The Three Musketeers from Kerala building Startups in Ireland

Brands sponsoring sporting events & sports clubs always have a great brand recall value. For someone like me who follows the grassroots level Indian sports events happening in Ireland , especially football and cricket, I could see one brand name coming up in many places, Ed-Hoc. The curiosity lead me to reach out to one of the founder’s of Ed-Hoc and was amazed to listen to their startup story.

The story goes back to 7-8 years, in 2015-2016 three aspiring young men from Kerala pursued higher education and joined colleges in Ireland. Seldom did they know that the flights each of them took to Ireland will change their destinies.

The number of young people from India pursuing higher education abroad has always got a demand. Indeed a life changing decision for the person and their families. The factors that come into consideration range from the fees, daily & monthly expenses, climatic conditions, language , lifestyle, etc.

Jaleel, Minhaj, Arshad & their respective families had considered all these factors and more , before finally choosing Ireland as their destination to do their Masters. Jaleel made the move in 2015, while Minhaj and Arshad flew to Dublin in 2016.

The students from India who relocate to Ireland have a good rapport among themselves, this especially goes for the people who come from God’s Own Country, Kerala. Lot of meet ups happen and in one such meet up, the JAM gang had a casual chat about the whole process of higher education, the paper work involved, the dilemma of picking the right stream and all.

Jaleel Arshad Minhaj (JAM) didn’t in their wildest dreams think about starting an overseas educational consultancy. The conversation that took place sitting across a dining table slowly took shape. They jotted down the basic hygiene measures that is considered while selecting the country , college, degree, etc. and after multiple rounds of discussions, decided to give it a try.

Ed-Hoc Overseas Education Consultancy , the consultancy for helping the aspiring students , took shape at the start of 2019. The initial year of operations saw around 50 students using the services of Ed-Hoc. The best marketing strategy or rather tool for most of the business but especially educational consultancy is to be completely transparent and give a great experience to the students throughout the process

In 2016, Arshad TK the now CEO of Ed-Hoc started his MBA in International Business Management at Griffith College Dublin. Alongside this his close friend Minhaj, now the Director at Ed-hoc was also starting his MBA in Marketing at Dublin Business School. After also completing the same course in International Business Management in 2015, Jaleel, now Ed-Hoc’s International Marketing Manager was the third and final member that cemented the foundation that brought Ed-hoc from conception to fruition. Throughout their studies, all three worked in various educational consultancies learning and growing their skills but always seeing a gap where more could be done for the student.

“The founders of the Ed-Hoc team reside in Dublin, Ireland, and are always on ground helping students, that gives an added comfort to the students making the move.” mentioned Arshad while talking about the USPs of Ed-Hoc.

While sharing this story , Arshad told “Ed-Hoc international was founded with a goal in mind to empower every student to access the highest quality of education by promoting Irish education abroad. We work closely with students providing them with up-to-date information, support and opportunities relative to their field of study from conception to completion.”

He added “Currently, Ed-hoc has partnership in Ireland with University of Limerick, Maynooth University, Technical university Dublin, Dublin City University, Atlantic Technological University, Technological University of Shannon, South East Technological University, National College Ireland, Dublin Business School, Griffith College, Dundalk IT, Dorset College, ICD Business School, Independent college and Queens University Belfast. Last year we admitted more than 700 students into well-known, highly established educational institutions across Ireland and expecting 1000 students this year.”

While mentioning about the unique features of Ed-Hoc, he highlighted the airport pick up arrangements done for every student. In addition to this, he spoke about special campaigns run to support the students.

“Finding an accommodation has always been a challenge in Ireland. The situation during Covid was even harder . Ed-hoc ran a unique campaign of ‘Spare-A-Room’ to help the students.”

Ed-hoc has spread across 4 countries now which includes India, Ireland, UK, Qatar and helping students to join colleges in Ireland, UK, France , Canada. While some of the branches are fully owned by them, some of them are in the friend-chise model. A unique franchise model where the branch is opened with a partnership with a friend, and as per Arshad “ We do this keeping in mind one of the reasons to maintain the high level of transparency with the students.”

Ed-Hoc was also the finalist of Ireland Education Award 2023.

The JAM gang has started exploring more markets and are currently working to open an office Indonesia.

The three musketeers from Kerala are indeed standing apart from the chaos in their own unique ways. A WhatsApp support system for all students , helping students find a part time job and even sharing a bed when it becomes really difficult to find accommodation immediately in Ireland . These are the subtle things which find a place in the heart of the students and the word spreads really fast.

The way JAM wanted to smoothen the overseas student higher education , they did the brand extension to other areas related to this.

MyTaxMate is one such startup rolled out by them to help simplify tax returns. The next level after completing the education is to find a job. Considering this , JobHoc has been recently launched by these young founders.

Hope to see Ed-Hoc, MyTaxMate, JobHoc and more adhoc startups by this humble amazing set of human beings go places and win hearts & accolades. Hoping to see more sports teams and events carrying the Ed-Hoc , MyTaxMate, JobHoc branding.

The interesting creative things done by digital media team at Ed-Hoc which always catches my attention, they use the trending sports , business news and curate a message to the aspiring candidates. A well worked out way to stand out in the crowded market space , be trending and tap the right target segment.

Going back to the sport’s sponsorship, Arshad highlighted the struggle of every sports person , teams and events to manage the required finances to keep it going. All the three founders are sports persons.

Arshad added “We clearly understand the challenges. As a player , I also still face hurdles in getting sponsors, funds , etc to have proper training, kits, tournament participation fees, etc. So we decided to support sports in whatever small way possible by us. Our own way of giving it back to the society.”