Helping you master the 0 to 1 journey | 3x Author. Content Entrepreneur. Public Speaker. ex-PM @ Salesforce.
San Francisco, California, United States
116K followers
500+ connections
About
Hi there :)
I’m Soundarya a.k.a Pooja a.k.a SB.
I’ve gone 0 to 1 many times in life.
Now, I help others do the same through my writing, teaching, and storytelling.
The world we live in demands adaptability.
What worked a decade ago won’t work tomorrow.
And what was unimaginable then is the norm now.
In this new era, the real advantage isn’t knowing all the answers.
It’s learning how to start again, and again, and again.
👇 Even though it wasn't planned that way, that's been the story of my life:
→ 2016: Started the uni chapter of "AIESEC", a not-for-profit org, and sent 100+ on volunteering programs abroad.
→ 2017: Landed in the U.S. for a master's in Management after doing a bachelor's in Chemical Engg.
→ 2018: Began writing online. Published 200+ articles & 25+ short free books on curiousmaverick.com. Read by 250,000+.
→ 2019: Joined Salesforce as a Product Manager in the cybersecurity wing. Quit 2.5 yrs later.
→ 2020: Self-published my first book, "Admitted", and scaled to 5000+ readers.
→ 2021: Launched a cohort-based-course and taught 50+ leaders how to build systems w/ Notion.
→ 2022: Raised $100,000+ through crowdfunding + a grant for writing my second book, "Unshackled."
→ 2023: Self-published my second book, "Unshackled." Scaled to 40,000+ newsletter subs.
→ 2024: Completed a country-wide book tour visiting 15 unis to help 2000+ international students.
→ 2025: Finished writing my 100,000-word debut novel, "1000 Days of Love."
→ 2025: Grew online following to 300,000+ where my content reaches ~6M/mo across all channels.
→ 2026: ?
Each year forced me to reinvent.
And every reinvention became a resource I now share with others.
If you’re standing at the edge of your own new beginning... awesome.
And welcome <3
📬 Say hi: [hi@curiousmaverick.com]
📌 Free tools in the “Featured” section
Services
Articles by Soundarya (SB)
Experience
Education
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Columbia University in the City of New York
Master of Science, Awarded Outstanding Student Service Award Management Science and Engineering 3.84/4.0
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Activities and Societies: Course Assistant: Applied Consulting, Human Factors Performance | IEOR Ambassador | Vice President, Entrepreneurship Leadership and Consulting (ELC) club.
Courses: Operations Consulting, Business Analytics, Data Analytics, Big Data, Machine Learning, Demand and Supply Analytics, Human Factor Design, Lean Launchpad, Optimization Models, Stochastics, Probability and Statistics.
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National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli
Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.), Gold Medalist Chemical Engineering 9.85/10
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Activities and Societies: Department Gold Medalist. I held the following leadership positions: President of AIESEC in NIT Trichy, Editor of The NIT Trichy Chronicle, Technical Head of Alchemy 2017 and Co-Founder of Cafe Scientifique Trichy. I was a member of the following teams: Spider R&D, The Fishbowl Network, Nakshatra, Cognitto, Festember, Pragyan and NITTFest.
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Licenses & Certifications
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Certificate of Merit for Topper of Chemical Engineering (IInd year)
NIT Trichy
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All India Rank 1 IEO Chemical Engineering
Indian Engineering Olympiad
Issued -
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Certificate of Merit for Overall 2nd in College (I Year)
NIT Trichy
Issued -
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Skills
Publications
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Neons Fashion LLP (A): A Small Seller on Amazon Marketplace
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A)
See publicationCo-authored a case study on small sellers on e-commerce marketplaces along with Dr. Saral Mukherjee and Dr. Abhishek Pattjoshi after researching on it for 2 months and interviewing an entrepreneur of a fashion startup.
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Optimization of Supply Chains for Production of Biofuel Through MILP (Case Study: Upper Peninsula of Michigan)
IRAJ
Courses
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Analytics in Action
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Big Data Analytics
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Business Analytics
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Demand and Supply Analytics
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Entrepreneurship Development
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Human Factor Design
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Introduction to Neuroscience
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Lean Launchpad (taken by Steve Blank)
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Machine Learning and Bayesian Models
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Numerical Techniques
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Operations Consulting
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Operations Management
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Operations Research Methods in Marketing
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Optimization Models and Methods
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Probability and Statistics
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Project Engineering and Economics
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Stochastic Models
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Projects
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Slack Bot to Message All Users In Workspace Using Python
See projectThis was a short personal project that I worked on. I found no direct way to send messages to all members of a Slack channel, hence I created a bot myself to do the task.
I used Python, pip and virtualenv to set up the environment.
