First principles thinking | 0→1 builder | Multiple non-starter start-up attempts | Fintech operator | 5 years as a founding member at a lending fintech (seed to Series B) |
Taking time to figure out what interests me enough to become my next long-term commitment. Plus, a small paternity break for the birth of my 2nd kid.
After evaluating ideas across capital markets, wealth, and education, was drawn back to fintech: this time to build a credit-on-UPI product for Middle India.
Still believe in the thesis, but decided not to pursue the idea (Again?! I know).
Wanted to take a travel break before jumping into the next thing. Ended up taking a slow 2-month long trip across Europe with my wife and 1-year-old. The longest (duh!), and the best travel experience of my life. Came back rejuvenated.
No "CV" stuff to show here.
Let go of the ISB admit (and a then sizeable deferral deposit — ouch) to join Propelld as a founding member at seed stage. One of my better decisions.
Having trod the ~0.1→1 journey of Propelld, decided to move on and scratch my startup itch again.
Had an ISB admit. But deferred it by a year to take a shot at entrepreneurship.
Began my career here. Was really into engines and combustion in college.
Left to pursue MBA and entrepreneurship (I know the two don't go hand-in-hand. Entrepreneurship is what I actually wanted to pursue. The MBA admit was the safety net that I then needed to take the plunge).
Was a founding member turned functional co-founder at Propelld: had a seat at the founders' table, was seen internally and introduced externally as the fourth founder. My work evolved with evolving needs of the company, in three broad phases over five years:
In the pre-PMF days, worked across functions to get the product off the ground.
Secured our first lender partnership before we had a live product. Established core fintech–lender partnership frameworks in an era with no precedents: defining partnership structures, risk constructs, credit control boundaries, and product/ops alignment. Built fully API-integrated flows when manual processing was still the norm.
Built the initial customer-facing product and lending backend from scratch. Stitched together a fully digital lending stack (Aadhaar, face match, e-sign, real-time cashflow analysis, bureau and fraud checks) when these were still evolving and far from standardized.
Managed early demand-side accounts and built initial frameworks for risk, collections, and legal.
A particularly intense and decisive phase for us. While peers pulled back on lending, we made against-the-grain decisions grounded in first principles rather than fear.
This period changed our trajectory, led to profitability when others were burning heavily, established market leadership, and set the foundation for our Series B raise.
As we scaled and opened up offline acquisition, my focus shifted from building to strengthening.
Hired a CPO after Series B and handed over product to focus on capital strategy and building the liability engine.
Optimized debt strategy and lender partnerships, keeping Cost of Funds up to 200 bps lower than comparable fintech peers.
Structured and operationalized the NBFC subsidiary from scratch to secure long-term capital autonomy.
If I have to call out just one quality I bring to the table, it'd be the ability to peel layers, go to first principles, and build a solution ground up that solves for the core problem. It also forces me to question assumptions and let personal baggage go.
I enjoy the intellectual challenge that uncertainty brings, and the excitement (and frustrations) of figuring out solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems. It's what drew me to startups and why I've never looked back.
I am good at zooming out and looking at the overall system (and the governing tensions) to build solutions for root causes rather than symptoms.
I'm not someone that would need (or blindly follow) execution instructions. I take ownership of problem statements, and of failures when they occur.
Can zoom out to vision mode as well as go deep into research mode, and know when to switch between them.
Strongly believe in doing things the right way, which invariably leads to building products that customers trust and respect.
I am a good systems thinker, and would understand the north star and constraints to build a system with feedback loops, metric tracking, etc. But I'd delegate the responsibility of driving rigour and getting the most out of the sales and ops processes to someone built for that.
Strongly believe in doing things the right way, hence wouldn't want to, say, use deceptive means to add revenue. This is not one of those 'weaknesses that is actually a strength'. There are real calls I've made that forewent revenue.
Dual Degree (B.Tech + M.Tech), Mechanical Engineering