motivated you to start Shikhbe Shobai? Why did you start a business in this sector? When and how did you start Shikhbe Shobai?
Rifat M Huq
Shikhbe Shobai was founded by 11 like-minded, young and motivated individuals with a vision to take freelancing as a career path to 160 million Bangladeshis and to create a community of successful freelancers.
Our mission is to help people learn the in-demand skills they need to achieve their full potential and establish a path towards a brighter Digital Bangladesh.
Shikhbe Shobai was founded in 2017 with an aim to empower people of 64 districts in online freelancing and to create a sustainable self-dependency through online employment model all over Bangladesh.
Future Startup
What went into building the initial product? How did you put together initial investment and other things to get started? Please walk us through what the first few months of your journey were like and the challenges you faced.
Rifat M Huq
We started our journey in April 2017. First, we have to give thanks to Socian Ltd. for sharing their office place with us. In July 2017 we move to Banani House#74, road # 7, Block # H, to our new office. I can recall those days that ways too messy, one of our interns even left us saying that she can’t work here. We used to sit in a bedsheet on the floor. That was the real struggling period.
Future Startup
Could you please give us an overview of Shikhbe Shobai in terms of services you offer, your business and users, team size, operations, etc?
Rifat M Huq
Future Startup
How have you attracted people and grown Shikhbe Shobai? Could tell us a bit about your process and activities that you carried out to achieve the growth?
Rifat M Huq
Quality is the key. We make sure that we offer the best courses and the best service to our customers. The second thing would be our credentials. The success stories of our students have helped us to attract more students.
Future Startup
What are the lessons you’ve learned in terms of growing a business? What other entrepreneurs can learn from your journey?
Rifat M Huq
Focus on your customer. Give them the best possible service. Make them happy and satisfied. The rest should follow. Business is all about serving your customers. As long as your customers are happy, you should be okay.
Future Startup
What is your business model? How have you grown your revenue?
Rifat M Huq
Students are the main customer for us. Our business model is simple. We offer paid courses. Students pay us for accessing our courses and we invest that money in operations and other areas. We offer a wide range of courses on various subjects including Graphics Design, Web Design, UI and UX design, Web Development, Android App Development, Digital Marketing along with special freelancing session for each course.
Future Startup
Have you raised any investment?
Rifat M Huq
We have raised an internal round of investment recently, mostly from friends and family who have invested before. I can’t mention the exact figure, I would say that it is a small round.
Future Startup
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced? What are the challenges now?
Rifat M Huq
We want to bring out a change in the skill development sector in Bangladesh which cannot be achieved overnight, so we are working towards that. We have small offerings right now, like international standard project-based learning.
We’re offering online courses for students outside Dhaka who usually don’t have access to these type of contents and also for students in Dhaka. We understand that there will be challenges. The answer to all these challenges is sticking to it.
We are operating in a new industry and as a start-up, credibility is a challenge for us. Customers are not essentially used to the services we are offering. It is always tough to break the status quo. That’s one challenge that we are trying to overcome.
Future Startup
How does your sales and marketing work?
Rifat M Huq
Word of mouth has been our biggest growth engine. We get a healthy amount of students through recommendations from our previous students. We are happy with that and we plan to continue to invest in that space so that our customers refer us. Apart from that, we have invested in channels like Facebook, university campaign, students meetup, affiliate meetup, Fair, etc.
Future Startup
What are the goals for the future?
Rifat M Huq
Shikhbe Shobai works to create a borderless world for skillful potential persons who are determined to develop their career and become self-employed. To achieve this vision Shikhbe Shobai works as a guide to help these dedicated soul regarding IT skill development and spread the knowledge for building freelancing career by showing them the online marketplace opportunities and career facts to them.
At Shikhbe Shobai Solutions, we aim to build a personalized learning experience for each of our students.
Future Startup
What are some lessons you’ve learned?
Rifat M Huq
People often underestimate the amount of hard work to build a startup. We often start with a rather cozy picture of hard work that entrepreneurship demands. That often leads to frustration in the beginning because we start with a lot of enthusiasm and we expect the quick results, and when we don’t see the results, it often hurts our morale. My lesson has been: never give up. As long as you stay in the game, there is no failure.
Future Startup
What advice would you give to founders who are just starting out?
Rifat M Huq
Stay focused, work hard and never lose hope.
