IN 2009, engineering student Ankur Kumar took part in a national level essay writing competition by the National Council of Rural Institutes (NCRI). To his delight, his essay on the ‘Dissemination of Rural Technologies’ won him second place, and he was awarded a certificate of merit and cash prize of Rs 7,000.

Ankur stumbled upon the competition through Letmeknow.in, a portal that features a gamut of student opportunities from internships, competitions and conferences to workshops, scholarships and jobs, spanning five domains - Technology, Business, Maths and Sciences, Arts & Design and Social Sciences.

Inspired by his accomplishment, Ankur wanted to give back to the site that alerted him of the competition. He joined Letmeknow as a content manager while simultaneously pursuing a dual degree in BE Computer Science and Master’s in Economics at BITS, Goa. “I wanted to help other students learn of such opportunities,” he shares. Now a final year student, he donned the mantle of CEO of Letmeknow in 2011.

The opportunities posted on Letmeknow are diverse - from the Harvard Project for Asia and International Relations and IIT Delhi’s entrepreneurship initiative – the Small Industries Management Program (SIMAP) to the Young Economist of the Year essay writing competition and interning as an Android developer. And the alerts help! Ritesh Kumar from IIIT Bangalore stumbled upon IBM’s Research lab summer internship, applied and got through. Saket Jain from SRM University, Chennai, got a heads-up on three national and one international conferences.

In the picture from L to R: (Column 1) Srikanth Challa, Nisha Parwani, Mani Mahesh; (Column 2) Vinay Agarwal, Ankur Kumar, Shivani Ghildiyal; (Column 3) Nitin Bantwal Rao, Kartik Mandaville, Ankit Tulsyan; (Column 4) Nikita Agarwal, Sarabjeet Singh, Abhimanyu Vatsya, (Column 5) Mandar Tulankar, Heena Jethanandani, Sujith Kumar Kupunarapu

This gave him enough time to prepare and present his papers. “These papers finally helped me get admits to a US university (Western Michigan) to pursue MS in Computer Science,” he shares. What’s interesting is that most of Ankur’s colleagues are students who do not operate out of one city. While Ankur is currently based in Goa, CTO Karthik (middle column, second photo) is a third-year student at MIT, Manipal. Content manager Nikita is studying computer science student at St. Xavier’s, Kolkata. Social media manager Shriya is from Bengal College of Engineering and Technology, Durgapur and sales and marketing manager Mani is at Institute of Technology, BHU.

The core team of 15 also includes students who handle areas like technology, festival partnerships and campus outreach managers, and techies like Ankur also double up in design.

Working professionals also chip in. Heena Jethanandani, a Fine Arts graduate who now freelances in the health solutions space is a campus outreach manager. Her role is to manage 100 plus ‘student ambassadors’ in colleges including IITs, IIMs, NITs, law institutes, engineering and other domains.

The pics and information  of the latter are prominently displayed on the site. Srikanth Challa from Infosys Technologies, Pune who has been following Letmeknow from his college days, moonlights as content manager. “We hired him because he is an avid blogger,” says Ankur.

Interestingly, most of them have never met. The team communicates through e-mail, phonecalls and video/ audio conference calls. Even more interesting is that all the work is pro bono ie sans pay.

If so, what is the incentive? Gaining start-up/ entrepreneurial experience, working in a team, a chance to be creative/ take initiative, networking and last but not the least, they get a heads-up on any activity of their interest! And initiative hasn’t gone unnoticed. According to the ticker displayed on its homepage, Letmeknow clocked in 3,979 opportunities and 23,497 subscribers as on June 8. Subscribers get a regular newsletter updating them of the latest opportunities on the site, and you can search the site by category, date of posting or application deadline.

“Technology gets the largest number of hits, while as humanities and arts, the least. Maybe we are not targeting enough institutes and organisations for the latter,” Ankur introspects. Perhaps it is because most students on the core team are engineers save for four members. According to Ankur, this is by chance and not design. “We certainly don't want all techies!” he confesses.

This is how content management works. Companies, institutes and individuals directly post their opportunities, and an in-house content team publishes them. “They need to check for basic hygiene factors like grammatical errors. Unimaginative headlines have to be made more attractive, ‘Internship opportunity’ being a popular one!” says Ankur.

The amount of time spent by his colleagues varies. The social media team tweets all opportunities two or three times a day and updates Letmeknow’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages. Festival managers constantly liaison with campus ambassadors to make their presence felt during events, while the campus outreach teams scout for new campuses and opportunities. The tech team needs to be more hands-on, as website glitches need instant resolutions every now and then.

In the picture: Festival Partnership Manager Sujith conducts an orientation session for students at VIT, Vellore

”I skype with Nitin (Founder) once or twice a month and send regular progress reports as well as goals for the year,” says Ankur whose targets as CEO include increasing subscriber base to 50,000 plus by year end, reaching more colleges, partnering with professional organisations like TiE, ACM and IEEE and last but not the least, generating revenue. Of late, Google ad words and ‘featured’ opportunities, which get more prominence on the homepage, are bringing in some money as are special mailers to their database. Future plans include focusing on a vertical – jobs. As of now, companies can post for free.