About me — Nikhil John
I grow software companies, startups and people for a living
My Bio
Hi! I’m Nikhil John. Welcome to my About Me story!
I did not want this article to be a simple timeline of my career highlights. I wish to talk about the emotional highs and lows that have taken place throughout my career. I want to establish my personal brand, “Nikhil John” with this writeup.
I grew up in Mumbai (aka Bombay) surburbs and mainly studied around the place I lived. Completed my Bachelors in Information Technology and went on to work for Citigroup as my first job. I loved working there, it made me feel wanted and rose up quite a lot because I spoke proper English (everyone speaks English but I had a neutral accent). Was given the opportunity to talk to the big bosses because the others were shy and insecure (this was 2005 and outsourcing industry was on the boom, the bosses were folks outsourcing business to India).
Growing up in the suburbs and spending most of my early life in Mumbai including schooling. Completed my BSc. (Bachelors in Science) majoring in IT and my first job ever was at Citigroup. I loved working with Citigroup. They made me feel wanted. My career development was spurred on by a single factor: Speaking proper English without a heavy accent. This ability gave me a sense of confidence which set me apart from my peers. And this confidence in turn gave me the opportunity to talk to the big bosses. With the boom in the outsourcing industry in India in 2005, I took the opportunity to run a call centre for North American companies. There was one job: set up meetings. One was a recruitment agency and the other was an Office Solutions Company. At the age of 22, I was earning $$$ and getting work done from freelancers in my vicinity.
Then followed the job that taught me about technology- Oracle, once a titan in the technology world. When it came to managing and running a sales team, they were second to none. It is at Oracle that I learned the tricks of my trade and loved every second of it. And when you enjoy what you do, success naturally follows. I won multiple awards and was known as the salesperson to beat. Following Oracle, I worked in Sales & Marketing roles across multiple companies till 2014.
FAST FORWARD to 2015 — After meeting a crazy startup founder (who claimed to be the 5th employee at Dropbox) and backpacking for 6 months across multiple countries, I started a company called “Growth Hack India”. I managed to teach myself digital marketing at a time when there was no EDx and Coursera and also managed to learn every trick in the book related to growth hacking. I studied every growth hack coming out of Silicon Valley. Once I felt I had taught myself everything there was to learn, I moved to “Bangalore” — the startup capital of India. Initially, I conducted workshops and webinars by teaming up with a few growth hackers I met along the way.
At the time “Growth Hacking” was considered a term associated with wannabes, was laughed upon and even called fake. At that time, my only source of validation for taking up Growth Hacking was when I met “Nithin Kamath” the founder of Zerodha. After writing him a personal email and approaching him for a position to lead their growth in late 2016, he stated that “Growth Hacking” was the only way he believed Zerodha would compete with ICICI and HDFC. FYI- He proved his own statement in 2020. His belief was that growth hacking is all about the product and nothing else, hence Zerodha never had a marketing team. Every bit of Zerodha’s growth is built in their product and its simplicity.
I continued on the path of growth hacking and became the Chief Growth Officer for multiple B2B startups. With growth hacking, I merged the 2 things I’m good at “growth and technology”. It was my calling and I was good at it. And it didn’t hurt that I was paid well and given more responsibility, aka, more room for personal growth.
NOW >> November 2021 …..In a pandemic ravished world. I undertook a business trip to broaden my outlook on business and technology. And I have learned that the only way forward is conducting business with digital natives. Across the world digital adoption has reached stratospheric heights due to the pandemic and there’s no returning to 2019. The pandemic has completely changed human behaviour. No longer are we required to go to an office for a meeting, a training or even team building session. The amount of behavioural change that has happened across all demographics is incredible.
Companies with folks who have growth hacked with the right product & growth mindset are now platform businesses. I believe now for true growth hacking skill sets to emerge — client engagement will be reduced so guiding your audience through the noise will require pure passion & grit. The timing for growth hackers has never been sweeter!
But I digress, I promised you a more emotional, personal preview into who Nikhil John is as a brand. Well here goes:
I’m 37, single and when it comes to life, I’m still figuring it out. I love playing football, stock market trading and reading about every company and their business model.
I’m generally the most positive person in a room and hate pointless conflicts. However, hating conflicts has not made me a “Yes man”. Give me illogical reasoning for a decision and you will hear an emphatic “No”.
What do I think is my spark? It’s to give the best I can, by delivering on growth, positivity and maybe a crazy vision. I believe it’s an art to be good at something. Bottom line:
I’m good at growing companies/startups/products and I am committed to my art.
“All art has an ultimate goal — a union between the material and the spiritual. The human and the divine… That is the very existence of art”
— Michael Jackson
I want people to focus on my goal and not judge me for my work experience & location. My goal is to grow companies/startups/products with positivity and humour :)!
So I leave you with a note to “give in to me” — I’m sure we can create something amazing together.
I love feedback, connecting with others and helping out people to the best of my abilities. So never hesitate to give me your thoughts or ask me your questions- yes, even your craziest and dumbest ones.
Also, don’t forget to follow my stories if you enjoyed reading this! It would mean the world to me!
Cheers!
