Celebrating a 10-year itch!

August Milestones: A Decade of Growth, Learning, and Perseverance

August has been a landmark month for me, marked by three significant milestones:

• 35 Years of Life

• 10 Years of My Entrepreneurial Journey

• 7 Years at WinnerBrands

I am sharing a few anecdotes and reflections below if that can help any aspiring entrepreneur/s.

It's interesting to note that according to my digital well-being data, I spend twice as much time on LinkedIn compared to all other social media platforms combined. I joined this platform during a random December break in 2010, which was my final year of college. It's fascinating to see how this platform has opened doors to countless opportunities.

These milestones represent more than just numbers ( a few are still counting ); but they reflect pivotal moments in both my professional and personal life:

Two Major Career Pivots: By late 2014, I embarked on my entrepreneurial journey, toiling with problems/ideas and collaborating with multiple early-stage founders and family businesses. This path led to co-founding WinnerBrands in 2017, as I identified emerging businesses need a better way to make their marketing work for them.

5+ failures and a few successes ( that keep me going): I had a tough start with my business ventures in the early days, but the support of passionate founders was invaluable. Despite facing a near shutdown moment in 2020, WinnerBrands successfully pivoted during the pandemic and transformed into what it is today.

Zero Exits, 100% Growth on People: We reimagined our business model at WinnerBrands, nurtured a lean and continuously up-skilling team, strong team culture with a 100% REMOTE policy. Our core team remains intact, including members who rejoined us after the 2020 pivot. It's okay to have a small team to build a meaningful business.

3rd Year of Profitability: Consistent revenue growth ( including 100% YoY, between 2021-23) has enabled us to maintain consistent EBITDA for three consecutive years with healthy margins, allowing us to grow sustainably from our accruals rather than relying on external capital.

1000+ Brands Supported: Through WinnerBrands and personal consulting, I've directly supported founders and marketing heads/teams, helping them build effective hiring strategies and unlock growth. Today, WinnerBrands is a reliable partner for many CMOs and Talent Acquisition Heads to make hiring marketing talent easy. I am always happy to connect with more and solve challenges concerning their marketing teams.

28-Month Tenure with our EOR solutions: The average tenure of our talent in employer-on-record roles ( EOR ) spans 28 months, serving both global and national markets. Our marketing-centric capability centre model is expanding with all our existing clientele, which is growing strong as always. Always happy to chat with more

100% Retention on our new initiative: Our customised L&D programs have shown remarkable results, contributing to solid NPS ( 9.5/10 ). Applied learning is necessary for marketers to improve in this highly dynamic work landscape, and we've made this possible through our academy.

If this is relevant to your marketing team, please don't hesitate to register here.

3X SEO Traffic Growth: Our team produces exciting content, leading to an organic reputation of highly researched marketing learning content. Even academicians reach out to us for case study data.

Check out and subscribe to BRANDy, WinnerBrands' latest initiative. We always aim to pay it forward with the right intelligence and reckoners in the world of brands and marketing.

100,000 (and Counting) Marketers Registered: The WinnerBrands Community now boasts over 100,000 registered marketers, 25,000 pre-vetted members and personal interactions with over 7,000 mid-level marketers and 1,000+ CMOs.

We're always open to understanding our fellow marketers and their aspirations. Do check out and sign up on the community page.

4th Breakfast Meet-Up: We recently hosted our fourth community event, focusing on authentic interactions and genuine human connections. With more events planned across other metros, we ensure the creation of safe spaces for both budding and experienced marketers.

I hope to see more marketers at our future meet-up. Register here to attend future meet-ups.

50,000+ LinkedIn Followers: WinnerBrands’ handle has nearly 50,000 followers, and I have over 15,000. This was organic growth, and many marketing enthusiasts and experts followed us. It’s time to do justice to both by posting more consistently!

5 Family Offices: As a passion project, I work closely with MFOs based in Kerala and the Middle East. These are primarily early-stage investments backing tech startups and SME ventures. The initiative is gaining momentum, with growing interest in leveraging generational wealth from the new generation.

These milestones primarily reflect people's success — my accurate "happiness metrics." When you focus on these, money always follows (at least, I hope so ). I’m still uncertain how far this journey will take me, but I know it wouldn’t be the same without the support of our partners, founders, clients, mentors, and especially the core team at WinnerBrands and other ventures I’m involved with.

Lastly, while it may sound clichéd, these words reflect my daily values, which I hold dear and won't change for sure: PASSION, PERSEVERANCE, and DECENCY. Your failures are as necessary outcomes as much as steps to learn from them to move forward and grow. Hence, don’t be discouraged by temporary setbacks or overly elated by random wins—this is a journey to enjoy until the end.

If you’re considering starting something new or picking up a side gig, don’t wait—now is the time. DM me or book a 30-minute chat about entrepreneurship, marketing teams, or future plans.