I used an API call to get the channel and user list, and iterate over the list to send messages to members. -
Customer Discovery for Mobile App on Helping Recovering Opioid Addicts
This was as part of the Lean Launchpad course taken in my Spring semester. It was taught by Steve Blank, known famously for his methodology on Customer Discovery. I worked in a team of five, with two students coming from the Executive MBA program at Columbia. Over the entire course, we did the following:
• We worked on a business management canvas for a mobile application for recovering opioid addicts to reduce their relapse rate and create a preliminary wire-frame.
• Conducted extensive…This was as part of the Lean Launchpad course taken in my Spring semester. It was taught by Steve Blank, known famously for his methodology on Customer Discovery. I worked in a team of five, with two students coming from the Executive MBA program at Columbia. Over the entire course, we did the following:
• We worked on a business management canvas for a mobile application for recovering opioid addicts to reduce their relapse rate and create a preliminary wire-frame.
• Conducted extensive customer discovery by talking to users from all walks – end users who will use the app, Addiction Specialists, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Rehab Center Coordinators and Doctors.
• Presented every day to Venture Capitalists and kept changing the hypothesis of our Business Model Canvas.
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Design and Optimization of Supply Chains for Production of Biofuel
Worked under Prof. Christos Maravelias on ’Optimization of Supply Chains for Production of Biofuel using MILP (Case Study: Michigan)’. Was able to successfully create a multi-period, multi-feedstock model with several biorefineries and Railway Depots. A paper has been written and submitted in the International Conference on Chemical and Biochemical Engineering conducted by Academic Conference Network and has been included in their publication.
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Removal of harmful effluents and simultaneous electricity production using Microbial Fuel Cells
The project dealt with conducting experiments using a double chamber microbial fuel cell where a distillery effluent was used in the anode side and water mixed with potassium dichromate was used in the cathode side. 12 such experiments were conducted on the whole and the results obtained gave us the optimum conditions. A paper was written on the aforementioned topic and has been accepted to be presented at the ICACE conference at NIT Suratkal in December, 2015.
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Detection of dynamic structures in liquid liquid dispersion
Through the Indian Academy of Sciences Scholarship, worked under Prof. Sanjeev Kumar Gupta on ’Detection of dynamic structures in agitated liquid-liquid dispersions’. Found the phase inversion point and detected transient chains in liquid-liquid dispersions which was unprecedented. High speed conductivity experiments were performed using ’LabVIEW’. The project was taken over by another intern after I found enough proof to continue.
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Analysis of Global Terrorism Database
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We worked with the Global Terrorism Database which contains over 170,000 observations and 140 predictors. Our primary aim was to derive correlations from the dataset between different attributes in the data.
We did the following:
• Clustering of various countries based on the types of attack and perpetrators
• Used Logistic Regression to find the success rate of an attack based on relevant attributes
• Found correlations between unconventional attributes like, number of attacks and…We worked with the Global Terrorism Database which contains over 170,000 observations and 140 predictors. Our primary aim was to derive correlations from the dataset between different attributes in the data.
We did the following:
• Clustering of various countries based on the types of attack and perpetrators
• Used Logistic Regression to find the success rate of an attack based on relevant attributes
• Found correlations between unconventional attributes like, number of attacks and the GDP
of a country, increase in attacks after or before the economic depression of 2008, and so on. -
Survey of Loyalty of Buyers and Sellers in Two-Sided Platforms
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See projectWorked under Dr. Saral Mukherjee and Dr. Abhishek on the survey of loyalty of buyers and sellers in two-sided markets. Primary data collection was conducted with a young Indian entrepreneur who is also a seller on two-sided marketplace. A case study was written and got accepted in 2019 to be pubished in the IIM-A curriculum.
Honors & Awards
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The Helen Keller Award for Creator Entrepreneurship
The Helen Keller Awards
Got awarded the Helen Keller Award in the Creator Entrepreneurship category!
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Alumni Spotlight Speaker
NIT Trichy, India
Gave a keynote speech for the International Women's Day celebration at NIT Trichy, India.
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Emergent Ventures Fellow
Emergent Ventures India
Awarded a $50,000 grant by Emergent Ventures and Tyler Cowen to build a community for skilled immigrants in America. Awarded by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
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Outstanding Student Service Award
Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department, Columbia University
Received the Outstanding Student Service Award by the IEOR department for excellence in academics, and involvement in extracurricular activities.
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J.N.Tata Endowment Scholar
J.N.Tata Education Trust
The JN Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians has been helping Indian students since 1892 with loan scholarships for higher studies. There are now more than 5,004 JN Tata Scholars all over the world.
The award is given to around 100 students every year from a pool of over 1200+. It involves a comprehensive online application, online test, and a final interview before the results are announced. The scholarship amount varies from one scholar to the other based on their…The JN Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians has been helping Indian students since 1892 with loan scholarships for higher studies. There are now more than 5,004 JN Tata Scholars all over the world.
