My numbers, not my adjectives
The four fields, in my own words
- Company
- I run Masai School — I founded it in June 2019 in Bengaluru with Nrupul Dev and Yogesh Bhat. EBITDA-positive since January 2025, growing on our own profit.
- Elevator pitch
- I train people from anywhere in India to an industry-ready standard, and I only get paid once they're placed. Skills first, degree irrelevant.
- Stage
- Seven years in. I survived the bootcamp winter, rebuilt the model, turned profitable — now compounding toward an AI-native curriculum at national scale.
- Domain
How I got here — including the hard part
- 2008I went to IIT Kanpur
B.Tech, 2008–2012. Volunteered with Teach For India in my pre-final year — my first contact with the education problem I'd come back to.
- 2013I co-founded Grabhouse
CEO of the brokerage-free rental startup. Raised ~$13M from Sequoia, Kalaari and India Quotient.
- 2016Quikr acquired us
Exit in November 2016. I stayed on as a business head — and learned what layoffs, funding stress and M&A feel like from the inside.
- 2019I started Masai School
A trip to Kenya — and the Maasai way of training every member of the tribe — became my model and my name. 11am–11pm, six days a week.
- 2022The model nearly broke
The funding winter froze hiring and pure pay-after-placement stopped working. I didn't defend it — I rebuilt it: IIT/IIM prepaid programs, employer-paid AI upskilling, an AI job-matching platform.
- 2025Profitable
Losses cut 69% year on year, EBITDA-positive from January 2025, revenue near ₹100 Cr. ▲ self-funded growth since
- NowAI-first, Bharat-first
AI Tutor, AI Interviewer, Placed. Courses in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Tamil. My thesis moved from "make coders" to "make people employable in an AI-shaped job market."
What I believe
AI doesn't just delete jobs. It reprices skills — those who use it replace those who don't.
On the AI hiring paradox
Language should never be a barrier to capability.
On building for Bharat
What I do differently at Masai
11–11–6
11am to 11pm, six days a week. I use intensity as a filter — the schedule is the selection process.
Pay after placement
My school only earns when the student earns. I keep the risk on the institution, not the family.
Built for Bharat
For people outside the metro pipeline — non-CS grads, small-town colleges, first-gen tech workers, in their own language.