Neal O'Grady 🍉

Demand Curve | 93,000 founders get 3 startup growth tactics in their inbox each week. Join the Growth Newsletter below.

I have an extremely strange mix of skills/experience:

- Mechanical engineer
- Full-stack developer
- Serial entrepreneur ($25M+ in total revenue)
- Content creator/marketer (100k+ newsletter subs and millions of page views)
- Growth marketer (ran marketing companies for 9 years)
- Crypto nerd (20k+ defi transactions)

Which is why I run marketing at a scrappy and highly technical crypto company—I can do a bit of everything.

Co-Founder

Demand Curve (YC S19) creates courses, content, and events to teach founders and marketers how to grow companies. Our weekly newsletter goes out to over 60,000 founders and marketers.

Soundarya Balasubramani

Course Creator

Founder of unshackled.club | O-1 Visa Recipient | 2x Author of "Unshackled" & "Admitted" | Emergent Ventures Scholar | Ex-PM @ Salesforce

Making LinkedIn fun again.

I use this space to share things I’m genuinely obsessed with.


✍️ I write about:
→ Pivotal life experiences that continue to shape me.
→ Behind-the-scenes of great startups, books, and people.
→ Major policies and updates that impact skilled immigrants (like myself) in America.
→ ...and whatever else sparks my curiosity in the future.


🔮 Previously:
→ Product Manager at Salesforce for 2.5 years before quitting my job at 25
→ Author of Admitted and Unshackled (10,000+ readers), both focused on global mobility
→ Built one of the largest free newsletters for STEM workers (40,000+ subscribers)
→ Hosted the largest summit for tech immigrants in the U.S. (1,000+ attendees)
→ Organized a free, country-wide book tour across 15 universities for 2000+ international students 
→ Spoken at Grace Hopper's 2025, World Tamil Economic Conference 2025, CEX 2024, ATEA's EMERGE 2024, Intl. Career Collective 2023, etc - along with 40+ podcasts! 


📚 Now, now, now:
→ Finishing my third book & first novel, "1000 Days of Love" (Check curiousmaverick.com/book)
→ Building my career as a keynote speaker 
→ Hosting kickass, memorable events for immigrants in San Francisco, CA


If you enjoy heartwarming stories and researched case studies, you’ll probably enjoy being here. ✨ 

Thanks for reading, friend.

~ SB

📬 Say hi: hi@curiousmaverick.com
📌 Website: www.curiousmaverick.com

Founder & CEO

I'm the creator of unshackled.club, an online membership community built to help talented immigrants secure a talent visa (O-1/EB-1/NIW).

Join 350+ ambitious immigrants to get the following benefits:
- Access to top lawyers who offer complimentary consults
- Access to past recipients of O-1/EB-1 visas
- Database of 100+ awards, memberships, publications, & judging competitions
- Free masterclasses conducted every month
- 20+ hours' worth of "Ask Me Anything" sessions with experts
- Access to "The Extraordinary Visa Library" with stories of past recipients
- Discussion forum to ask any of your questions
- First dips on an AI-backed profile evaluation tool!

Check out unshackled.club and join today :)

This 19-year-old kid had more clarity on his life than most people in their 30s 🤯
I was blown away.

So, a few weeks ago, Dakshin S P Lakshman came to visit me at my house in Chennai, India.

Three of our mutual friends had told him that he should meet me - and vice versa!

We spent two hours walking and talking.

At some point, he told me: “I’m starting my bachelor’s in Germany soon.”
I said, “Oh cool! Which university?”
“University of Europe for Applied Sciences.”
“Oh…”

Internally, I thought, “Well, I’ve never ever heard of that university. Why didn’t he apply for an MIT or Stanford? He’s clearly qualified!”

Outwardly, I asked him, “Why this university?”


Then he walked me through his incredible reasoning:
→ University of Europe for Applied Sciences has no exams. They evaluate only based on projects and prototypes built.
→ Campus is literally housed within a coworking space full of active startups.
→ There’s an SAP Innovation Lab right next door.
→ There’s a Tesla Gigafactory nearby.
→ Potsdam (city where it's at) has one of the highest per capital millionaires in Germany/
→ Oh, also, he got a 50% scholarship!


