The Global Citizen

Leverage was inspired by my parents' journey & early experiences at AIESEC etc, which made "migration" and "access to education" the most important themes of my life. At ISB in 2014, Leverage was my "Entrepreneurship Project", which later made it to the bootcamp/fellowship at Draper University in Silicon Valley in summer '15. What had started as a passion project, finally became a company in 2017." AKSHAY CHATURVEDI.FOUNDER & CEO, LEVERAGE EDU & FLY.FINANCE

Akshay Chaturvedi is an animal of hustle. That's how one of his board members A describes him, referencing Paul Graham of YCombinator's famous cliche on "beast/ obsessive founder".  Playing all in all day all night long. His long wooden room right at the center of LeverageEdu's three-floor 1500-seater HQ in Noida is a scene right out of the Hollywood movie Beautiful Mind or Wolf of Wall Street, whichever you choose to remember.

There are a gazillion numbers, funnel flowcharts, and insights written in both English and Hindi, across every possible wall of the room. And then there are white chart papers across a stretch, columns stacked with names of unfamiliar localities across India, and more numbers below them. "I like writing a lot, this serves as our War/ Let's Get This! room", says Akshay Chaturvedi. For this interview, he used a green marker and explained things while drawing on the table we sat on.

He uses the words "student-first" and "consumer insights" over and over again. The obsession is impossible to kshay Chaturvedi is an animal of hustle. That's how one of his board members miss!

As you climb up the stairs, a big board stares right at you, it has about 50 odd faces, and is titled "Owners at Leverage". I began my first question by asking what's that? "We are very intentional about treating people well, they are the soul of this company. At the same time, there has to be a meritorious call out for those who excel, and hence we have awarded ESOPs to our top 5-7% team base. Of course, we want more folks to grab it up!" While ESOP rewards aren't anything new, how they are celebrated at this company is definitely rare. Interestingly, the company likes to use the word team/teammates and not employees, a proud Leveragian tells me. Another staircase up, there are another 100 faces beaming up, winners of Leverage's famous TGIS events.