Nikhil SharmaWork with me
Nikhil Sharma seated on the wing of a Diamond DA42 at night, tablet in hand
Nikhil SharmaOn the wing of a DA42 · building companies since 2005

निखिलThe Whole

In the business of happiness.

For founders who want a company carried, not advised; for anyone who wants a better business, body, journey or skill. Via better business, better wellness, better travel and better skills. One method under all four, and a man who has run each of them. The ventures are the vehicle. The happiness is the point.

Apply to NS Transform 2027Join the happiness list

Now20 October 2026 · India Won 1971 in AugustNS Transform 2027 · the intake is open14 ventures · 40 properties · 31 live

मार्गFind your way

Two taps to the right door.

Say who you are and what you came for. You get something to read, something to try and the right way to reach Nikhil, already sorted.

  1. 1Who you are
  2. 2What you came for
  3. 3Your route

The record

Receipts, before philosophy.

In twenty years I have worked with 850+ brands across 35 nations and built an agency network in 8 cities. Our Google campaigns alone have served 100 crore ad impressions, one billion, since 2009. The programme carries up to a crore of running cost for every startup it selects.

What the backing produced

  • Top 3In Shopping Ads, nationally

    One venture taken from launch to the top three in India inside eighteen months, against Amazon and Flipkart, profitable from the first month. Then lost to a founders’ dispute, not to the market. That ending is why month one of the programme is founder terms, in writing. The Google Ads auction record for its Shopping campaigns shows a 48.65% impression share, second only to Amazon.in and ahead of Flipkart.

  • ₹100 crSeed valuation, a venture I co-founded

    A wellness venture I co-founded, priced at a hundred crore in its seed round. Minority shareholding, on the company record and the investment papers.

  • ₹400 crInside eighteen months, as reported

    One venture backed through GoCommercially, as reported in siliconindia’s October 2021 cover story. A press report, not a priced round, and labelled as one.

Excluding ventures whose figures are not mine to publish, these are the three with paper behind them — a priced round, an ad-account record, or a report in the press, each labelled for what it is. No portfolio company is named.

आजThis week

What is new, this week.

Essays, columns, the Startup Atlas and curated hubs, newest first. This page fills itself: whatever is published today is here today.

Indira Gandhi and Richard Nixon seen from behind on the podium as a marching band passes on the South Lawn of the White House, 4 November 1971

विमर्श Vimarsh · कूटनीति Kūṭanīti

India Won 1971 in AugustThe war lasted thirteen days in December. The victory was assembled over the nine months before it: a treaty signed in August, a tour of six capitals in November and three vetoes in a single fortnight. विजय Vijay, the first of India’s great diplomatic wins.20 October 2026 · 8 min read

और भीAlso new

Everything new, newest first Get it by email

चलचित्रOn YouTube

The work, in motion.

Short films on how the work is done and what the machines now do with it. New ones arrive here as they are published.

Subscribe on YouTube
Revenue Defence in the AI EraFilm · Nikhil Sharma · YouTube
Every founder fights ten demons · Dussehra · NS Transform 2027Film · Nikhil Sharma · YouTube
How Does ChatGPT Answer You So Fast?Film · Nikhil Sharma · YouTube

ग्रन्थThe books

Four books, in the writing.

One book of method and three written with doctors, for 2027. The covers are working covers and will change with the books.

Write a book together
  • महत्वाकांक्षा

    Ambition

    Nine laws for building at speed

    Nikhil Sharma

    In writing · the opening chapter is published

    Most startups do not die of a bad idea. They die of the distance between deciding and doing. Nine laws from twenty years of building.

    Read the opening chapterThe method, run daily in Ambition ↗

    Working cover

  • आनंदबोध

    Anand Bodh

    The Happy Life

    Nikhil Sharma with Dr Raju Hajela

    In writing · 2027

    Happiness as a practice: the body, the mind, the heart and the spirit, each kept in working order.

    Working cover

  • महाप्रयाण

    Mahāprayāṇ

    Nikhil Sharma with Dr Shaily Sharma

    In writing · 2027

    On the last journey and how a family prepares for it, in two voices, with a family preparedness checklist.

    Working cover

  • जागृति

    Wake Up Life

    Spiritual intelligence, measured

    Nikhil Sharma with Dr Vincent Keny

    In writing · 2027

    The WakeUp Score and seven habits: a way to measure the inner life and to move it.

    Working cover

आकाशगंगाThe tag galaxy

Everything written here, in orbit.

357 pieces and 60 of their subjects. The bigger the word, the more is written on it. Hover to stop the turn; tap a word to read everything filed under it.

IndiaVichaarPricingRetentionFundraisingExecutionFoundersHiringGovernanceScalingStrategyCompanies ActComplianceSaaSMetricsRunwayUnit economicsCACD2CDefault aliveESOPGross marginGuidesValuationBoardCohortsContribution marginDistributionLeadershipManagementWellbeingWhatsAppChurnDecision-makingEquityGo-to-marketLabour codesNetworksB2BCustomer interviewsFEMAProduct strategyServicesTerm sheetVestingAIB2B salesCo-foundersContractsCultureCustomer discoveryEnterprise salesForecastingHealthcareInstitutionsKautilyaMarketplacesOperationsPitch deckRoadmap

The man behind it

Nikhil Sharma. Business Growth Maestro.

You are not buying a cohort. You are buying twenty years of someone else’s mistakes, applied to your company, by the person who made them.

Nikhil Sharma

Nikhil Sharma

Business Growth Maestro

Building companies since 2005. He runs the programme himself.