Dakshin wasn’t just going there to get a degree.
He knew he wanted to build a digital marketing agency and chose a degree, university, and location that was best suited for that.
(He’s already built 3 startups!)

I realized I was STILL stuck in the "higher ranking = better life" trap.
He wasn’t.

The "best" university isn't the one that looks best on paper.

It's the one that puts you in the exact room where YOUR opportunities live.

P.S. I'll share the things you should consider besides ranking while choosing a university in my next post. Follow along to check it out :)

—

🌿 Re-post if this resonated.
👉 I share weekly stories of impactful people, companies, and art. Join 34,000+ others here - https://lnkd.in/gnrA8GJZ :)

3x Author | Keynote Speaker | Emergent Ventures Awardee | Ex-Founder @ Open Atlas | Ex-PM @ Salesforce

A 21-year-old student from Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad secured a ₹2.5 crore ($270,000) offer — the highest ever in the university’s history 🇮🇳

Meet Edward Nathan Varghese.

—

In 2022, Edward cracked JEE Advanced with AIR 558 and joined IIT Hyderabad’s Computer Science program.

Instead of joining clubs to explore like most first-year students, he chose to focus on competitive programming.

He spent the next four years solving problems on Codeforces, daily.

By his final year, Edward was ranked among India’s top 100 competitive programmers.

So when Optiver came to campus looking for summer interns, the selection criteria aligned perfectly with what he had been training for all along:
→ speed
→ accuracy
→ and the ability to think clearly under pressure.

Two students were selected.
After two weeks of training and six weeks of high-stakes project work, Edward got the offer.

He was offered a ₹2.5 crore ($270,000) package, from the first and only company he interviewed.

(And besides him, 23 students received international offers!)

MORAL:
Start early.
Build skills the market actually rewards.
And let consistency compound.

—

🌿 Re-post if this resonated. 
👉 I share weekly stories of impactful people, companies, and art. Join 34,000+ at Curious Maverick

3x Author (latest: 1000 Days of Love) | Emergent Ventures Awardee | Ex-Founder @ Open Atlas | Ex-PM @ Salesforce

🎉 We did it! 4 cities. 4 free events. 450+ students and young professionals.
And all of this started with a casual phone call.

Less than 2 months ago, I called up Krish Bajaj 🌎.

“I’d love to host a free meetup to meet with my community,” I said. “Do you know anyone I can talk to to help with logistics?”

Back then, I just wanted to host an informal meetup to meet those who’ve followed my content for years - and say hello + thank you.

That turned into this multi-city event series where 25+ people came together to set up the whole thing!

I’m so proud of how much we did for every single attendee.

But mainly, I’m so happy that this series unlocked my love for events - and helping early 20s professionals - in general.

Hoping to host many more such events across India and the U.S. in 2026.

Stay tuned!

❤️ A big thank you to i20fever, Roam, Orient Spectra, Collegepond, and Galvanize Global Education. You did the heavy-lifting in every city.
💙 And what a thrill to do this with Sohan Sethi, Varun Negandhi, Ruchi Bhatia, Pavi Theva, Anant Agarwal, P V S Madha Poondla, and Krish Bajaj 🌎.

—

🌿 Re-post if this resonated. 
👉 I share weekly stories of impactful people, companies, and art. Join 34,000+ here: https://lnkd.in/gnrA8GJZ

Meet Harshita Arora 👇

She wanted to build a startup in the U.S but did not want to go through the H-1B path.
So she chose the O-1A visa instead.

Here's how she did it ⬇️



⚠️ Disclaimer: This content is just for educational purposes and should not be taken as a legal advice. I am NOT a licensed attorney and do not have the authority to provide legal guidance on immigration matters. Please consult a lawyer :)

—

🌿 Re-post if this resonated. 
👉 I share weekly stories of impactful people, companies, and art. Join 34,000+ here: https://lnkd.in/gnrA8GJZ

India's VC system funds the problems of the privileged most of the time. 
This Bihar founder solved one for 200,000+ underprivileged people instead.

