He Sold A Company To Blackboard And Is Now Building An AI Platform To Offer Companies A Suite Of Tools To Streamline Content Creation And Business Workflows

Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride, and few have navigated its twists and turns with as much grit and adaptability as Vikram Shekhawat. His journey is a testament to resilience, learning, and an unwavering vision when building, scaling, and exiting his many startups.

In this riveting interview, Vikram talks in detail about launching his first startup at the age of 20, exiting a multimillion-dollar company, and now riding the incredible world of AI with ModalX, a cutting-edge AI-powered platform.

Listen to the full podcast episode and review the transcript here.

Roots of an Entrepreneur: A Journey from Punjab to Startups

Born into an army family in Punjab, India, Vikram’s early years were shaped by constant movement. Every three years, his father’s postings would take the family to a new city, requiring Vikram to adapt to a new circle, build new relationships, and find focus amid change.

Most of Vikram’s education was in Army school, and he graduated with a BBA. He also did his master’s at Symbiosis, one of India’s best colleges. While his upbringing exposed him to diverse cultures, it did not immediately instill an entrepreneurial drive.

“I wasn’t surrounded by ambitious people early on,” Vikram recalls. “That delayed my entry into entrepreneurship. The right environment is crucial.” Despite this, he found his calling and finally connected with like-minded, ambitious individuals.

This pivotal moment led Vikram to launch his first venture, CrushAider, at 20.

CrushAider: A Personal Problem Turned Startup

CrushAider was an innovative dating platform designed to help people anonymously express their feelings. Vikram, a self-described shy individual, recognized that many others faced the same struggles in expressing romantic interest.

His solution? A platform where users could anonymously indicate their feelings and be matched if the interest was mutual. It effectively eliminated three fears people had–fear of change in relationship dynamics, fear of embarrassment, and fear of rejection in front of others.

The idea quickly gained traction, reaching 600,000 users in six months—a remarkable feat in India’s early internet days. However, despite the rapid growth, Vikram faced his first major entrepreneurial lesson: raising capital requires more than just user acquisition.

“When we met VCs, I thought I knew what I was doing, but I had zero understanding of future planning,” he admits. “The only thing I knew was how to acquire more users.”

In retrospect, Vikram concedes that he should have highlighted key assets like the team, projections, and the product-market fit, demonstrating how their product could solve the problem better than anyone else in the market.

The lack of preparedness led to missed investment opportunities, and coupled with high server costs, CrushAider was shelved. However, the experience laid the foundation for future ventures.

As Vikram points out, platforms like Bumble and Tinder arrived on the block in 2014-2015 and quickly became billion-dollar companies while they had a similar concept way back in 2009. He was still in college at the time and lacked the experience to run companies.

Scaling Up: Bschool and the First Exit

Armed with lessons from CrushAider, Vikram launched Bschool, a platform that provided holistic insights into business schools worldwide. This time, he was ready. The same investors who had previously turned him down now saw potential.

With their backing, Bschool grew rapidly since it could help people make a rational call in terms of which college they should pursue. The platform eventually caught the attention of Blackboard, which acquired it.

This acquisition was Vikram’s first successful exit, which validated that he was on the right path. “It was a defining moment,” he says. “The first real money from an acquisition gave me the confidence that I had what it takes to build and scale businesses.”

A crucial lesson Vikram took away from this venture was that founders should take a salary since they are putting in money. The initial investment from angel investors won’t support your salary, and Vikram survived on the equivalent of $100 per month.

Taking care of your expenses and the challenges that the lack of money brings while continuously dedicating monumental effort should be rewarded. Vikram got his reward when the company was acquired.

Corporate Stint: Learning from the Giants

Post-exit, Vikram took an unconventional step—he entered the corporate world. Joining Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, and Times Internet, he immersed himself in the structured processes of large enterprises.

“I needed to understand how large organizations and enterprises operate,” Vikram explains. “How they scale, their processes, how different departments work together, and how they tackle diverse markets across different geographies.” He needed to get experience in the B2B space.

While the experience was valuable, the slow-moving nature of corporations frustrated Vikram. Promotions and career growth came quickly, but he felt his skills were underutilized. Eventually, he returned to his entrepreneurial roots, co-founding Pariksha.

At Pariksha, Vikram had the freedom to explore different innovative ideas and their execution without running them through a chain of command–something that dampened his enthusiasm. Building Pariksha gave him a sense of purpose and motivation with better stakes in the game.

Vikram was poised to build something that had a high-level impact on the target market they wanted to cater to. That’s when he met his co-founders.

Pariksha: From Investor to Co-founder

Pariksha started in 2018 as a college placement preparation platform but struggled with delayed payments. The bureaucratic process within their client institutions resulted in pending invoices and payments getting stuck for about a year.

Recognizing an opportunity, Vikram and his co-founders pivoted to a vernacular online exam preparation platform targeting India’s massive state-level exam aspirants. They decided to target customers directly instead of going through the institutions.

“We realized no one was catering to this segment effectively,” Vikram says. “We went hyper-local, offering content in regional languages.” They started in Madhya Pradesh, where there were nearly 1.1 million aspirants for one particular exam.

Vikram and his co-founders also realized they couldn’t scale the business by running ads on YouTube, Google, or Meta. They needed to build local partnerships, which helped them bring in the first 100,000 and then one million customers.

The pivot paid off. Pariksha scaled rapidly, reaching over six million users and raising $3M in funding. The company grew to 120 employees, spread across 18 different states and eight other languages. However, differing visions among co-founders led Vikram to exit in 2022.

