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I was born and brought up in a small city in India where I first hand witnessed disparity between different classes of society. 

In the first few years of my professional career, I tried to bridge those disparities by using the power of finance in catalyzing urban reform. I worked with Governments and Multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to set up financial institutions committed to developing smart infrastructure in Africa and Southeast Asia.

A firm believer in capital for social good and equitable education for every child, I later helped raise funds from individuals, corporations, and foundations for a global nonprofit. My passion for creating social change drove me towards setting up two non-profit organizations that work towards empowering the underprivileged community. 

In 2019, I was selected as a part of the LGT fellowship cohort- a group of ten changemakers working around the globe to help create social change. In late 2020, I got sold on the promise of decentralization and permissionless systems spent the next year or so building multiple onchain products and communities. The products I've built have won grants from foundations of all major blockchains.

My vision for the next decade is to build at the frontier of technology and create protocols and structures to bring India and the world onchain.

When I am not talking about bringing the world onchain or sustainable social impact, I am talking about football, rock music, or my cross-country travels. 

Interested in knowing more, ping me on twitter @saxenasaheb and we’ll set up some time to chat.

Saumya Saxena

I am a Strategic Operations & Growth Leader with 6+ years of experience building, scaling, and transforming startups across  EdTech, Const-Tech, and consumer products. My expertise lies in driving zero-to-one product journeys, Strategic Operational Excellence, Stakeholder Management, Program Management, and Large-scale Program Execution.

Current Role – ByteXL
Leading Strategy & Growth, managing 30+ full-time team and delivering tech education programs for 10,000+ students across multiple engineering streams.
Designed and scaled KPI-driven performance models, placement-readiness initiatives, and platform adoption frameworks.
Driving university partnerships, academic delivery excellence, and operational efficiency at scale.

Entrepreneurial Leadership – Sqilco (CEO)
Built an industry-led skilling platform, connecting students with mentors & real-world projects.
Spearheaded program design, go-to-market, partnerships, and execution, creating a new model for employability-focused learning.

Founder’s Office – AccioJob 
Worked closely with founders to shape product strategy, growth levers, and cross-functional execution.
Owned initiatives around launching new program, learning outcomes, and scaling placement-focused programs.

Founding Team – Project Hero (ConstrucTech)
Cracked one of India’s toughest unstructured markets (construction workforce).
Scaled the platform to 400K+ users in 8 months via rapid experiments, GTM, and product-market fit initiatives.
Enabled a $3.2M seed fundraise, directly collaborating with CEO & COO on strategy and operations.

Early Career – PM & Analytics Roles
WittyFeed (Product Analytics): Built strong foundations in data-driven product strategy, user behavior insights, and growth analytics.
Program Manager: Directed end-to-end program management, delivery, and stakeholder coordination, ensuring execution aligned with business objectives and strategic goals.

Community Impact
Speaker, Judge, and Mentor at 60+ hackathons & events PAN India, enabling young innovators, developers, and entrepreneurs.

Core Strengths:
Zero-to-One Scaling | Strategy & Growth | Founder’s Office | EdTech Strategy | Startup Operations | Program Management | GTM | Stakeholder Management | Product-Led Growth | Data-Driven Decision Making | Fundraising Enablement | Leadership & People Management | Program Delivery Excellence

📧 gurtejsinghmrt8@gmail.com
🌐 Portfolio: http://gurtejsingh.strikingly.com

Gurtej Singh

The degree is officially dead. The portfolio is the new degree.

In 2025, we asked - Can you do the job? 

In 2026, we are asking - Can you prove you did the job?

I’ve been looking at the hiring trends for Q1, and the shift is brutal but necessary.

The era of Pedigree Hiring (schools, ex-companies, titles) is ending. The era of Evidence Hiring is here. Why? Because AI Agents can now pass the exams. AI can write the cover letter. AI can polish the CV.

But AI cannot (yet) navigate a messy client meeting, handle a crisis, or navigate complex office politics to get a deal done.

