Rapid fire with YS Life: Akshay Chaturvedi, CEO and Founder, Leverage Edu

Tech-enabled study abroad platform Leverage Edu was started with the mission to assist students from emerging countries–India, Nigeria, and Nepal, to access higher education opportunities abroad. 

Founded by Akshay Chaturvedi in 2017, Delhi-based Leverage Edu is backed by marquee investors such as Blume Ventures, Trifecta Capital, DSG Consumer Partners, Kaizenvest PE, DSP Mutual Fund, and Tomorrow Capital, among others. It is also supported by Ivy League professors. 

Starting out as a mentorship marketplace in Draper University’s 2015 cohort, Leverage Edu has now expanded its offerings to become a full-stack career guidance and university connect platform. It has launched not just the study abroad platform, but also Univalley–a platform that helps universities with student engagement solutions; UniConnect–virtual education fair platform;  and LeverageLive–a platform that facilitates live classes for international education-focused standardised tests. 

For his intent and innovation, Chaturvedi has been previously awarded the Forbes 30 Under 30–India and Asia–awards, TiE Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, and Prime Minister’s Champions of Change (August, 2017), among others. 

Recently, YS Life posed fun and quirky questions to Chaturvedi to get an insight of his life beyond business.

YS Life [YSL]: What are the three words that best describe you? 

Akshay Chaturvedi [AC]: Granular, loyal, and ambitious. 

YSL: What is the last application that you have downloaded? 

AC: RISE Sleep, I am always trying to catch up on the sleep debt now!

YSL: What was the last book or movie that made you cry? 

AC: Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahani.

YSL: What is your guilty pleasure? 

AC: Spending time with my german shepherd, Buzo!

YSL: Your favourite travel destination? 

AC: London.

YSL: If not an edtech entrepreneur, which sector would you like to explore?

AC: Pet care.

YSL: Two startup founders that you don’t mind getting stuck on an isolated island with? 

AC: Brian Chesky (AirBnB) and Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm).

YSL: What is the first thing that you do in the morning? 

AC: Get licked by my son Buzo and cuddle him back!

YSL: What is the last thing that you do before hitting the bed? 

AC: Journal my plan for the next day, and say a small gratitude prayer. 

YSL: Fame or money? 

AC: Money, it lets you be free.

YSL: What’s your most prized possession? 

AC: My company, Leverage Edu. Its every molecule is what I stand for, it has given me everything I need, and it makes me lead the purposeful life that satiates me as a being.

YSL: If not an entrepreneur then what? 

AC: Running an NGO or some social welfare set-up.

YSL: If you could change one thing about your journey, what would it be?

AC: Won’t change a single bit.

YSL: Your go-to person in life?

AC: My wife.

YSL: The mantra that you live by? 

AC: Be the hardest working person in any room you enter!