Company Info for intellecap.com | IcebreakerMembers
I have over two decades of experience at the intersection of business and development, in developing markets context. With domain expertise in microfinance, social entrepreneurship, and impact investments, I have established and led initiatives that further livelihoods, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, and gender inclusion.
I presently work with Value For Women, a global advisory firm, as Director for Strategy & Development. I serve as an Independent Director at Banka Bioloo Ltd. (NSE: BANKA), as an advisor to the Catalyst Group, as a member of the Investment Committee of the COVID Action Collaborative, and as a member of the Advisory Council at Social Lens Consulting.
From 2018 until 2020, I worked as an independent advisor to organisations such as the Catalyst Group (www.catalysts.org), Villgro, The Palladium Group, Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS), WeWorld GVC Onlus, amongst others. From 2016 to 2018 I worked with the British Asian Trust as its India Director. From 2004 until 2016, I worked at Intellecap, as Co-founder and Director-Sankalp Forum. Prior to Intellecap, I worked at CARE India in microfinance and livelihoods in the under-served states in India. I have a management degree from the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), India. I am also a Common Purpose UK Alumni. 
A proven track record of leading growth and driving impactful change across diverse organizations, from founding new ventures to leading global initiatives for Fortune 500 companies.
Most recently, as Head of People and Operations at Appsmith, a fully remote Series B SaaS startup (Accel, Canaan, Insight Partners), I led the rapid expansion of our team (from 67 to 150 employees across 14 countries). My priority was to ensure high talent density, high performance, and a collaborative environment for our remote and global team while keeping HR "right-sized" for the stage of our company.
As the size of the company and business model changed I was proactive about aligning our people practices and operations with the needs of the business. This means that I worked with my team to implement, update or overhaul, as needed, everything from the company handbook and PTO policy to payroll and benefits providers to performance reviews, recruiting technology, and onboarding templates.
Notable accomplishments include building out our GTM function from zero, navigating a 25% reduction in force while maintaining a strong employee satisfaction rating (above 4.5 stars on Glassdoor) and the successful execution of 4 off-sites to foster a high-performance culture in a remote environment. I also played a key role in recruiting and developing executive talent and supporting the launch of the executive team. My company-wide perspective allowed me to effectively identify and address operational misalignments and serve as an informal coach to the founders and executives, contributing to the overall effectiveness of the organization.
I am passionate about leveraging my unique blend of experience to help growth-stage companies build high-performing teams, cultivate thriving remote-first cultures, and achieve operational excellence. 
Ashish is a technical leader with hands-on experience in building software (backend, frontend, mobile apps, cryptocurrencies). His open-source work can be seen at https://github.com/ashishb.
Ashish has worked as the CTO of Center (NFT APIs-as-a-service) and Software Engineer at Celo (in cryptocurrencies), Facebook & WhatsApp (Android), and as a founding engineer on Google's Android app scanning product, called Google Bouncer (backend engineering). Ashish was a part of the Morta Security team that was acquired by Palo Alto Networks.
Ashish currently holds technical advisory roles at multiple startups, including Outdefine, Hood, Elucidate, and Stylework. He is an investor in 40+ startups with 9 exits. More of his technology work and blog posts can be seen at https://ashishb.net/about 
Being a strong believer in inclusive growth, I work in the impact investment sector that channels funding, among other resources, to the social entrepreneurship sector. Social enterprises work towards the betterment of the socioeconomically marginalized and are a cornerstone of an inclusive economy. It is my constant endeavour to closely engage with various social enterprises, gain deeper insights, and contribute meaningfully to the creation of an equitable society.
As the global head of private capital & impact investing at Abt Global Inc., I lead the firm's efforts in mobilizing private capital and structuring impact investments for various client projects and convening thought leadership activities to champion private capital as a tool for inclusive growth and social and economic well-being. My expertise spans fund structuring, investment management, portfolio management, and business operations while forging public-private partnerships between UN organizations, ministries, developmental institutions, and commercial investors.
Before joining Abt, I worked at Bamboo Capital Partners as the CEO & Director of the firm’s Asia operations and the fund manager for the BUILD Fund, a blended finance fund operated in partnership with the UN Capital Development Fund. I structured and launched the fund and successfully raised USD $60 million from six UN member states and development institutions. Prior to Bamboo, I was a Senior Investment Associate at Lok Capital, working on various equity and debt transactions across impact enterprises in the financial services, education, and healthcare sectors, and on fundraising. Between Lok and Bamboo, I had an operational stint with Forus Health, where I launched a services business vertical for the firm in India and Ethiopia. Versatile and resilient Chief of Staff and Technical Product Manager with a knack for strategy, communications, branding, coaching, and partnerships - usually found building early stage startups at the intersection of people, technology, education and community.
