Change Engine
I. About Change Engine
Change Engine is an innovation ecosystem builder. We believe that it is through innovation that India can achieve its social and economic goals. We run two programs:
- Building Non Profit Unicorns: We consider that non-profit unicorns, that impact the lives of at least a million people, will be key to India's social progress in the next decade. Given that most non-profits do not scale, we are developing a playbook to build scalable impact, widely distributing it in the ecosystem, and instilling it deeply in organisations in our cohort. We aspire to directly help build 30 non-profit unicorns over the next five years.
- Building differentiated AI led technologies: India's research record in AI is dismal and most of our startups are copies of Western counterparts. With the recent revolution in AI, India can play a formidable role in building differentiated AI use cases for the world and capture the economic value of the technology. To enable this, we develop data-based insights into AI ecosystem gaps, develop and distribute best-practices to create 'Real World AI.’ We run an AI accelerator to work with the country's best entrepreneurs and aspire to help build 30 differentiated technologies for the world from India through our initiatives in the next 5 years.
In a short period of 2 years, we are working with 15 impact and AI organisations. We have worked closely with these organisations in problem discovery, product design and developing scalable models. Our cohort organisations have raised $2M+ other than our catalytic funding in a short period. Our ecosystem insights have been covered in The Economic Times, Outlook, First Post, Wire and many more.
II. Founding Team
Change Engine is led by Varun Aggarwal. He is an entrepreneur (Aspiring Minds, $100M+ exit), AI researcher (1500+ citations) and author (science, deeptech and children books). He is also the co-founder of FAST, India and India Science Fest. At Aspiring Minds, Varun built AI-led programming and speech assessments which were sold globally to Fortune 500 companies. Aspiring Minds' report on employability of graduates have been quoted in NITI Aayog reports, The Economist and Forbes, and added much to build the narrative around the skill gap in India. Varun's books have sold more than 20,000+ copies.
Varun is joined by Shailendra Jha (ISB alum, ex-MMT, nearbuy) and Shubham Bansal (IITD/EPFL alum, YC alum) in the Founding Team of Change Engine. Our advisors and cohort mentors include Raman Oberoi (ex-COO, Crisil), Mukul Singhal (Partner, Pravega Ventures), Priya Naik (Founder, Samhita), Sridhar Rajagopalan (Founder, Education Initiatives) and others.
III. Head of Partnerships and Outreach (Founding Team)
We are looking for someone passionate about building impact and technology initiatives for India's social and economic development to join our team. The person will closely partner with the founders to develop and implement a strategy to build a network of partners, supporters and funders, to amplify our impact.
We have two focus areas. First, we wish to develop innovation and scale DNA in the non-profit ecosystem in India. Second, we wish to catalyse the creation of new cutting-edge technology for India and the world.
The responsibilities of the role include the following:
- Developing an ecosystem strategy to get partners and supporters to align with Change Engine mission and vision.
- Work closely with the team to develop messaging to communicate our theory of change with stakeholders effectively
- Build deep relations with UHNIs, foundations and CSRs.
- Work with cohort organizations to help develop their partnership strategies
- Develop and execute fundraising campaigns, events and meetings.
- Manage and grow partnerships to get maximum fulfilment of our and partner goals.
- Liaison with all senior stakeholders and partners of Change Engine to keep them vested with our work.
- Establish a strong positioning among stakeholders for Change Engine
IV. Ideal profile
- 15+ years experience in investments, consulting, business development and partnership roles
- Experience in the social sector is a plus but not necessary. Candidates wanting to transition from corporate to development roles are welcome
- Keen interest in developing something impactful for India and the world.
- Mission driven, independent, and with high bias for action
- Comfortable working with a startup team of youngsters and open to deal with ambiguity and iteration
- Ready to move out of the comfort zone!