The award is given to around 100 students every year from a pool of over 1200+. It involves a comprehensive online application, online test, and a final interview before the results are announced. The scholarship amount varies from one scholar to the other based on their performance. It is an honor for me to receive the highest scholarship amount. -
K.C.Mahindra Fellow
K.C.Mahindra Education Trust
Since 1956, K. C. Mahindra Education Trust has granted interest-free loan scholarships to deserving students to pursue post-graduate studies abroad in various fields. Every year they offer scholarships to over 50 students on the basis of merit, after going through a comprehensive application process and an interview in Mumbai. 50 students are awarded an interest-free loan scholarship of 4 lakhs and 3 students are awarded an interest-free loan scholarship of 8 lakhs and they are also recognized…
Since 1956, K. C. Mahindra Education Trust has granted interest-free loan scholarships to deserving students to pursue post-graduate studies abroad in various fields. Every year they offer scholarships to over 50 students on the basis of merit, after going through a comprehensive application process and an interview in Mumbai. 50 students are awarded an interest-free loan scholarship of 4 lakhs and 3 students are awarded an interest-free loan scholarship of 8 lakhs and they are also recognized as the K.C.Mahindra Fellows of that year.
It is my honor to be selected as one among the three fellows this year.
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Smt. G. S. Rajalakshmi Memorial Award
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
Awarded the Smt. G. S. Rajalakshmi Memorial Award on Institute Day 2017 for being the topper in Chemical Engineering from first to seventh semesters.
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Dr Ibrahim Memorial Award for Best Outgoing Student, Chemical Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
Awarded the Dr. Ibrahim Memorial Award for being the Best Outgoing Student as well as Best Student in Mass Transfer in Chemical Engineering.
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All India Rank 1 Indian Engineering Olympiad
Indian Engineering Olympiad
Secured the All India Rank 1 in Indian Engineering Olympiad in the Chemical Engineering Category in the year 2016.
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S N Bose Scholarship
IUSSTF
SN Bose Scholarship is given to over 40 students in India every year to undertake a fully funded 2 month research internship at a top University in USA. I chose SN Bose Scholarship over DAAD WISE and MITACS Globalink to do a 10 week internship at University of Wisconsin Madison, USA.
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DAAD WISE Scholarship
DAAD Germany
DAAD WISE Scholarship is given to over 100 students in India every year to undertake a fully funded 2 month research internship at a top University in Germany (for summer 2016).
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MITACS Globalink Scholarship
MITACS Globalink
MITACS Globalink Scholarship is given to students from 5 countries all over the world every year to undertake a fully funded 3 month research internship at a top University in Canada (summer 2016).
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Runner-Up at Regional IET Competition
Institute of Engineering and Technology, Bangalore
Runner up of the regional level IET competition where I had to give a presentation on 'Urban monitoring and control using the Internet of Things (IoT)'.
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Cargill Global Scholarship
Cargill & IIE
One among the ten students selected from India for the Cargill Global Scholarship.
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SRFP Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Scholarship
Summer Research Fellowship Program, IIT Delhi
Got the IIT-Delhi scholarship to work on a project at IIT, Delhi during the Summer, 2015.
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Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) Scholarship at IISc Bangalore
Summer Research Fellowship Program SRFP
Got the IAS Scholarship to work in IISc for a period of 2 months in the Summer, 2015.
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Shree Vijayalakshmi Trust Scholarship
Shree Vijayalakshmi Trust Organization
Got a scholarship of 25,000/- for obtaining more than 95% in 12th Board Exam in 2013.
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Certificate of Merit
Kendriya Vidyalaya
Got the certificate of merit for being the topper of Computer Science branch in class 12 after Board Exam.
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NSO Certificate of Merit
National Science Olympiad (NSO) organization
Obtained certificate and medal for obtaining the top rank in School in the NSO examination.
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Certificate of Merit
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
Got the certificate of merit and medal for being the Overall Topper in first of Chemical Engineering in College.
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Certificate of Merit
CBSE, India
Got the certificate of merit for being the overall topper of the school in class 10.
Test Scores
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GRE
Score: Q: 170 V:158 AWA: 5
Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is taken by students who aspire to pursue their graduate studies in the USA.
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TOEFL
Score: 114/120
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) examination is taken by students who aspire to pursue their graduate studies in the USA.
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B.Tech CGPA
Score: 9.85/10
I secured 9.85/10 (first class distinction with honors) as I graduated from NIT Trichy with a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering. I was my department's Gold Medalist and University's Silver Medalist.
Languages
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English
Full professional proficiency
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Tamil
Native or bilingual proficiency
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Hindi
Limited working proficiency
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German
Elementary proficiency
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