Network Capital

Samar is an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School. His professional experience spans banking, film making and entrepreneurship.

He produced Nanak Shah Fakir (NSF), a first-of-its-kind film on the life and teachings of Guru Nanak, the
founder of the Sikh faith. NSF was awarded three National awards including the Best Feature Film on National Integration by the Hon’ble President of India. Samar has worked extensively with Academy award & Grammy award winners in producing NSF, which has been critically acclaimed worldwide including at the Cannes, Los Angeles and Toronto Film Festivals.

Post NSF, Samar co-founded Arteree, a startup at the intersection of entertainment, media &
technology, focused on creating a global collaborative platform for the discovery & promotion of Indian performing arts and artists.

Samar started his career in banking working with BNP Paribas, Barclays and Yes Bank before exploring the entrepreneurial path. He is a keen technology & new media enthusiast with a vision to pioneer community driven learning models spanning the arts, education and technology.

Aayush cracked 750 in his 4th GMAT attempt and made it to Columbia Business School. His journey to business school is one of grit and resilience coupled with clarity of thought. Hear from Aayush in his own words.

""I was born in Madhya Pradesh and grew up in a middle class home in Gurgaon. I went for high school to DPS Vasant Kunj (New Delhi) where my aptitude for Science and Mathematics led me to a formal education in Engineering. I graduated from Manipal Institute of Technology (Karnataka) in 2012, but since I was more interested in the business side of things, I ended up working in sales (B2B) at Philips from 2012-15. Here, I formulated and delivered on a two year business roadmap for a previously underperforming territory, resulting in 40% sales CAGR and 80% growth in market share. I absolutely loved my experience of stakeholder management and building new partnerships, but my passion for learning new disciplines brought me to Ashoka University where I studied Liberal Arts (Young India Fellowship), graduating in 2016. The Fellowship was the turning point of my life (both professionally and personally). As a part of the curriculum, I worked on a year-long project in rural India to uplift a low-cost school. By partnering with several education organizations to bring about a meaningful change in the school's curriculum, I learned how the private sector can play an equally significant role as the government in driving social change. This brought me to FSG (US based impact consulting firm) where I spearheaded the fundraising, marketing, and dissemination of a $16 million program to improve education in 300K low cost schools in India. Through pitching our program to 100+ funders and interacting with several key players in education, I learned about the challenges and opportunities in the Indian education system. Driven by my passion and experience of the transformative capacity of education, my ultimate goal is to start my own consulting firm that will help education based social enterprises in India address ecosystem barriers so that they can focus on affordable, quality education for low-income schools. I am currently headed to Columbia Business School for an MBA to hone my strategic thinking and problem solving skillset and to get a global perspective on the education space. Outside of professional setting, I am an avid fan of Tennis, which I enjoy both playing and watching. I have also been recently bitten by the travel bug, having traveled to 34 cities in 8 countries in the past 9 months."

Abhilasha is currently the VP of Strategy and Operations at Elucidata, a Delhi & Cambridge based startup, building an AI-enabled platform for the biopharma industry to enhance drug development. Prior to this, she worked at a strategy & innovation consulting firm, Innosight, advising Fortunate 100 clients in the healthcare sector. Earlier in her career, she was part of the founding team of Avanti Learning Centres, where she built and led teams across product and operations to deliver high-quality and affordable math and science programs across the country.

She graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi.

In this podcast, she talks about the key inflection points in her career, journey to Harvard Business School and life after graduation. It is essential content for anyone thinking about business school and exploring how meaningful career choices are made.

This is the recording of the MBA panel with alums from Harvard Business School, Chicago Booth, INSEAD, LBS and Wharton.

It covers the following:

1. What is an MBA and who is it for?
2. What is the right time to apply?
3. GMAT preparation strategy
4. Essay writing strategy
5. Cracking the interview
6. Thinking about life post MBA

Manu S Pillai is the author of the critically acclaimed The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore (2015) and Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji (2018). Formerly chief of staff to Shashi Tharoor MP, he is also a winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar (2017). His other essays and writings have appeared in Mint Lounge, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Open Magazine, The New Statesman, and other publications. The Courtesan, the Mahatma & the Italian Brahmin is Manu's third book, and a collection of essays on Indian history. 

In this Network Capital podcast, Manu reflects on his journey as a writer, key inflection points in his career and the art of making your passion your profession. Riddled with historical anecdotes and colorful stories, this podcast is essential for anyone interested in history, public policy and writing.

In this podcast, two Columbia Business School alumni - Prateek and Neha, share their application strategy and demystify the MBA experience.

Mishaal is a lawyer by profession and an entrepreneur by nature. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Plane Crazy, a full-service creative consulting agency, and the CEO and Founder of 405 Analytics that harnesses the full potential of data and uses analytics to boost revenues by providing valuable insights into markets and consumers. He is extremely interested in technology and currently leads the technology team at Plane Crazy with a focus on web development and augmented reality. In 2018, he was admitted to the Harvard Business School 2+2 program for the MBA program.

In this podcast, Mishaal shares how he cracked the HBS 2+2 MBA program. Listen carefully and make notes as he talks about GMAT, essays and interview preparation. You will also learn about the guiding principles of Mishaal's career, his entrepreneurial journey and vision for future.