Operator.
First or rebuild.
Twenty years of founding, turnaround, and greenfield roles across post-conflict health systems, off-grid energy, medical 3D printing, and startup ecosystems. Boston boardrooms, Rift Valley villages, and seven countries in between.
Born in India, grew up in the United States. My father came from Delhi to New York, and going back to India as a kid showed me early that electricity, clean water, and working health systems weren't a given for most of the world. I studied International Development and Technology Transfer at Tulane, spent a year across Argentina and Brazil on a regional development program, and wrote my 2005 capstone on solar-powered, internet-connected health centers in rural Africa. That took me to Sub-Saharan Africa for the first ten years of my career.
Since then I've worked across four sectors. In Liberia's Ministry of Health, I secured a $9M grant, the first post-war donor funding the government managed directly, that unlocked $500M+ downstream. I founded a solar company that put 25,000 systems across East Africa, partnered with Coca-Cola, and ran one of Africa's first SMS-based customer service platforms. At Formlabs, a double unicorn, I spent six years building the medical vertical from 2% to 16% of company revenue, and to 48% at the peak of COVID, when we shipped 100M+ swabs to 60+ countries. At MassChallenge, I helped lead the pivot from a generalist accelerator to five regulated markets, and built the team, processes, and AI infrastructure underneath it.
Different sectors, same method: months on the ground observing, listening, and testing before I pitch anything. I've watched how these systems work and where they break from clinics in Monrovia, kiosks in Kenya, operating rooms in Boston, and radiology suites in San Francisco.
Father of three. My oldest son has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair, and wears orthoses. Watching how broken the assistive device supply chain is has stayed with me. It's part of why I went to Formlabs, and part of why I'm building NextAbilities now.
A career in four chapters. Each one, a first or a rebuild.
Clinton Health Access Initiative
Embedded inside Liberia's Ministry of Health in the first years after a 15-year civil war. Contributed to the first post-conflict National Health Plan, identified a $280M funding gap, and led the process that secured a $9M emergency World Bank grant, the first post-war donor funding the Ministry managed directly, which catalyzed $500M+ in downstream health investment.
Designed a training program for mid-level MOH staff that was later replicated across 10+ government agencies as the President's Young Professionals Program (and now elsewhere in Africa as the Emerging Public Leaders nonprofit). Secured $3M for solar and ICT at off-grid health facilities, the observation that became a company three years later.
Stayed on the thread through USAID's Powering Health initiative, three more years working with energy and health ministries across Africa, authoring guidance documents still in circulation and advancing off-grid clinic electrification before founding One Degree Solar.
One Degree Solar
The capstone thesis became a company. It started from the observation I'd been chasing since college: clinics with no electricity. Inside Liberia's Ministry of Health, I helped secure millions in traditional solar financing to retrofit health centers, but the hardware was expensive, fragile, and hard to service. I kept watching the cost curves on LEDs, photovoltaic panels, and lithium-ion batteries. The moment was arriving when a ~$100 system could do what a several-thousand-dollar one did five years earlier.
So I founded One Degree Solar. We built BrightBox, Africa's first certified multi-light solar system, designed from the start to be repaired by local electricians using locally-sourced parts. Backed by Schneider Electric and Kiva. Distribution partnerships with Coca-Cola and other Fortune 100 companies. Around 25 staff plus a contract sales organization; roughly 25,000 systems + 20,000 lanterns deployed across East Africa.
Also built what I believe was the first SMS-based customer service, inventory tracking, and warranty platform in African off-grid solar: paperless digital warranties, automated maintenance reminders, customer segmentation. In 2012, none of this was standard; the category norm was paper warranties and no way to reach the supplier after a sale. Covered by WorldWatch Institute, ICT Works, and Echo Mobile.
Featured on Al Jazeera's earthrise ("Solar Revolution," filmed in Kenya's Rift Valley), in Fast Company, and at SOCAP. Full P&L ownership, top to bottom: hiring, capital, product, supply chain, go-to-market.