If you are hiding behind a certificate, you are in the danger zone. If you are building a portfolio of outcomes, you are untouchable.

The new career moat isn't what you know. It’s what you can ship.

#FutureOfWork #CareerAdvice #AI #HiringTrends #2026

Executive Leader in Strategy, Operations & Growth | Founder’s Office Experience | Driving Zero-to-One Scaling in Startups & EdTech

Building from 0 to 1 is Art. Scaling from 1 to 100 is War

I’ve stood on both sides of the table. I’ve worn the Founder hat, where you survive on adrenaline and caffeine. And now, I wear the Strategy hat, where you survive on negotiation and alignment.

People think it’s the same game. It isn't.

The Founder Mode Reality (0 to 1) - When I was part of the founding team at my previous startup, we didn't have a roadmap. We had a mission. We sprinted. We broke things. And that controlled chaos helped us scale the platform to 400,000+ users in just 8 months. It was messy, it was emotional, and it was pure gut feeling.

The Strategy Reality (1 to 100) - Now, wearing Strategy hat with a 30+ member team, I spend less time on google sheet and more time in the trenches with people.

My job isn't just to build strategy. My job is to be the Translator. I have to translate the Founder's vision into language the team understands, and translate the User's frustration into data the board respects. If I fail at the product, we lose a feature. If I fail at stakeholder management, we lose the vision.

Founding is about starting the fire. Strategy is about keeping it burning without burning down the house.

To all my fellow builders and scalers - Do you prefer the chaos of 0-1 or the complexity of 1-100?

The Correction Was Necessary. The Indian EdTech Market is Finally Growing Up.

If you only follow the funding news, you might think Indian EdTech is shrinking. You would be wrong.

The market isn't contracting; it is structurally pivoting.

We have moved past EdTech 1.0 (Customer Acquisition at all costs) to EdTech 2.0 (Outcomes and Sustainability).

As we analyze the landscape for FY25-26, the data points to a massive capital and strategic migration from B2C (Direct-to-Consumer) to B2B (Institutional Partnerships).

Here is the strategic breakdown of why the B2B EdTech Spring is here:

1) The Supply-Side Shift (B2C vs. B2B) The Funding Winter was largely a B2C phenomenon.

Data: Between FY21 and FY24, the number of active B2B EdTech companies in India surged from 2,190 to ~3,370, while pure-play B2C models faced consolidation.

Strategy: Smart capital is chasing Unit Economics. B2B partnerships with colleges offer a captive audience, significantly lowering Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) and increasing Lifetime Value (LTV) compared to the high-burn B2C model.

2) The Employability Gap is the Total Addressable Market (TAM) The product is no longer content; the product is employability.

Data: According to recent skills reports, only ~42-55% of Indian graduates are considered "employable" for the modern workforce.

Strategy: This 50% gap is the new battleground. Colleges are under immense pressure (NIRF rankings, NAAC accreditation) to fix placement stats. They cannot do this alone. B2B players offering Industry-Integrated curriculums—specifically in AI, Cloud, and Data—are becoming critical infrastructure, not just vendors.

3) The Phygital Moat Pure online learning hit a ceiling with low completion rates (~3-5% for MOOCs).

Strategy: The winning model for 2026 is Hybrid Infrastructure. It's about taking the best digital curriculum and deploying it within the physical discipline of a campus lab.

Forecast: The Indian EdTech market is projected to reach $29-30 Billion by 2030 (CAGR ~25%). The lion’s share of this value will be captured by platforms that successfully integrate with the 52,000+ colleges and universities in India, rather than trying to bypass them.

The era of disrupting the college is over. The era of powering the college has begun.

For strategy leaders in this space, the metric to watch this year isn't Registered Users (vanity metric). It is Institutional Retention and Placement Outcomes. The companies that solve the employability equation at scale will define the next decade of Indian education.

#EdTechStrategy #B2B #HigherEd #MarketAnalysis #IndiaBusiness #FutureOfWork

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Gurtej Singh

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