Beenthru: online platform for professionals, students to receive advice from peers

- ADVERTISEMENT -

NEW YORK – Do you ever wish you could receive any advice in your academic or professional career? Well, look no further, because Indian Americans Parth Shukla and Kapil Wattamwar have launched an online company called Beenthru where not only you can seek advice but also give some too.

Beenthru is a place where you can find one-on-one advice from people who have already “been through” the same situations before.

“Beenthru is a rapidly expanding platform for getting the best advice possible from someone who was just in your shoes,” said Shukla, in an interview to News India Times.

Students find out about Beenthru mainly by word-of-mouth or just searching online as they “are quickly realizing that there is no better alternative to connecting with someone who has actually gone through the same arduous application process and made it through with great success,” he added.

Ivy League universities, as well as state schools throughout the nation are all represented on Beenthru’s website at www.beenthru.com. A student seeking advice, known as a “Seeker,” can simply go to the website and request a service depending on what they are looking for.

“For example, if you aim to go to college at MIT, you would search “Student (undergrad)” at “Massachusetts Institute of Technology” and request a service and you’ll be matched with a verified Beenthru mentor, called a Solver,” said Shukla.

To be a “Solver,” one can go onto the website and create an account to list their academic and professional experiences, on the My Credentials page. After that, Beenthru will run them through its verification process allowing you to receive notifications and begin earning some money for the advice you give.

“Beenthru takes great pride in connecting those with ambition to those with wisdom,” said Wattamwar.

Beenthru will give a student exactly what they need to pursue their ambitions and their questions will be answered at little or no cost.

“For example, a college senior, completing medical school applications may be interested in a personal application review or interview day pearls. Meanwhile, a driven high school sophomore who is chasing her specific dream school may be more interested in long term strategy and resume building from someone at that very school,” said Wattamwar.

“Students who use Beenthru often feel greatly relieved after connecting with mentors who not only know the recipe for success, but can also relate to their experiences,” Shukla added.

They both say that as medical students on the Rutgers campus, in New Jersey, they often run into students who have used their service and they have also “worked with undergraduate organizations to hold events where we interface with students who are enthusiastic about the mentors they have found on Beenthru.”

They have given advice to students on the campuses of Columbia University, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and within the 7-year BA/MD program at Rutgers as well.

Not only do Shukla and Wattamwar want suggestions for improvement of the company but they also plan to include higher education programs from throughout the country and wish to add more diversity in career paths, so they can make Beenthru a hub for all dreamers.

“Our dream is to push the dreams of everyone else! In your career, few things are more critical than a great mentor. We know from experience that our own personal successes have only come to fruition with the help of willing and generous mentors. We wish this same blessing on everyone and consider the successes of Beenthru users to be our own,” they both said.

Shukla is an Emergency Medicine physician-in-training, who graduated with a degree in Physics from Rutgers University on full scholarship and has continued through the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School 7-year BA/MD program.

Wattamwar is a rising resident physician in Interventional Radiology who has earned a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University and an M.D. from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Shukla is also an entrepreneur while Wattamwar has an interest in entrepreneurship and because of this they decided to co-find Beenthru after meeting in medical school.

“We met on the first day of medical school! Since then, it’s been a steep curve from colleagues to close friends to brothers. Our parents have long since acknowledged the other as part of the family and there’s always a spot for me at the Wattamwar dinner table,” said Shukla.

“When I met Parth, I asked him what he was doing in medical school. He wasn’t sure yet but it was clear that he loved to learn and wanted to create change. I immediately needed him to be my friend. We quickly went from brainstorming buddies to business partners and brothers,” said Wattamwar.

Shukla and Wattamwar are both mentors at Beenthru where Shukla gives advice to medical students and applicants for accelerated medical programs and Wattamwar gives advice to engineering and medical students.

However, Beenthru is not only open to students in the medical or engineering fields, it is open to Seekers and Solvers from all other fields as well such as “medicine, dentistry, law, engineering, public health, investment banking, and many”, along with students in high school.