Formlabs
Same pattern, different industry. Formlabs had taken expiring industrial 3D printing IP and put it into a desktop form factor with better UI/UX at a fraction of the cost. Their mission was to democratize access to digital fabrication. For me, that meant something specific in healthcare: lower the cost of innovation, put advanced tools in the hands of more clinicians, and widen access to personalized medical devices, including the assistive kind my son relies on. Personal alignment and company mission pointed the same direction.
Joined as employee ~125, the first dedicated medical hire, long before the company hit single unicorn status at its Series D with NEA in August 2018. Spent the first months in operating rooms, radiology suites, and hospital labs, observing rather than selling. Stayed until the company was approaching 1,000 employees and surpassed a $2B valuation (SoftBank-led Series E). Over six years, grew the medical vertical from ~2% to 16% of company revenue through enterprise partnerships, the Form Cell enterprise product (priced $100K–$150K depending on configuration, roughly 30–40× the flagship printer), and FDA-cleared workflows. I called the leads, shaped the packages, and sold the first deployments, including the first to Northwell Health.
Partnerships with Mayo Clinic, GE Healthcare, Materialise, STERIS, the VA, FDA, and UCSF. When COVID hit, a direct call from Dr. Summer Decker at USF Health took us from concept to the first FDA Emergency Use Authorization for a 3D printing company in 12 days. 100M+ nasopharyngeal swabs across 60+ countries, up to 48% of company sales at peak, a USPTO Patent for Humanity.
MassChallenge
Lead Programs, Community, and Marketing, which together is about 40% of the organization's headcount and a $3M operating budget. Co-architected the pivot from a 15-year industry-agnostic accelerator to a three-product, sector-specific platform: Traction, Challenge, and Custom programs across health, climate, fintech, security and resilience, and sustainable food. Collapsed twenty industry and expertise fields across four systems into a three-field taxonomy, the spine that made mentor matching, sector cohort design, and measurement actually run.
Served as internal executive sponsor for the HealthTech franchise, drawing on the six years at Formlabs. Built a suite of AI-native tools (LLM classifier, alumni search across 4,486 companies, portfolio intelligence dashboard) as core infrastructure, not add-ons. Current cohorts: $96M in revenue, $260M raised, 2× prior-year totals.
How I work. Human-centered, in practice rather than on a slide.
Observe & engage
Before strategy, fieldwork. Operating rooms at Formlabs. District clinics in Liberia. Kiosks in Kibera. I don't trust a design for a user I haven't sat with.
Synthesize
Pull the signal out of the noise. Where are the patterns? What do people actually do versus what they say they do?
Brainstorm
Generate widely before narrowing. The obvious answer is usually second-best.
Field test & iterate
Prototypes in real hands, fast. I learn more from a BrightBox in a farmer's kitchen than from any deck.
Prototype
Functional, testable, imperfect. Ready to learn from, not to defend.
Launch
With a plan for what happens after launch: measurement, iteration, the next version.
Applied consistently from a post-conflict Ministry of Health to a $2B medtech company to a global accelerator. The same method that surfaced the off-grid solar opportunity in 2011 surfaced the medical 3D printing opportunity in 2017, and is surfacing the AI-native operating layer now. The context changes. The approach doesn't.
What I'm building. In the open.
Building AI as core infrastructure
Tools I've built and shipped, not commissioned. Crucible, a three-pass agentic evaluation platform for healthcare accelerators. Field Notes, deal intelligence for VC and advisory work. Accelerate v2, an eight-agent program-management prototype. Plus the data infrastructure underneath MassChallenge's 4,486-company portfolio. Python, React, Next.js, Anthropic API, Netlify.
See the AI builder portfolio →NextAbilities
A platform for assistive technology resources and community. Built on Webflow, Memberstack, and Discourse. The work is personal: informed by raising a son with cerebral palsy and years of watching how fragmented assistive tech is for families.
Visit NextAbilitiesStrategic advisory
Selective engagements across startups, public companies, global nonprofits, and government agencies. GTM strategy, enterprise partnerships, market entry, regulatory positioning, and team design.
Selected coverage. Where the work has shown up.
Let's talk.
Twenty years of operating roles, plus advisory engagements with public companies, global nonprofits, and startups. I'm actively exploring operating roles, venture partnerships, and fractional / advisory engagements, especially with founders building in health, assistive tech, climate, and AI-native operations.