My work has been featured at conferences like SxSW Interactive, TED, TechCrunch Disrupt, Summit Series, University Recruiting Conference (URx), and Talent42 and on publications like Quartz, Vox, the LA Times, the Times of India. I’m a proud On Deck, Transcend, and StartingBloc fellow and alum of Write of Passage and Demand Curve.
Outside work, you’ll usually find me pining over real estate, interior design and architecture projects, making the best salads, practicing pilates, binging true white collar crime podcasts, and obsessing over all the personalities and breeds at the dog park.
I’ve traveled to 30+ countries on every continent except Antarctica and lived in India, Singapore, Bali, Brazil and Mexico. I'll be on my way to become a Brazilian and Italian citizen soon. I used to be an enthusiastic marathoner, triathlete, 60 passenger bus, stretch hummer limo and motorcycle driver, and now my back hurts.
If personality assessments are your jam:
● My Enneagram is Type 7: The Enthusiast and Type 8: The Challenger
● My StrengthsFinder is Individualization (identifying uniqueness in others), Ideation (brainstorming new ideas), Learner (learning new things), Restorative (offering guidance and solving problems), Input (collecting and archiving things)
● My TKI Conflict Mode assessment is Collaborating (8), meaning I tend to integrate the concerns of all parties, test assumptions, understand different views and perspectives, and work through hard feelings. I tend to uncover insights that find win-win solutions
● My Teal work styles assessment is Primary 1 and Secondary 2: starting tasks, operating at a fast pace, and balancing between people and results
● My astrological signs are Libra, moon in Gemini and Ascendant in Capricorn 
As a contributor to xAI's mission, I support the development of aligned, safe, and intelligent AI systems by shaping how models learn from real-world human behaviour and reasoning.
I am a strategic program manager operating at the intersection of technology and business, with 12+ years’ experience driving product strategy, discovery, and delivery for complex solutions in digital transformation and AI. Excel in defining roadmaps aligned with business goals, leading cross-functional teams in ideation/experiments, and ensuring measurable outcomes through data-driven insights. Skilled in stakeholder communication, root cause analysis, and integrating customer/user context to prioritise high-value features.
My leadership includes building innovation pipelines, managing $300K+ in budgets, generating $1M+ in revenue opportunities, and co-creating impact-driven solutions through 20+ design-thinking sprints. I’ve shaped GTM strategies, authored thought leadership, and cultivated partnerships across global startups, corporates, VCs, and academia. 
Hi, I’m Trisha, and I’m a D2C founder & investor. I was the COO of Dr. Vaidya’s and built it to India’s largest Ayurveda brand online. Our brand was recently acquired by RP Sanjiv Goenka Group – making it one of India’s first D2C exits.
I am passionate about the consumer landscape in India. Since the exit, I am an active angel investor and mentor to 40+ companies (select portfolio below) across consumer brands, consumer internet and enablement to ecommerce. I am also an advisor to Global Bees and Trell. If you’re a founder and just want to chat DM me (or email on trisha.rajani@gmail.com) - I'm happy to connect!
I also teach a cohort based course on D2C - join the next cohort here: http://growthschool.peek.link/2rr9
Prior to my experience with Dr. Vaidya’s, I did my undergrad at Warwick University. I then worked at Goldman Sachs in the UK for ~3 years. In 2014, I moved back to India and was fortunate to be a part of the early team at Nykaa – this is where I developed my passion for ecommerce, performance marketing and operations.
After my time at Nykaa, I worked as an impact investor at Intellecap until I joined Arjun at Dr. Vaidya’s.
At the company, we repackaged the ancient Indian science of Ayurveda for modern consumers and emerged as India’s largest Ayurveda brand online. In 4 years, we successfully reached 1.5m+ consumers across 500+ cities and 16,500+ pin codes in India and launched 80+ products (check them out on drvaidyas.com).
During my time at the company I spearheaded the entire operations function including day to day performance marketing, order management, warehousing, logistics and more. In March 2021, we exited the business to RP Sanjiv Goenka Group - making it one of India’s first successful D2C exits.
Outside work, I enjoy giving back to the ecosystem and have just developed a D2C mentorship program which we teach through Growthschool (here is the link to the next cohort: https://go.growthschool.io/d2c). I am also a voracious reader and weekend chef :) 
