Ankit Raj, founder of The DriveSales™, remembers one pattern from his days running creative agency Dramantram that would not let him go: companies continually struggled to find reliable, verified growth talent and also for learners – to get upskilled and find jobs & internships. The recruitment ecosystem was generic, slow, and populated by intermediaries with no real specialization in growth related roles. That observation planted the seed for The DriveSales™. Storytelling and brand-building taught Ankit how to craft conviction; entrepreneurship taught him operations and resilience. He wanted to bring both strengths together to build a Tech platform that’s not just functional but purposeful.
A focused response to a wide problem
“The gap was obvious,” Ankit says. India graduates roughly 3,60,000 MBAs a year from over 4,000 B‑schools, yet many are not industry-ready. Growth related jobs that include sales and business development roles – is one of the least structured career paths students lack practical experience and guidance. General job portals treated growth like any other role, without domain intelligence. “We could change this, especially for talent from Tier‑II and Tier‑III cities who deserve practical growth experience from Day 1 of college,” he adds.
Building credibility through depth
From day one, the company made a deliberate choice: specialise deeply rather than scale broadly. Early credibility came from outcomes, not marketing. The platform enforces a stringent four-step onboarding for candidates – assessing growth skills, industry experience, LinkedIn presence and leadership behaviours – while offering recruiters a curated, verified talent pool. For candidates, The DriveSales™ pairs structured learning, mentorship and direct access to hiring decision-makers without intermediaries. Today, over 1,000 alumni placed in business development and growth roles stand as proof of that model.
Capital discipline and product-first execution
Launched in 2022 with early backing from a mix of Indian and NRI angel investors and with Tanay Agrawal as partner and investor, The DriveSales™ used its pre-seed capital with strict discipline. Funds prioritised core technology, the initial talent cohort, and validating the hiring workflow rather than rapid geographic expansion. The founders sought investors who understood the long game: those who valued structure and depth over a push to grow horizontally too fast.
AI designed for growth, not keywords
Where generalist platforms rely on keyword matches, The DriveSales™ builds AI models tailored to growth – evaluating domain-specific parameters, performance indicators and behavioural signals. This makes AI a career partner: it matches recruiters with candidates who fit growth roles and supports personalized career services, including 1:1 mentoring and bespoke training for working professionals.
Culture shaped by mentorship
Ankit’s mentoring experience with the Atal Innovation Mission influenced company culture profoundly. The DriveSales™ embeds the belief that timely guidance changes career trajectories. This philosophy underpins the Growth Academy that includes Fintech,SaaS, Edtech, and, early-stage founder programmes and community content designed to upskill candidates and democratize access to quality growth opportunities across Tier-II and Tier-III geographies.
Process over personality
One practical lesson from the founder’s creative-agency days informs everyday operations: make the company process-driven, not person-driven. Documentation, dashboards and central tracking ensure continuity and scale. In a space crowded with distractions, the company’s disciplined focus on growth – “staying in your lane” – has become its competitive moat.
Vision: raising the status of growth
Over the next decade, The DriveSales™ aims to become the world’s largest growth EdTech and hiring platform. Beyond scale, its deeper ambition is cultural: to change how growth is perceived in India, making it a respected, first-choice profession. By democratizing access to practical training, mentorship and verified hiring, The DriveSales™ seeks to reframe growth as a career that demands skill, rigour and pride.
What to watch?
- Continued expansion of the Growth Academy and mentorship programs, especially into Tier-II/Tier-III colleges.
- Product enhancements that deepen AI-driven career personalization.
- Employer partnerships that set new standards for verified growth hiring.
The DriveSales™ is an example of niche focus creating outsized impact: by solving a specific, painful problem well, the startup is carving a category and changing the career trajectories of young professionals across India.
Interview By : Sejal Thakur
