Origin and history

Shirur, Maharashtra

Current position in the organization

Founder (upGrowth, growth hacking agency)

Education

Amol, a pilot at heart, acquired skills and built a strong entrepreneurial foundation with these academics –
Basair Aviation College
Commercial Pilot, Aviation/Airway Management and Operations
2008 – 2009

Indian Institute of Planning and Management
Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Marketing/Marketing Management, General
2011 – 2013

Harvard Business School
Disruptive Strategy
2019 – 2019

Indian Institute of Management Kashipur
Strategic Management, Business Administration, Management and Operations
2018 – 2019

Family

Blessed with a beautiful daughter and wife.

Passion

Amol makes time for self-love and social welfare.
For self-love, he practices Yoga.
‘Amol-the guy with a running nose’ turned into ‘Amol – the guy with apparently no bones’. He started his Yoga journey with Pranayam, and now his body flexibility knows no bounds.
Amol has been practicing Yoga for more than 8 years, inspired by his father. His father started his day at 4.30 am and practiced yoga from 5 am – 7 am.

What started with just lying around & observing his father ended with performing pro-level asanas. He is also experimenting with meditation through Muse2 to understand more about Biofeedback mechanisms.

He is also the Founder of ananda.ai, a mental healthcare venture to help those who feel unheard, neglected, or just need a non-judgemental ear. The goal of anand.ai is to make mental healthcare affordable and accessible to all. Under this banner, Amol also hosts stand-up shows for mental health awareness, street plays and more.

An ardent trekker, Amol has been hiking around the forts in Sahayrdi and experiencing the thrill.

Goals & Achievements

Amol has worked across several sectors and broadened his scope. As with every other leader, his goals align with those of his client’s businesses. With his colossal experience in the field of marketing, he has curated & implemented marketing strategies for several clients. Check out a few of Amol’s successful growth hacking experiments here:

How we boosted Monthly Sales for a Food Tech Startup

How upGrowth Helped Digbi Health to Achieve +500% Traffic via Organic Medium
Of course, there are many more Case Studies led by Amol that can guide budding growth hackers.

Favorite Quote

“92% of ideas fail, the remaining 8% experiment, learn, iterate to scale”

Recommended books

These are Amol’s favorite reads:
Sarth Shri Dnyaneshwari
– Saint Dnyaneshwar

Shri Dnyāneshwar was a 13th-century Maharashtrian Hindu saint (Sant – a title by which he is often referred), poet, philosopher and yogi of the Nath tradition whose works Bhavartha Deepika (a commentary on Bhagavad Gita, popularly known as “Dnyaneshwari”), and Amrutanubhav are considered to be milestones in Marathi literature.

In Maharashtra, people usually read this after retirement, but one should start reading it early in life. You will find life to be easier.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t
– Jim Collins
This book describes the characteristics of many companies that have gone from good to great. However, many companies fail to transition from good to great. With the help of 21 researchers, Jim Collins examined the financial statements of several companies. They identified companies that exceeded market or industry averages in growth and achievement and eventually achieved corporate greatness.

The Hard Thing about Hard Thing: Building a Business When There are No Easy Answers
– Ben Horowitz
He is brutally honest about the difficulties of running a business, while most people talk about how great it is to start one

From firing friends to poaching competitors, cultivating a CEO mentality to knowing when to cash in, the author amplifies business lessons with his lyrics.

From co-founding a cloud service provider to building a phenomenally successful Andersson Capital Firm, the advice is mostly anecdotes

Check out Amol’s previous go-to books: 8 Favorite Books from my 2018 Reading List

And a few more…

• In Praise of Wasting Time by Alan Lightman, Simon & Schuster
• MINDSET: Changing The Way You think To Fulfil Your Potential Changing The Way You think To Fulfil Your Potential by Dweck, Dr Carol,
• Probable Impossibilities: Musings on Beginnings and Endings Musings on Beginnings and Endings by Lightman, Alan
• All In : How Obsessive Leaders Achieve the Extraordinary by Robert Bruce Shaw
• Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies by Reid Hoffman
• PRINCIPLES FOR DEALING WITH THE CHANGING WORLD ORDER by Ray Dalio
• Fabric Of Reality by David Deutsch
• The Beginning Of Infinity: Explanations that Transform The World by David Deutsch
• The Cold Start Problem Paperback by Andrew Chen
• Harsh Realities: The Making of Marico by Harsh Mariwala
• How Will You Measure your Life? by Clayton Christensen
• Think on these things Paperback by J. Krishnamurti
• The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath
• KARMA: A YOGI’S GUIDE TO CRAFTING YOUR DESTINY by Sadhguru
• A Southern Music: The Karnatik Story by T.M. Krishna
• Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies for Giant Leaps in Work and Life by Ozan Varol
• DEATH: AN INSIDE STORY Paperback by Sadhguru
• Hidden Hand Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World by Clive Hamilton
• The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello by Anthony De Mello
• The Book of Life by J. Krishnamurti
• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
• Beyond Good And Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Man’s Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust by Viktor E Frankl
• TRILLION DOLLAR COACH: The Leadership Handbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt
• This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See by Seth Godin
• …and many more

Social Handles

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/amolghemud/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/ghemudamol

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ghemudamol/

Crunchbase – https://www.crunchbase.com/person/amol-ghemud

Social Works

Apart from ananda.ai, Amol has developed environmental-friendly causes. At upGrowth, the team plants a tree for each subscriber of the Newsletter. Under the banner of ananda.ai, Amol’s ananda team has initiated a Suicide-Prevention Helpline for farmers in Maharastra.

Podcast

A communication expert, Amol loves interacting with other industry experts & professionals and hearing their growth stories.
Check out Podcasts & Entrepreneurial excerpts.