Case Study 01
I joined PhysicsWallah as an AGM with a one-line brief: build State PSC. There was no business to run yet, just a few YouTube channels selling a course or two. Two and a half years later, six exam categories made up a ~₹30 Cr portfolio, and the P&L had moved from a ₹9.57 Cr loss to a ₹0.49 Cr profit.
FY24 Build
−₹9.57Cr
EBITDA
₹14.2Cr collections The year I joined
FY25 Scale
−₹7.53Cr
EBITDA
₹20.2Cr collections +42% collections
FY26 Profitable
+₹0.49Cr
EBITDA
~₹29Cr collections +43% collections
01 · The Brief
In August 2023, BPSC, UPPSC and MPSC existed only as YouTube channels selling one or two courses. There was no category layer: no team, no product line, no operations and no P&L.
The job was to turn that into businesses: hire the teams, sign the faculty, design the batches, set up sales and support, and own the numbers.
02 · Build (FY24)
BPSC, UPPSC and MPSC became real categories, MPPSC followed, and two were launched from nothing: Judiciary, with its first paid revenue in November 2023, four months in, and OPSC.
Building six businesses at once is expensive. FY24 closed at ₹14.2 Cr in collections and a ₹9.57 Cr EBITDA loss, the starting line for everything that followed.
03 · Scale (FY25)
Promoted to DGM, the focus was volume that could later be made profitable. Collections grew 42% to ₹20.2 Cr, and the loss narrowed to ₹7.53 Cr.
| Category | FY24 | FY25 | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| JudiciaryLaunched from zero, Nov 2023 | ₹1.03 Cr | ₹5.23 Cr | ~5× |
| OPSCLaunched from zero | ₹0.04 Cr | ₹1.36 Cr | 34× |
| MPSC | ₹2.14 Cr | ₹3.12 Cr | +46% |
| BPSC | ₹4.57 Cr | ₹5.13 Cr | +12% |
04 · Turn Profitable (FY26)
Every syllabus was broken into topics and tagged easy, medium or hard. Easy and medium topics moved to recorded classes; hard topics stayed live. Designed and rolled out in three weeks in May 2025.
₹2.15 Cr
Annual cost out (₹13.08 Cr → ₹10.93 Cr), ratings held at ~4.8/5
Cut business-ops headcount, online marketing and freelancer rates, and moved the spend into mentors and counsellors, the roles that actually move revenue and retention.
7–9%
Lower freelancer rates; marketing down while collections grew
Sharper batch ladders and new products, like the Bihar SI & Police Mahapack (1,120 enrolments in May 2025), lifted what each student paid without discounting harder.
+12–37%
Average order value, across the five State PSC categories
The Supreme Court's 3-year practice rule shrank the eligible pool overnight. Product, pitch and pipeline were rebuilt around the new candidate journey in about 60 days.
₹984 → ₹220
Cost to acquire a student; lead-to-paid went 6.8% → 17.7%
05 · Outcome
FY26 closed at a ₹0.49 Cr EBITDA profit, a ₹10.06 Cr swing from the year I joined, on a portfolio of about ₹30 Cr in collections. Judiciary, BPSC and MPSC finished profitable; UPPSC, MPPSC and OPSC finished near breakeven.
06 · Takeaway
Growth came first. Profit came from changing how the product is delivered, not just from trimming costs. Those same levers, content operations, counselling and drip, are the ones I now run with AI agent systems.