Stoa School

**How did I help build a business vertical from scratch?**

* **Build a product that people want**

  * Research around Finance

  * KPMG partnership

  * Curriculum design

  * Website content

  * Get Finance partners onboard - negotiating terms

  * Setup a CRM - NPF

* **Marketing**

  * Strategise a campaign from scratch

  * Application Form

  * Build ads

  * Press release

  * Email cadence + value add mails for lead nurturing

  * Plan events - what does it take to to execute high quality online events?

  * Plan competitions/Employability Tests

  * Partner with 3rd party vendors - Catking,

  * Video Scripting

  * Research for Podcast

  * Brochure

    —> Lead Generation

    —> Lead Nurturing

    —> Lead Conversion

* **Sales & Admissions**

  * Pitch + FAQs

  * Work with the Sales team to understand ground reality and generate insights

  * Interview & Screen candidates

    * Understand problems in detail

    * Create and improve ads + other marketing collaterals

  * Build & send offer letter

  * Follow up for admissions fee payment

  * Term 0 for converted students to avoid drop-off

  * Send a gift box to enrolled students

  * Send Orientation mail and start full fee collections

    * One Time Payment

    * no-Cost EMI/Loan

  * Plan Orientation

  * Onboarding forms

  * Handover data to Programs team

* **Working with other Teams**

  * Understand iterations in the program & update website + messaging across collaterals

  * Build program videos explaining key offerings

  * Interview Placed students - testimonials on websites + other collaterals

* **Build Internal Products - Dinero**

  * Move from Spreadsheets to Product

  * Integrate CRM with internal product

  * Build dashboards to understand performance of interviewers, counsellors

  * Interviewer Dashboard - give feedback to students based on which scholarship is calculated

  * Integrate & Send offer letter

  * Programme + Cohort wise dashboards

  * Offers sent vs conversions

  * Track pending payments

  * Mark dropouts in case of any

  * Expense Management

**Community Building**

* Building external communities that helps build trust

* Curating content for HR, Product, Finance & Design

* 1:1 calls for onboarding and men toring

**Programme Management**

* Planning new cohorts

* Coordination with Tech/Design Teams

**Team Management**

**Hiring**

* Identifying roles

* Building JDs

* Building functional competencies

* Screening & Hiring

* Create assignments for specific roles

* Prep for interview - asking the right functional and behavioural questions

**People Management**

* Task Allocation

* Providing feedback and necessary approvals

* 1:1 meetings with all employees

* Feedback to higher management

* Championing leaders to make myself redundant

* Brainstorming sessions for idea generation and execution

* Team activities to keep morale high

Masters' Union

We watch and learn by imitating others, and the most important thing we learn from others is desire. Rene Girard, a French Historian, Philosopher, and Stanford Professor spent his life around decoding human desires.

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                                           **Mimetic desire sits at the intersection**

**Why do we want specific things, objects, and people? This theory managed to answer some hard questions and constantly challenged my assumptions.**

### The Big Idea

Think of two kids and two identical toys.

One child picks up one toy, and immediately the other child has the unquenchable desire to take away that toy, ignoring the identical one right next to it.\
This is a mimetic desire. We’re all guilty of doing this in one form or the other. Most of us anyway.

**We want what others want. We want it because they want it.**

> Girard believed that human development occurs initially through a process of observational mimicry, where the infant develops desire through a process of learning to copy adult behaviour, fundamentally linking acquisition of identity, knowledge and material wealth to the development of a desire to have something others possess.
>
> \- Wikipedia

There was this widespread assumption that our desire is authentic and our own. Beyond food, shelter, sleep, and sex all our desires are adopted by observing the desires of other people.

To learn, a human needs a model; but as he copies his model, he also copies his model’s desires. Desire is triangular: it is a relationship not merely between a desirer and an object, but between an observer, a model, and the model’s object of desire.

[More here](https://mellowisdom.substack.com/p/mimetic-desires-) ....

How Rene Girard can help us to understand the world?

Educator & Writer

Learning how to learn

My take on how people today merely succumb to the social media mandate of posting birthday messages just to be relevant.

Are Instagram birthday posts genuine displays of affection or social obligations?

Curated a weekly newsletter for one of the top VC communities in India along with long form articles

Long form articles:

1. [What do Zappos, Amazon and CRED have in common?](https://www.offline.club/blog/creating-thriving-work-environment)

2. [India's Sexual Wellness Landscape](https://www.offline.club/blog/the-dynamics-of-indias-sexual-wellness-landscape) 

3. [The Rise of Astrotourism in India](https://www.offline.club/blog/beyond-the-earthly-horizon-the-rise-of-astrotourism-in-india)

Newsletter

Idea Generation Workshop for Marketers

Resume Building Workshop

Building a Portforlio that gets you noticed

Volunteer

I wore a number of different hats in a wide range of roles, from Program Management to Recruiting, Training, and Curriculum Development as the first Learning Experience team member at Stoa School

I curated, developed, and led the first 6-month program offered by Stoa

I worked with global experts in Economics, Marketing, Product, Branding, Operations, and Management to help Stoa scale to more than 300 learners

I led the hiring process for about 50 instructors and managed relationships for Stoa's faculty pool. I screened 100+ applicants, conducted interviews via video and phone

I developed, improved, and designed Stoa’s training and onboarding processes for facilitators to reduce their prep time

Learning Experience Designer

I've been building & Marketing cohort-based courses at Masters' Union since its inception in 2021.

Hybrid Programs at Masters' Union began in 2021 as an experiment: How do we get people placed at top companies and startups at a fraction of the cost of Masters degrees?

By 2023, we’ve run 25 cohorts of various courses such as Finance, Product, Content Creators and Design. Close to 2000 students from all over India (120+ cities) enrolled in our programs, connecting with like-minded people, and elevating their careers through these skill-based courses.

As the first person on the team - I helped:

* scaled the vertical to 75 Cr in revenue in less than 2 years
* lead the Marketing team for Executive-MBA & Online programs
* hired top talent and managed a team of 10
* strategise for new programs and iterate on the existing

Head of Marketing, MasterCamps

* Curated and organised 15 highly sought after workshops at the India Art Fair, drawing over 400 participants in 3 days.

* Collaborated with renowned artists, educators, researchers, and other accomplished practitioners to bring these workshops to life.

* Played a key role in developing and implementing the workshop strategy, managing operations, and driving marketing initiatives.

* Developed a deep appreciation for the Art World's committed focus on meticulous craftsmanship, passion, love, genuine care, and the profound impact of acts of kindness.

Workshop Curator

Led the data collection phase for Aon Hewitt's Best Employers Asia program for more than 500 clients across 15 different countries

Analysed the engagement level of the employees of 100+ clients and developed an action plan for them to improve employee engagement

Also worked on a project with AON Strategic Advisors to assist in the implementation of the NCF initiative for the ICT sector in Egypt to improve employment in the country

Consulting Operations Analyst

Working on Voice of Art, a practice-based research challenge in the Visual Arts field, offering participants the opportunity to engage with various visual arts forms. The project at Nirmal Bharti School Delhi aims to promote diverse perspectives and encourage ‘different ways of seeing’ in school students across ages.

Vaibhav

2023

2022

2021