Chandrashekhar Mandal grew up watching his uncle stand at the labor chowk every morning at 5 AM for work.

(Labor Chowk = a public spot where daily-wage workers gather each morning, hoping to be hired for short-term work that day.)

He watched him deal with the uncertainty.
The exploitation by the contractors who'd promise fair wages and pay half.

Most people see that and move on with their lives. Chandrashekhar couldn't.

—

In 2020, he was working a finance job in Delhi with a steady paycheck. 
Life's going well.
Then one rainy afternoon, he looks out from his office balcony.

Right across the street, hundreds of daily wage workers are scrambling for shelter at Mayur Vihar Labour Chowk.
They were fighting for a spot under trees and getting drenched.
Hoping someone, anyone, will hire them for the day.

These were people from Bihar - just like his uncle - stuck in the same cycle decades later.

So he quit his job.
Use all of his savings (INR 40,000 / $450).
Built Digital Labour Chowk.

—


🚨 But there's a problem in building for India's rural workforce:
→ Your users don't have smartphones. 
→ They don't trust apps. 
→ They've been scammed too many times. 
→ And they need work today, not tomorrow.

📍 So Chandrashekhar went to the labor chowks directly.
→ During the summer months he'd show up with 20-liter thermos jars of Roohafza.
→ During the winters he's show up with hot chai.
→ He'd sit with workers, one by one, and explain: this was legit, there's no registration fee, you'll get fair pay and you can find work without standing in the rain at 5 AM.
→ He partnered with local mobile shops to help workers register who didn't have smartphones.
→ Set up kiosks in populated districts.
→ Joined 100+ construction groups on Facebook to find contractors willing to try something new.


In 2022, they won the National Innovation Challenge by Hitachi Systems India Pvt Ltd and ₹30 lakh in seed funding.
They got recognition from Startup Bihar, Startup India and government grants started coming in.

🎁 Today, the platform has: 
→ 200,000+ registered workers 
→ 5,000+ companies hiring 
→ Operations in 27 states 
→ 1,000+ daily hires happening every single day

—

🌿 Re-post if this resonated. 
👉 I share weekly stories of impactful people, companies, and art. Join 34,000+ at Curious Maverick

India's first anti-aging tech isn't coming from pharma or biotech. It's coming from the person who delivers your food 🥗

Context: Earlier this month, Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato, sat down with Raj Shamani for a podcast. He was wearing a small silver device on his head.

Social media started asking:
“Is that gum?”
“External SSD?”
“A hidden mic?”
Turns out, it’s none of those.


📍What it is?
→ The device is called Temple
→ It's part of a ₹225 crore personal research project by Goyal
→ The device doesn’t track steps, calories, or your heart rate.
→ It tracks blood flow to your brain - continuously, in real time.
That’s it.

📍Why is he building this?
→ Goyal believes that gravity is making us age faster.
→ His “Gravity Ageing Hypothesis” suggests that because humans spend most of their lives upright, gravity constantly pulls blood away from our brain.
→ An aging brain accelerates aging across the entire body.

📍How does Temple help?
→ Temple uses advanced sensors and AI to monitor brain blood circulation through the day, with the goal of understanding mental fatigue, stress, focus, and cognitive performance.
→ This isn’t a fitness wearable. It’s an experimental brain-health monitor.

📍Now, the reality of this:
→ Temple is not FDA-approved yet.
→ It’s not peer-reviewed yet.
→ It’s not commercially available yet.
→ Doctors (including one from AIIMS Delhi) have publicly dismissed it as having no scientific standing.
→ Even Goyal has said openly that the Gravity Ageing Hypothesis could be wrong.


Curious to see how this turns out! What do you think? 👇

—

🌿 Re-post if this resonated. 
👉 I share weekly stories of impactful people, companies, and art. Join 34,000+ at Curious Maverick.

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The Battle

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