i'm abhinav. i build things and write about what i learn along the way.
right now i'm building an ai healthcare company while finishing my mba at stanford gsb. previously i studied computer science at uc berkeley.
before stanford, i was chief of staff at the times of india — the world's largest english-language newspaper. i helped build new verticals, ran strategy for digital products, and learned more about storytelling, distribution, and operating at scale than any classroom could teach.
i also make videos and write — you can find my work at the times of india, economic times circle, b-school backstage, and on youtube.
i split my time between india and the bay area.
origin story
i grew up in delhi, india, and left home at thirteen to attend boarding school at the doon school in dehradun — one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in asia. those years were formative: living away from family, learning independence, debating, playing sports, editing school publications, and discovering that i loved building things more than following instructions.
doon taught me something i didn't have a word for until much later: fingerspitzengefühl — a german word meaning “fingertip feeling,” an intuitive instinct for doing the right thing at the right time. that instinct has guided every major decision since.
the years that shaped me
after school, i took two years off before university — traveling, working odd jobs, and reading voraciously. those gap years gave me something invaluable: the conviction that the world is full of interesting problems worth solving, and the belief — which adam grant calls pronoia — that the universe is conspiring in your favor if you show up with curiosity and good faith.
at uc berkeley, i studied computer science and fell in love with building software. i learned to think in systems, prototype quickly, and ship things that people could actually use. berkeley's energy — scrappy, idealistic, relentlessly ambitious — became part of my operating system.
at the times of india, i learned how institutions work from the inside: how to navigate complexity, build consensus across stakeholders, and operate at the intersection of technology, media, and business. it was my apprenticeship in leadership.
stanford gsb has been about zooming out — understanding how organizations scale, how capital flows, and how the best leaders think about building things that endure.
get in touch
i'm always happy to meet interesting people. reach me at abhinavkej [at] gmail, or find me on twitter, linkedin, youtube, or instagram.