Truecaller

Brand Ambassador, India

March 2015 – December 2019

Four years as the face of the app in India.

Two decades spent building the companies that now supply this programme — the agency, the platform, the wellness ecosystem, the travel arm. Every vertical Transform carries is one he already operates, which is why it can be carried at all.

  • 850+

    Brands served

  • 35

    Nations

  • 20

    Years

  • 2

    Cover stories

  • Founder & Managing Director, Fabulous Media
  • Founder, GoCommercially
  • Founder & CEO, Elevated India
  • Founder, AnandBodh — The Happy Life
  • Founder & CEO, Wake Up Life, Inc.
  • Founder & Managing Director, Vibence Global Private Limited

In the press · scroll

siliconindia: Cover story, October 2021Cover story

siliconindia

Cover story, October 2021

Consultants Review: Cover story, February 2019Cover story

Consultants Review

Cover story, February 2019

Outlook: Lookout: Nikhil Sharma, Business Growth Maestro. Full-page feature, 2021–22Feature

Outlook

Lookout: Nikhil Sharma, Business Growth Maestro. Full-page feature, 2021–22

The Enterprise World: Feature, The Fearless Entrepreneurs to Watch 2019, August 2019Feature

The Enterprise World

Feature, The Fearless Entrepreneurs to Watch 2019, August 2019

The Times of India and ET Panache: Fabulous Media’s own advertisement, Gurugram and Delhi editions, 2019 to 2021Advertisement

The Times of India and ET Panache

Fabulous Media’s own advertisement, Gurugram and Delhi editions, 2019 to 2021

Four doors

One business. Four doors.

The business is happiness, and a person needs four things in order for it: work that pays, a body and mind that hold, a world seen with their own eyes, and a skill someone will hire. So the house is built in four directions, one door each. Business is the first door because it is home turf and because it pays for the other three.

व्यापारBetter BusinessWork that paysस्वास्थ्यBetter WellnessA body and mindthat holdकौशलBetter SkillsA skill someonewill hireयात्राBetter TravelA world seenwith your own eyesआनंदHAPPINESS

उद्यमThe ventures

One venture leads each door.

Four of the 14, the one that leads each door. Every venture is run, not advised. The whole house is 40 properties, 31 of them live, every one explained on the Ventures page. The partners inside the programme are never named here.

All 14 ventures and the products
स्वनीतिSwanītiउद्यमनीतिUdyamnītiअर्थनीतिArthanītiलोकनीतिLokanītiराजनीतिRājnītiकूटनीतिKūṭanītiरणनीतिRaṇanītiसमाजनीतिSamājnītiइतिहासItihāsaपरिहासParihāsविमर्शESSAYस्तम्भCOLUMNसूत्रAPHORISMसंवादDIALOGUEपाठGUIDEसामरिकSAAMRIK

नीतिचक्र·The whole of it on one plate

Ten heads, five lengths, one imprint

The rim is what a piece is about — the scale it is argued at. The inner ring is how long it is and how often it comes. Touch any part of the wheel to read it, or click straight through.

Eight nītis are the scales. Itihāsa and Parihās are lenses laid across all eight.

सोचStart here

The one to read first.

Remembering Ratan Tata, 1937 to 2024: his name in gold capitals on warm paper, a portrait of him in a dark suit at the right, archive photographs faded behindविमर्श Vimarsh · UdyamnītiIf There Had Been No Ratan TataHe took a ₹10,627 crore group in 1991 and left a $100 billion one in 2012. The decisions, the numbers, the trivia, the mistakes and the man, with the sources attached. And then the question nobody asked at the funeral: what would be different if he had stayed in Los Angeles.9 October 2026 · 16 min readComposed from photographs: St. Gallen Symposium, Universitätsarchiv St.Gallen (2005) and archive frames via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA and public domain

पाठशाला Pathshala · The Founder Library

Three hundred lessons for founders. Start with the one you can touch.

The Founder Library: runway, dilution, unit economics, growth and more, each with a figure that moves. Written for India, to the standard of the best accelerator libraries, free.

The whole library

Runway

How many months you really have.

Cash in the bank₹1.5 CrMonthly revenue₹6.0 LMonthly cost₹18.0 LRevenue growth, a month8%8% a month doubles revenue in nine months.Cost growth, a month2.0%
15 mo
runway to zero cash
₹12.0 L
net burn this month
month 9
start the raise by
month 20
revenue covers cost
₹0₹1 Cr₹2 Cr₹3 Crnow6m12m18m24m30m36mraise startszero cash
The rule most investors repeat: start a raise with at least six months of cash, because a seed round in India takes three to six months from first meeting to money in the bank, and the last month is never yours. Cost growth is the number founders forget; hires compound too.

From the lesson Runway: how many months you really have · धन Money

अन्तेवासीThe internship

Work beside me. Invite yourself.

A direct internship for IIT and IIM students and for anyone with the same edge. IIMs and IIT Madras have invited us to their campuses at least eleven times since 2024. This is the other door: nobody is shortlisted, you write in with a reason, something you made and the desk you want.

How it works, and the invitation

Two ways in

One for founders. One for everyone.

उद्यमी

If you are building a company

Apply to NS Transform 2027. Three questions about where the company is and what is stopping it, then the details. Read personally.

Apply as a founder

आनंद

If you are here to read

Join the happiness list. New essays, lessons and the occasional film, and nothing you did not ask for.

Join the list

आनंदThe happiness list

One letter, when there is something worth saying.

No cadence promised. No forwarding. Leave whenever you like.