Three-time CEO · Product builder
Three-time CEO · public markets, private equity, venture
Public markets
Kaspien · Nasdaq: KSPN · CEO 2019–2022
$2 → $52
Share price
Private equity
Beckett · PE-backed · CEO 2022–2024
10x → 25x
EBITDA multiple
Venture
Certivo · CEO 2024–Present
$6.3M
Raised
Today: CEO of Certivo, building CORA and the compliance intelligence layer for manufacturers.
I grew up in Mumbai. When I finished my engineering degree, I borrowed $10,000, bought a one-way ticket to the United States, and enrolled at Clemson on the waitlist for a scholarship I didn't yet have. Two weeks after I landed, the scholarship came through.
Everything since has been built the same way — on hard work, clear goals, and a refusal to wait for permission. I started as a software engineer at Microsoft, got curious about the business behind the technology, and spent the next two decades building products and then the companies around them: an MBA at Chicago Booth, hypergrowth at Groupon, GM roles at Microsoft and Amazon, a Nasdaq turnaround at Kaspien, a 25x private-equity valuation at Beckett, and now an AI company at Certivo.
The throughline never changes: find the inflection point, set the vision, build the team, and create lasting value.
Also founder of Coursetake, an AI-powered interview preparation platform.
The operating principles I bring into every room — and the framework my teams run on.
One accountable owner per outcome. Clear ownership beats shared ownership every time.
Debate hard, then align completely. Once we decide, everyone supports the call — even the people who argued the other way.
A wrong decision you learn from and pivot beats waiting for certainty that never comes.
Data makes the decision — not the loudest voice in the room. I'm relentlessly insights-driven.
Hire owners, give them real autonomy, and manage to outcomes — not activity.
There's no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone. I'm a lifelong learner and I build teams of them.
Early and often — good news and bad. An aligned team marches in one direction.
If you see something, say something. Push the red button; don't wait for it to grow.
Push back, ask the hard questions, keep it centered on the customer's goals — never personal.
Three companies. Three different ownership structures. One repeatable pattern: turn a services business into a technology platform, and create measurable value doing it.
Three modes of value creation — a turnaround, a transformation, and a 0-to-1.
Before the CEO chairs — proof I can scale a business, not just fix or found one.
Microsoft's jobs, skills, and employability business was generating revenue but had stalled — no new products in two years and flat growth. The mandate: reignite it and take it global.
Consolidated fragmented, custom-built offerings into a single platform — Microsoft Learn — driving down per-unit development cost.
Expanded distribution into new B2C (free) and B2B segments: government, secondary education, higher education, and corporations.
Launched a new “Employability” product and shipped the first new product in six months, after a two-year drought.
Stood up a product-management function and a startup-style innovation lab, and leveraged the gig economy to cut operating cost 20%.
Took the business international across the US, UK, Africa, and Australasia.
Doubled a previously flat $100M+ business — 100% top-line growth.
Cut operating costs 20% while expanding into new segments and regions.
Won two company Gold Star Awards for innovation.
Two decades from software engineer to three-time CEO — every role, every degree, and every board seat, in one place.
Public markets · private equity · venture.
Building CORA, a deterministic AI compliance assistant for manufacturers — REACH, RoHS, PFAS, TSCA, Prop 65. A PSL spinout backed by Suffolk Technologies, Fortive, and the AI Studio Fund.
Read the case study →Transformed a private-equity collectibles platform from a services business into a technology company — building roughly $40M of SaaS ARR and lifting valuation from a 10× to a 25× EBITDA multiple.
Read the case study →Joined as CEO of etailz in 2019; named CEO of the Nasdaq-listed parent, Trans World Entertainment, in 2020 — divesting FYE's 2,000+ retail stores and rebranding the company as Kaspien. Led the public-market turnaround from a $2 low to a $52 peak, with four consecutive profitable quarters and $1B+ in lifetime marketplace sales.
Read the case study →Took over Microsoft's jobs, skills, and employability business. Centralized fragmented offerings into Microsoft Learn, doubled a previously flat top line, and expanded into new B2C and B2B segments across the US, UK, Africa, and Australasia.
Ran the Shoes business inside Amazon Fashion — rebuilt how customers shopped for shoes on Amazon, drove new-brand development, and built a partnership with Zappos, all while holding operating margins.
Venture-backed eSports platform. Promoted from GM of Operations to COO within six months; built the operating org across four countries, took revenue from zero to $10M, and helped raise two rounds of growth capital. (Investors included Ashton Kutcher.)
Joined during Groupon's hypergrowth era to consolidate 34 acquired systems into a single global marketplace — rolling the platform out across 34 countries, on time and 70% under budget.
Started straight out of grad school and grew into engineering management across Office, Dynamics Online, and the Windows Store — shipping products through three platform shifts. Won two company innovation awards.
GSD Venture Studios
Where the profitable automation projects actually sit in a physical-industry company: the unglamorous back-office workflows, starting with supply-chain compliance, and how to run them to the P&L.
Watch
Compliance and AI · Compliance Podcast Network
With host Tom Fox: why compliance decides which markets a manufacturer can enter, and how AI turns rule tracking and supplier evidence from a reactive burden into a growth function.
Watch
Shift AI Podcast
How AI agents are evolving from assistants into teammates and automating product compliance for manufacturers.
Watch