LOCATION · MUMBAI · UTC+5:30 CURRENTLY · BUILDING YAJUR ROLE · CO-FOUNDER · YKS EST. · 2020
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SAILESH · SRIDHAR · CFA

Entrepreneur. Vegan.
Teacher. Investor.
Traveler.

I'm a co-founder, an angel investor, and a vegan since 2018. Fourteen years in finance, many hats along the way — and this is a short record of who I am, what I've done, and what's on my mind.

CO-FOUNDER // Yajur Knowledge Solutions CERT // CFA · ESG Investing BASED // Mumbai
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FACT.01

Mumbai-based.

Mumbai is home. I built my career here, and today work with clients across the US, Europe, and Asia from this city.

FACT.02

Entrepreneur since 2020.

Started Valuecraftz in 2020 after a decade inside the industry. In 2024, with my co-founder, we rebranded it as Yajur Knowledge Solutions — same journey, new chapter.

FACT.03

Fourteen years, many hats.

Analyst, associate, vice president, co-founder. Now also a teacher and angel investor. Wide, not just long.

FACT.04

CFA & ESG certified.

Chartered Financial Analyst, plus the CFA Institute's certificate in ESG Investing. The credentials that opened doors I now walk through.

FACT.05

Vegan since 2018.

A choice I made in 2018, and one I've stayed with. Animal welfare matters to me — quietly, without making it a thing.

FACT.06

Teaching where I learned.

Guest faculty at Sri Sathya Sai University — the institution that gave me my MBA. Closing the loop, one cohort at a time.

FACT.07

An active angel investor.

Small early checks into founders I believe in. Among them: Presentations.AI, Manastu, and eBikeGO.

FACT.08

I write, often.

5,300+ readers on LinkedIn. Mostly about business, work, ethics, and what's actually changing.

FACT.09

Twenty-one countries — and counting.

Travel teaches what offices can't. Twenty-one countries visited so far. The goal: forty before I turn forty.

FACT.10

An early adopter, by default.

First in the room to try new AI tools, apps, and gadgets — and unafraid to put them on real work. Some stick. Some don't. The point is the experiment.

Auto-rotating.
Each arc, a journey.
Forty before forty as the goal.
FLIGHT · LIVE 21 / 40
—
WIREFRAME · ORTHO ⏸ PAUSED · EARTH · 1:1
In work, in writing,
in conversation.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP ● ● ● ● ●

Building things from nothing.

Why I left a senior role to become an entrepreneur — and what it actually takes to build a knowledge firm from India that serves the world.

  • The decision to leave a stable career path
  • Building, then rebuilding — when to rebrand
  • Finding a co-founder, sharing the load
TOOLS & EXPERIMENTS ● ● ● ● ●

Tinkering with what just shipped.

I try new AI tools, apps, and gadgets the moment they're out — then put them on real work to see what actually holds up. What survives, what doesn't, and what quietly changes how the work gets done.

  • What I'm using this week — and why
  • Half-baked demos vs. things that actually move work
  • How AI changes what a single person can do
AI & THE FUTURE ● ● ● ● ●

What AI is doing to work.

What's actually happening as AI walks into business and white-collar work. The compression, the disappearance, the opportunity — observed from inside the change.

  • The death of the junior analyst — and what replaces them
  • Where AI is already doing the job
  • What stays uniquely human
TEACHING & GIVING BACK ● ● ● ● ●

Teaching where I was taught.

Returning to Sri Sathya Sai University as guest faculty — where I came of age. Why the loop matters, and what classrooms still miss about the real world.

  • The circle of being taught, then teaching
  • Values-based education in a results-driven world
  • What I bring into the classroom from outside
/ / Other things on my mind
India in the global economy Angel investing & early-stage diligence How businesses tell their story Investing with values · ESG Building remote teams The analyst-to-founder path Cross-border business Travel & perspective
Conferences, events, gatherings.
Showing up matters.
Sailesh Sridhar at M&A Source annual conference, 2026
M&A SOURCE · 2026 FILE // 002

You can't build a global firm from a desk.

This is the M&A Source annual conference, 2026 — one of the rooms where US business owners, advisors, and investors come together to figure out who they want to work with.

For a Mumbai-based firm with global clients, being in rooms like this isn't optional. The words on the backdrop — relationships, growth, deals, opportunity, connections — happen to also be the work.

EventM&A Source · Annual
My RoleCo-Founder · Yajur
Year2026
WhereUnited States
From analyst to entrepreneur.
A path with intent —
not accident.
2011 — 2014
Analyst
FinQuest Capital
First job out of school. A boutique firm in Mumbai — where I learned the craft.
2014 — 2017
Associate
EY · Mumbai
Three years inside one of the world's largest firms. Valuations, advisory, exposure to scale.
2017 — 2018
Cross-Border Associate
Global Healthcare Advisors
My first real immersion in working across borders.
2018 — 2020
Vice President
Transworld M&A
Two and a half years working on transactions with over a hundred million in aggregate value.
2020 — 2024
Founder
Valuecraftz
The leap. Left a senior role to start something on my own.
2024 — Pres.
Co-Founder & CEO
Yajur Knowledge Solutions
Rebranded and rebuilt with my co-founder. Twenty people, global clients, AI-augmented from day one.
01

Beginnings.

Born in Chennai. School took me through Surat, Jamnagar, and Mumbai. Then from 11th grade through my MBA in Finance, I was at Sri Sathya Sai University — the best years of my life. The same institution would later, in a small bit of circularity, invite me back to teach.
02

The first decade.

FinQuest, EY, Transworld — analyst to vice president, wearing different hats at each stop. I earned the CFA along the way, then added the ESG Investing certificate.
03

The leap.

In 2020, I did the unconventional thing — left a senior role to start Valuecraftz. The bet was that I could build something the industry actually needed.
04

The rebuild.

In 2024, with a clearer view of what AI is changing inside finance, Valuecraftz was rebuilt and rebranded as Yajur Knowledge Solutions — alongside my co-founder.
05

The rest of me.

  • Early adopter, by default — first to try new AI tools, apps, and gadgets. Half my evenings are spent tinkering.
  • Vegan since 2018.
  • Back early-stage founders — among them Presentations.AI, Manastu, and eBikeGO.
  • Teach because it closes a loop.
  • Travel often — 21 countries down, aiming for 40 before 40.
  • Fourteen years in finance, many hats — and the work is still genuinely changing.
Conferences, classrooms,
podcasts, writing.
A partial record.
  • 2026
    The Future of Work in FinanceBizsherpa.ai · Nanocast
    VIEW →
  • 2026
    M&A Source · Annual ConferenceIn attendance · global advisor community
    IN PERSON
  • Ongoing
    Guest Faculty · Finance & ValuationSri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning
    CLASSROOM
  • Ongoing
    Writing on business, work, AI, and ethicsLinkedIn · 5,300+ followers · 4,000+ monthly impressions
    FOLLOW →