Describe yourself in three words or phrases.
Builder, learner, and a nine-year-old CEO at IvySchool.ai, an AI upskilling ed-tech platform.
What do you like most about your job?
I like it most when I can see successful outcomes of my work such as when I see a high school student get into their dream college or university or when a college student lands their dream job. One student, one acceptance letter, one life that looks different. I don’t need a bigger reason than that. That moment is the whole job.
Describe a project or initiative you’re currently working on that excites you.
There are three things I’m working on right now that I genuinely can’t stop thinking about.
I’m taking students from Indian colleges who graduated without a single job offer and giving them a real path in. We train them in AI through IvySchool.ai and help prepare them for their first roles.
I’m also working to expand access to AI education through partnerships with educational institutions.
And I’m writing a book. The 10-Year-Old CEO. Everything I’ve figured out about starting a company — the mistakes, the wins, the things nobody tells you. Writing it so that other kids actually believe it’s possible. If one kid reads it and decides to build something, that’s enough.
What’s a piece of work you’re proud of and what did it teach you?
I am proud of building the IvySchool.ai AI tutor. It sits on the student course dashboard and understands where they are in their course and serves as a teaching assistant to address student questions when they need help. I built the IvySchool.ai AI tutor in Python and used large language models to power it. It taught me that if I roll-my-sleeves-up, I can make a big impact; the AI tutor helps students get just-in-time answers and help teachers reduce their workloads, so they don’t get burnt out.
What’s a small daily habit that helps you in your work?
I use a process I learned from The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch called HIIT (High Intensity Interval Timeboxing). I take a task, say a piece of marketing, give it 15 minutes of complete focus, then pivot to the next one. This helps me be more productive by staying laser-focused and knocking out tasks in rapid succession.
What’s one change you’d like to see in your sector over the next few years?
I want to see AI help education become hyper-personalised. Every student gets a completely different experience based on who they are; different pace, different content, different examples. Not what the average student needs, what that specific student needs. AI handles that. It figures out exactly where you are and what you need next, updated in real time. AI should also free teachers up to focus on what only a human can do; the hard question, the complex concept, the moment that actually changes how a student thinks. That’s the change I want to see.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone starting out in this field?
If I were to give advice to a young entrepreneur considering starting a startup, I would say these three things:
1) Don’t wait until you think you’re ready. You will never feel ready. I didn’t feel ready when I registered my first domain. I didn’t feel ready when I had to explain what artificial intelligence was to adults twice my age. I didn’t feel ready when I sat in front of a computer learning Python while my friends were playing games. But I did it anyway and that is the only reason IvySchool.ai exists today.
2) Listen to your customers. Not to confirm what you already believe, but to understand what they actually need. Ask questions. Sit with the answers even when they challenge your original vision. Then align everything you do around delivering that value, not the value you assumed they wanted, but the value they told you they needed.
3) Enjoy it. You are building something from nothing. Most people spend their whole lives thinking about starting. You have already started. That makes you different from almost everyone.
