I’m currently reimagining waste and poverty at Without (by Ashaya) in Pune, India.
Without is a sustainable materials and products company that uses deep tech to turn “impossible-to-recycle” plastic waste into high-quality materials, while upskilling and formalising waste-pickers into dignified, better-paid jobs.
Let’s Benjamin-Button the rest.
2021 | Pune, MH, India
This is where I am building Without. Lots to do, long way to go.
2020 | Maharashtra, India
After over 20 years, I was back in India. But I knew very little about my country. So, 2020 was all about understanding it better. And figuring out what I was going to start here.
Waste management started to make a lot of sense because it lay at the intersection of poverty and untapped potential. To learn more about it, I volunteered to help a non-profit called CARPE in Aurangabad. Yes, back to where it all started – a full circle of sorts.
I helped CARPE figure out their scaling strategy and helped them streamline their finances among other things. In return, I learnt about how waste management works here in India. A three-week project morphed into something a lot more meaningful and now I am a part of their team as a director on their board.
While that was happening, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. So, I got together with a long lost friend and we built an interactive dashboard that isolated the most economically vulnerable states in India during the COVID-19 crisis based on 15 relevant indicators. Based on that, we directed donations to local, grassroots organizations in the most vulnerable states. We recommended over Rs. 20 lakhs to effective charities in economically vulnerable states.
And all the while, things started making sense and I started laying the groundwork of what I wanted to start.
Second Half of 2019 | London, UK
Having a decent understanding of the impact space, I thought it was time to upskill. So, I headed to London to do a 3-month immersive bootcamp in Data Science through General Assembly. It was quite an intense course in which we learnt how to code in Python and build machine learning algorithms.
Essentially, it demystified artificial intelligence for me and fuelled my geekiness around data, while crashing on my best friend’s couch.
First Half of 2019 | Nairobi, Kenya
Next stop was East Africa. I went there as a fellow of the Amani Institute. Besides building an excellent network of like-minded social workers, I also got a chance to work deeply with two social entrepreneurs.
One was with the founder of Livelyhoods, a social enterprise tackling urban poverty through job creation. I helped streamline their operations and their finances, building models and dashboards to improve transparency and accountability.
The other was the founder of Bridge For Change, a non-profit based in Tanzania that focuses on empowering and education youth. There, we tried to reduce dependency on donors by creating a new program that could serve as an alternative source of revenue. I currently serve as a director on their board.
At this point, I started gaining confidence that I could do this too – I could be a social entrepreneur.
2017 – 2018 | Xela, Guatemala
I quit Corporate America to pursue purpose. My first stop was Xela, a small suburban city in Central America where I worked for Alterna, a non-profit that cultivated local social entrepreneurs.
There, I worked with over 15 entrepreneurs (largely early-stage, social entrepreneurs), guiding, and cultivating them in financial, marketing and social impact-related concepts. I helped structure and model our first impact investing fund (US$500k) and also developed content and curriculum for our incubation workshops. My final hurrah there was to negotiate, design, build and implement single-handedly the entire internal digital infrastructure and operations of the company. I now serve on their Advisory Board.
Most importantly, I learnt a ton about social entrepreneurship and the social impact space. And a new language.
2014 – 2017 | New York, NY, USA
I got relocated out to New York City as a Senior Analyst, and I thought my dreams had come true.
A couple of quick promotions saw me become a Director of Finance at iHeartMedia within two years. They empowered me to start & lead a centralized finance, operations and strategy team of 6 employees (started off with 2, and grew to 6 within 14 months), reporting directly to the CFO of the iHeartMedia Markets Group which covered ~$2.4 billion in annual revenue. We built, managed, and pioneered a multitude of finance and operations-related tech projects.
We did well as a team, thriving monetarily in a cut-throat space while constantly sparring with burnout. Meanwhile, I was borderline depressed, questioning everything.
2012 – 2014 | San Antonio, TX, USA
Decided to join the B-school rat race and ended up with a job at iHeartMedia as a Financial Analyst, plus, more crucially, an H1-B visa. My finance skills got properly groomed here.
I assisted on a ~$400M divestiture with financial modelling, process and operational support that involved 411 assets across 158 markets. Also analysed and modelled over 70 investment opportunities totalling over $800M in funding requests. I also lead the capital expenditure management process (capex budget at ~$250M), along with ad-hoc deep-dives in select opportunities.
Basically, I learned a ton.
2007 – 2012 | Austin, TX, USA
Had the fortune to go study at The University of Texas at Austin for five years. I ended up with a BBA in Finance, a BSc in Sports Management, and a minor in MIS, in addition to having a ton of fun. I also might or might not have been the President of the Indian Students Association for a bit, while student-managing the Women’s Soccer Team.
1998 – 2007 | Dubai, UAE
I spent my formative years studying ICSE and ISC (Indian Education Boards) in Dubai. Yes, an Indian education at an Indian school (GEMS Modern Academy) in the Middle East. That’s just how it was there. And if you’re curious, yes I succumbed to the logic of taking the “Science” stream.
1989 – 1998 | Aurangabad, MH, India
I spent my first nine years in a small semi-urban city in Maharashtra. I played cricket in chappals on the streets while also going to a preppy new school called Nath Valley, where I got wonderfully spoilt under the shadow of my elder sister, who ended up being the School Captain there, and my hero.
For a way more detailed, resume-y, narcissistically-thorough version of all this, go here.