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The SpotlightAuthor: ThePodium.in
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From JP Morgan Trading Floors to 500,000 Indian Classrooms | Simran Mulchandani, Rangeet
Episode 65
Monday, 9 March, 2026
How did a JP Morgan currency trader go from building India's most iconic nightclub to reaching 500,000 children through EdTech? In this episode, Simran Mulchandani, CEO and Co-founder of Rangeet, reveals the unconventional playbook behind India's leading social emotional learning platform. Simran Mulchandani's journey defies every startup playbook. He traded currencies during the Asian financial crisis, built Blue Frog into one of the world's top 10 music venues, watched it collapse, and then found his true calling in a municipal school classroom in Mumbai. Today, his startup Rangeet has reached over 500,000 children across India and Bangladesh with a teacher-led EdTech model that deliberately keeps screens away from students. In this candid conversation with host Akshay Datt, Simran shares why he believes no machine can teach a child to be human, how Rangeet bootstrapped to $500K revenue through NGO partnerships and grants before raising VC, and what it took to get Oxford University Press, Brookings Institution, and the BMC to back his vision. With expansion into four African countries planned for 2026, this is a masterclass in building impact at scale, surviving failure, and finding purpose in your mid-forties. What You Will Learn: 👉🏻 How Simran Mulchandani pivoted from Wall Street trading to founding Rangeet after a life-changing experience in a Mumbai public school 👉🏻 Why Rangeet built an app exclusively for teachers with zero screen time for students, and how this contrarian model enabled massive scale 👉🏻 The bootstrapping playbook that took Rangeet from BRAC revenue and Jacobs Foundation grants to $500K ARR before VC funding 👉🏻 Lessons from Blue Frog's collapse, including why rushing into new markets without understanding customers leads to failure 👉🏻 How NEP 2020 and the post-COVID learning crisis created policy tailwinds for social emotional learning in India 👉🏻 Rangeet's unit economics, delivering wellbeing curriculum at Rs 500 per child per year #SimranMulchandani #Rangeet #EdTechIndia #SocialEmotionalLearning #SELIndia #B2BEdTech #BlueFrogMumbai #TeacherLedLearning #NEP2020 #WellbeingEducation #IndiaStartups #EdTechStartups #FounderStory #StartupIndia #BootstrappedStartup #ImpactStartup #EducationIndia #FundingWinter #StartupPodcast #founderthesis
