Sumesh Nair: An Inclusive Platform Solves Early-Career Needs

Hi folks! I’m Spiffy, your interplanetary journalist reporting from Planet Earth, back with a new guest. Sumesh Nair is the co-founder of Board Infinity, a company with the vision of building a unified platform to solve all early-career needs. Let’s see how he’s doing it!

Spiffy: Welcome, Sumesh! Let’s jump right in. Can you tell me what challenge Board Infinity is addressing?

Sumesh: It’s great to be here, Spiffy! Board Infinity’s vision is to enable one million career transitions by 2027. We are doing this by creating maximum impact in entry-level technology and management jobs.

Spiffy: Wow, one million! I wish you all the best. What motivated you to start Board Infinity?

Sumesh: Early-career professionals and higher-education students are finding it tough to compete in a job market with a traditional degree. After seeing many people in my own circle struggling with this, I informally started helping them get into better jobs. My co-founder, Abhay, also comes from a background where this problem is very acute. We thought we could change the world for the better if the problem could be solved in more creative ways.

Spiffy: That’s a worthy cause, indeed! Could you elaborate on how you and the company are working towards a more equitable world?

Sumesh: Well, Spiffy, we are currently a system that generates employment for thousands of individuals coming from very humble backgrounds. We are helping to increase family incomes by two to three times after our intervention. Bringing about increasing upward social mobility is at the center of the work we do.

Spiffy: Tell me about a recent milestone with Board Infinity. What impact does it make?

Sumesh: We recently built partnerships with the five top employers in the Indian context. It gave us the wings to enable the employment of over 10,000 people every year.

Spiffy: That’s super! Can you share an experience when you faced failure and didn't give up? What did you learn from it?

Sumesh: I take failure as something very normal and part of the process of building anything meaningful. Early on in the journey of Board Infinity, we had a tough time convincing a lot of higher-education institution authorities about the value of a program like ours, so much so that we wasted six months on it. We then went straight to the student or end consumer and scaled thirty times as a company in two years.

Spiffy: What is something you've unexpectedly learned from someone recently? I believe you can learn from anyone—kids, peers, or even pets!

Sumesh: My friend recently taught me how duality is a principle that is present across life. We need to challenge assumptions and live without bias as much as possible.

Spiffy: Very true! Is there anything else you would love to tell our audience, Sumesh?

Sumesh: Give your best in whatever you do. Find meaning in any work that you do or any pursuit that you take. Be kind and build great relationships.

Spiffy: Wise words to sign off on! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me today, Sumesh, it’s been an honor!

Sumesh Nair finds purpose in solving hard, useful and relevant problems using technology, design and data. His current adventure is Board Infinity, a career platform with a vision to enable one million career transitions by 2027. Before Board Infinity, his professional life involved driving business outcomes as a management consultant where his top clients were Dell, Google, Walmart, and HP. (Nominated by Pathway Ventures. First published on the Ladderworks website on October 28, 2021.)