Intro
About GradRight
GradRight.com, founded in 2019, is a pioneering ed-tech platform dedicated to guiding students on their global higher education journey. Conceived by former student loan industry executives, GradRight combines technology, data science, and human expertise to offer personalized guidance. The platform aids students in navigating the intricate realms of college admissions, financial aid, and career planning. With a mission to help students make informed decisions about universities and finances, GradRight ensures that students can pursue their passions without the weight of unnecessary financial burdens.
Challenges
Navigating Challenges in Ed-Tech: GradRight's Pursuit of Effective In-App Chat
In the rapidly evolving ed-tech sector, GradRight stood out as a comprehensive aggregator for students, lenders, mentors, and universities. Their vision was clear: to facilitate students in finding and funding their education. However, the path to achieving this was riddled with challenges:
01.
Communication centralization
As a platform built to connect various stakeholders, GradRight realized the paramount importance of in-app chat. The need for secure and controlled conversations between users became a cornerstone for the platform's success.
02.
Protecting user identities
Ensuring anonymity for both students and lenders was crucial. This was to prevent unsolicited communication and potential offline transactions, thereby maintaining the platform's integrity.
03.
In-app chat integration
Recognizing the significance of in-app chat, GradRight's product and engineering teams faced the daunting task of building chat capabilities that would seamlessly integrate with their platform, ensuring a smooth user experience.
“We decided to find something that is already out there instead of building the entire UI, the backend, etc. because the infra for chat is not easy.”
Mahesh Kumar J
CTO, GradRight
Solution
Elevating Ed-Tech Communication: Why GradRight Chose CometChat
Recognizing the intricate nature of chat infrastructure, GradRight's CTO, Mahesh Jonnalagadda, knew that building a chat system from scratch would be a monumental task. Instead, the team sought a third-party chat service that would seamlessly integrate with their platform and offer modern chat features.
Several factors made CometChat stand out for GradRight:
01.
All-in-one communication platform
CometChat's comprehensive suite, offering text, voice, and video chat, meant that GradRight could centralize all their communication needs under one umbrella.
02.
Feature-rich UI kit
CometChat's UI Kit came equipped with features that GradRight hadn't even considered, such as support for emojis, stickers, and suggested answers. This saved the GradRight team significant development time and effort.
03.
Responsive support
The initial integration did pose a few challenges. However, CometChat's responsive support ensured that these were quickly addressed, making the integration process smooth for GradRight.
Mahesh Jonnalagadda, CTO of GradRight, summed up their experience, highlighting the advantages of partnering with CometChat. He emphasized the platform's comprehensive features, scalability, and the peace of mind it brought in terms of handling future communication needs.
“CometChat has already built it and that was the piece that we were trying to solve for. The CometChat UI kit has features that we didn't even think about building such as support for emojis, stickers, suggested answers, and all of that. So if we were to build it, I know how complex it is like suggested answers, depending on the role, very complex pieces, but CometChat already has that.”
Mahesh Kumar J
CTO, GradRight
Result
Empowering Ed-Tech for Tomorrow: GradRight's Partnership with CometChat
As a rapidly expanding platform, GradRight's primary concern was ensuring their in-app chat could handle the anticipated growth. With CometChat's integration, the team felt poised for expansion, both in terms of functionality and infrastructure. Mahesh Kumar J, CTO of GradRight, expressed his confidence in CometChat's capabilities, emphasizing its scalability and the myriad of features it offers. He highlighted the platform's adaptability, foreseeing its utility for at least three more years without concerns about the communication layer.
In conclusion, GradRight's proactive approach in leveraging third-party chat integration has been pivotal. With CometChat, they've not only addressed their current communication needs but are also well-prepared for future challenges in scale and functionality.
“With CometChat, there are so many interesting things that we can do. And I could see that CometChat can scale up for us in terms of both in terms of functionality and the number of users.”
Mahesh Kumar J
CTO, GradRight