Exiting Pariksha and Lessons Learned on Team Building

“My vision was to build something at a billion-user scale,” Vikram reflects. “Rather than being a roadblock, I stepped away.” Pariksha was rumored to be acquired at $18M, and the sale was likely triggered by the consolidation happening in the education space in India.

Looking back at the lessons learned, Vikram underscores the importance of bringing in the right skill sets when the company starts to scale rapidly. Hiring people with 10-12 years of experience and background in the education space backfired since they lacked agility, new-age ideas, and zeal.

Although they corrected the error, Vikram concedes that the playbook differs for every sector. What works well in banking need not work well in education–not all skills are transferable.

When building startups, it’s crucial to hire people who are willing to experiment, break barriers, or do things that have not been tried or tested before. They should be ready to scale things that work well and iterate things that don’t.

ModalX: Pioneering AI for SMBs

Following his exit, Vikram moved to Canada, drawn by the proximity to US capital and a thriving startup ecosystem. He wanted to bring in his expertise to identify and solve a problem. Initially considering fintech, he soon pivoted towards AI after meeting his future ModalX co-founders.

In the interim period, Vikram honed his skills. He worked with startups that were a part of Invest Ottawa, Brampton Entrepreneur Center, and TBDC in Canada.

Vikram helped them determine the minimum viable product, the product market fit, and go-to-market strategies based on his learning and experience in different spaces. He also helped them connect with potential investors.

Vikram also connected with his future co-founders–Hanif Joshaghani, Jeremy Barber, and Peh Keong. ModalX began as a multimodal AI training platform, where users could have multimodal on the input and output sides.

At the onset, users could create assets in any preferred format, such as video, audio presentation, etc. The first version they rolled out had 150 different small and medium-sized businesses get onto the bandwagon very quickly.

However, early user data revealed a deeper issue—most SMBs struggled with prompt engineering and AI adoption. They didn’t want to navigate the learning curve of going through 10 different platforms, retaining context, or having 10 different subscriptions.

Recognizing this gap, Vikram and his team developed Agent Vic, an AI-powered assistant designed to function as a co-founder for SMBs, simplifying AI integration. This layer of business integration acted as a game changer.

Within the first 10 seconds of joining the platform, agentic AI could quickly understand the user, their role, the company they are a part of, and the industry in which they operate. Based on these parameters, the platform identifies their goals and challenges and makes recommendations.

The new version of ModalX was rolled out to target around 500 SMBs across different categories, including immigration, realtors, healthcare professionals, NGOs, and restaurants, and saw significant adoption.

Monetizing and Raising Funding for ModalX

When Vikram and his co-founders initially monetized one particular category, they had a 50% adoption rate in that category–which was phenomenal. “Our goal is to empower 100 million SMBs and make AI as affordable and accessible as a conversation with a friend,” he states.

Vikram explains that ModalX is a subscription-based platform, and users pay a minimum monthly fee for the platform. They can create and use any asset to the platform’s full potential.

Moving forward, ModalX will add more functionalities to become comprehensive from the user’s standpoint, eliminating the need to go anywhere else. Agent Vic can write prompts, create assets, research, brainstorm ideas, and act as an extension of their business arm.

With a rapidly growing user base and promising monetization metrics, ModalX is now in talks with US and Canadian investors to fuel its next growth phase. Vikram and his co-founders are keen on finding investors who will be sounding boards working as an extension of the business.

Storytelling is everything that Vikram Shekhawat was able to master. The key is capturing the essence of what you are doing in 15 to 20 slides. For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) where the most critical slides are highlighted.

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They want to bring in partners who contribute more than capital. Their partner VCs should believe in their ideas and back the team through challenging times and inevitable pivots. These are the investors that need to be brought to the table.

Looking Ahead: The Future of ModalX

Vikram envisions ModalX reaching billions of users, much like Jarvis from Iron Man. “I want AI to be an everyday utility for people worldwide. We’re just getting started.”

As Vikram sees it, the world of AI has less than 10% penetration, with about 700 million users, of which 315 are active AI users. And most are enterprise users. He would want to see at least 5 billion people using Agent Vic daily, significantly impacting their lives.

Vikram’s advice is simple for anyone considering entrepreneurship: “Don’t let competition or large players deter you. If you believe in your idea and execute it well, the market will follow.”

Instead, focus on your strengths and believe what you’re doing will have a sizable impact and can change the future. No player is so large that it cannot be taken over. Larger enterprises lack agility and the ability to adapt, while small startups can quickly make changes–an advantage.

From a shy student in Punjab to a serial entrepreneur in Canada, Vikram Shekhawat’s journey is an inspiring blueprint for anyone looking to build, scale, and innovate in today’s fast-evolving world.

Listen to the full podcast episode to know more, including:

• Vikram’s delayed entry into startups underscores the importance of surrounding yourself with ambitious, like-minded people.
• His first startup, CrushAider, grew to 600,000 users in six months but failed to secure funding due to a lack of future planning and market positioning.
• Lessons from his failed startup helped him refine his approach, leading to a successful exit with Bschool.
• Vikram’s stint in large enterprises provided valuable lessons on scaling, structuring teams, and managing B2B2C operations.
• Bringing in industry veterans without startup agility hindered Pariksha’s growth, teaching him the importance of adaptable hires.
• Pariksha’s shift from institutional to direct consumer targeting led to rapid scaling and an exit when the company was valued at $18M.
• ModalX aims to revolutionize AI adoption for small businesses, making it as seamless as a conversation with a friend.

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For a winning deck, see the commentary on a pitch deck from an Uber competitor that has raised over $400M (see it here). 

Remember to unlock for free the pitch deck template that founders worldwide are using to raise millions below.

 

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