In 2020, the pandemic resulted in a 55% dip in students traveling overseas to study. How did this university admissions platform grow by 4x even during these trying times?

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Our guest Akshay Chaturvedi, Founder and CEO of Leverage Edu has done it all!  
Today, Leverage Edu has over 3 Mn monthly users, 75,000+ 1:1 counseling sessions & 2000+ admission applicants, every month.

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Key takeaways from the episode

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• Why did Akshay decide to work at AIESEC before his MBA? Why did Akshay decide to pursue an MBA? How did his ISB experience shape him into the person he is today? Why did he decide to join Draper University? What was the experience like getting mentored by top VCs of Silicon Valley?
• How was it like landing a job at and working with one of the big four’s – KPMG? In just 7 months, Akshay received many awards here; how did he manage to create an impact in a short time? What is babajob.com? What was Akshay’s role here? How did he get invited by Hon’ble Prime Minister as part of Committee formed for #India2022 Policy Building?  
• What was the trigger that took Akshay from roles in various ventures to starting out on his own? What was Akshay’s first entrepreneurial stint? How was Akshay finding some of the best mentors like Vijay Shekhar Sharma to guide him?
• How was Leverage Edu conceptualized? Why did Akshay decide to pivot from a platform that connects students with mentors to a university admission platform? What motivated him to start a business in higher education?  
• How does Leverage Edu cater to the government’s changing policies? How did Covid impact their business operations? What is Uniconnect all about?  
• What was it like for Akshay to get his first fundraising round after 8 years? How does one get the ‘who’s who’ of the Indian startup ecosystem to invest in your startup? What is Akshay’s advice to budding entrepreneurs about fundraising?
• What got Akshay to start investing in startups? What is he looking for in startups? How does Akshay maintain a balance between multiple things while building a startup? Where does Akshay see Leverage Edu in the next 5 years?

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Vivek’s book recommendations

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• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight  
• The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone
• The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information by James Dale Davidson

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