Shalu spent his early childhood in Chandigarh, India and then moved to Delhi at age 7. He became an entrepreneur at age 9 by starting a library in his garage. He studied at Sri Venkateswara College and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Shalu had a successful career in marketing and business development at NIIT and Polaroid in India and Southeast Asia. In 2009, he co-founded the online company Tickled Media in Singapore before selling his stake in 2010 to join Ogilvy. Currently, Shalu runs Circus Social and teaches part-time while residing in Singapore with his family.

1. Now, with
NO bullet
points!
UPDATED!
PS: quick link to my company:
http://www.circussocial.com

2. I spent the first 7 years of
my life in Chandigarh…a
beautiful city!

5. I had quite a
reputation …I
jumped from walls
with guns in my
hand…once threw a
stone at a friend and
almost broke his
skull…

6. …and I received the
best conduct award
from school!

7. …and then moved
to Delhi when I
was 7…perhaps
India’s rudest city!

8. I was happy to have a little
sister come along

9. I first became an
entrepreneur at the age of
9 when I started a library
out of our garage

10. B. Com Honours
from Sri
Venkateswara
college, Delhi
University (94-97)

11. I knocked on the doors of 1200 non
Times of India readers in 60 days
and spent 30 minutes with each
one of them. I converted a 1000
I also worked at an ad
agency as a copywriter
for a bit!

13. Indian Institute of
Management,
Ahmedabad,
India(97-99)

15. Ramp parties were a favourite

16. Before I knew it, I found myself with a campus offer
from NIIT, an awesome place to work! They spent
no time in checking me out – assigning all sorts of
projects across marketing, sales and business
development.

18. As his role entailed creating a new channel, he ran the sub
group independently and handled, not just the product
creation, the channel for delivery of service developed, built
the product positioning and communication and post launch
drove Sales across India for the product line and exceeded
revenue targets. A wonderful professional and friend.” –
Ashok Clement T, VP Marketing, NIIT
He is person of possibility - His enthusiasm is palpable. – L.
Balasubramanian, President NIIT
“Enthusiastic, high energy engine! Focused on results,
unravels new methods and means through out-of-the-box
thinking. Strategic marketeer.” – P. Rajendran, COO, NIIT
“I worked with Shalu on a project called "Swift Jyoti" for
mass computer literacy. I developed the product in one
week and Shalu sold it for four weeks. More than 100,000
people got trained in a month paying $10 each. NIIT made a
million. He is quick, accurate and very efficient, this guy.
When he is in the mood....” - Sugata Mitra, Chief Scientist,
NIIT

19. I did not disappoint!– I launched new
products, enrolments surged, sales
boomed, I ran joint promos with Coke,
Times of India, AirTel, Eveready,
Reebok, Microsoft etc, created hugely
successful events and more

21. “Shalu always amazes me with his
creativity and ability to think completely
out of the box.
He has a unique combination of
dreaming the unthinkable and then
creating a reality out of the same.” –
Piyush Srivastava, VP, NIIT
“Some of my most enjoyable times at
NIIT were with shalu. He is amazingly
creative and extremly detailed in any
project that he undertakes and
especially has an enviable commitment
to ensure its success. Jeffery Peter,
Regional Manager, NIIT
“Shalu is a great person to have in your
team. He is full of ideas and full of beans
all the time. He was looked upon for his
creative ideas and high energy levels. He
led his teams well and was very affable
and managed to consistently deliver
results.” Gagan Adlakha, Regional
Manager, NIIT

22. The highlight was an
incentive trip to Goa for
our entire team after we
all exceeded our targets
for the year.

24. He was awesome in terms of recognizing
opportunities and his attention to detail
was fantastic. Vikas Gugnani, HR Manager,
NIIT Technologies
“Shalu has been one of the most focused,
extremely result oriented business
manager,I have worked with. He is always
full of brilliant ideas to archive goals and
motivate people. Last but not the least, he
is fun to work with.” Manali Pathak, Project
Manager NIIT Technologies.

26. In the middle of 2005, I joined Polaroid as
country manager for ASEAN and India
I helped to maximize the revenue potential
at the dying stages of the photography
business and helped establish the consumer
electronics business in competitive Asian
markets.
“Shalu was a very result oriented
executive with a very good customer
orientation. He managed to
successfully redesign our distribution
footprint in India and worked very well
with our complex ditribution network
in that country.
I vividly remember Shalu as a very
talented and hi-potential executive.
The experience for me was very
positive. Gianfranco Palma, President,
Polaroid
“Shalu is an eager manager, adept at
keeping the customer's perspective in
mind while working internally to build
effective solutions. He presided over a
period of fast business growth in his
area of responsibility.” Scott Bayles, VP,
Polaroid

28. I ran workshops with …communication skills
I created, offered and
conducted workshops
on Creativity, Social
Media, Communication
Skills and Blogging for
many organizations in
Singapore

29. In 2009, I co-founded Tickled Media – an online company
based out of Singapore. We started building communities
around our websites when few people had heard of the idea

30. I learnt and mastered many aspects
of digital marketing and operations
– CPC advertising, Newsletter
marketing, technical aspects of
running websites, creating
marketing solutions for clients
among others

31. I also squeezed out time
to teach marketing at a
few Singapore B-schools
– and refreshed my own
MBA in the process!

32. 2009 was an
awesome
year!

34. My sister
(facebook.com/wasumona)
won the Indian version of ‘I
am a celeb, get me out of
here! (Yes, she won!)
I got hooked to Social Media
while I ran her campaign

35. My dad’s book was published to
rave reviews and the copies flew
off shelves!

36. In early 2010, I sold off
my stake in Tickled
Media and joined
Ogilvy.

40. …And it was
not just
because of a
change in
address!

41. …And we’re having a great
time!Check us out!
http://www.circussocial.
com

42. More at http://www.shaluwasu.com

43. shalu@shaluwasu.com
@tickledbylife
http://www.circussocial.com
March 2011