After migrating from North India, he worked as a Team Lead for one of the leading retail and business banks in Australia. But his role was far from conventional.
About 15 minutes into our interview, he drops the bomb.
“I was under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing divisions,” says Kushagra, innocently. “Australia is very strict when it comes to the transfer of money, and my role was to come up with different scenarios that people might use to cover up suspicious transactions.
"We had to be one step ahead.”
A very creative part of the banking industry, he agrees. His work involved the approximately 90 million bank transactions in the country each day.
“It was pretty fascinating,” he says. “I loved it. I had the opportunity to join an investment bank, but this was the obvious choice.”
It may have been an interesting role, but Kushagra moved to business risk and credit strategies at another branch of the bank two years later. He has enjoyed an international repertoire of jobs, and banking is just one function in a career of finance, technology and entrepreneurship roles.
Kushagra credits the AGSM MBA for inspiring him to launch his start-up, Specials for Today. He was encouraged by Jeffery Tobias, who runs the b-schools' Entrepreneurship and Strategy course, as well as NewSouth Innovations, which has helped him pitch to investors.
When he graduated from Uttar Pradesh Technical University with a computer science degree eight years ago, he had no idea that he would be running a start-up halfway into a full-time MBA program at one of Australia’s finest b-schools.
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), which runs the AGSM MBA programs, awarded Kushagra with a degree in IT and Ecommerce systems back in 2009.
“Within the first four months of study I moved to Paris, and then went to London,” he says. “Then I went to Hong Kong, and then flew back to Australia to finish my degree."
After roles in software engineering, back-office trading and web design, he became an entrepreneur. Kushagra may now be the CEO and founder of an established online SME, but he got his first taste of entrepreneurship four years ago.
“Back in 2008 when I returned to Australia from Paris, I saw an opportunity in advertising,” he explains. “Australia was behind Europe in the industry and we wanted to bring a dynamic approach to advertisement.
"We allowed businesses to update their adverts and project them on-screen straight away, rather than wait for print media."
But Kushagra stayed with the bank and his start-up stopped operations. But he insists he learnt many lessons -- none more so than the need to dedicate yourself full-time to entrepreneurial ventures.
After being offered the chance to begin a part-time MBA (Executive), AGSM was the only choice in his mind. The school is a consistent figure at the top of Australia’s MBA Rankings,
But soon after starting, he transferred to the full-time program, taking time out of industry. He may have joined the AGSM Consulting Club, but Kushagra is an entrepreneur.
“I was offered a full-time MBA scholarship and I thought it was a good option,” he says. “The MBA (Executive) is more about networking and making friends, to get different jobs and new career opportunities.
“The full-time means you have to take time out of work, but doing the Executive option was taking too long. This was too good an opportunity to miss.”
He was inspired by the Entrepreneurship and Strategy class and Jeffery Tobias, who runs the program and is a prominent Australian Angel Investor. In September this year Kushagra launched Specials for Today, a start-up that offers special discounts for various stores and businesses around UNSW's campus.
Kushagra leverages his ecommerce background and MBA skills to help the company grow. After four months, he has hundreds of users that browse the website for popular discount deals in Sydney.
“Having that ecommerce background has helped me develop the business,” he says. “It’s totally online at the moment and understanding how to connect a workplace where businesses come together was crucial.”
But has an MBA given him a similar boost?
“AGSM has been fabulous from day one of the program,” he says. “This whole creation came about because of that entrepreneurship class; by week twelve, we were building businesses and trying to get clients.
“We learn every single aspect of how to start-up a business and an MBA has been crucial. If there was no AGSM, then this business wouldn’t exist.
“An MBA has helped in every single aspect; from running a website, securing clients, promoting the business and even helping to provide legal help.”
Kushagra wears his business school education as proudly as he wears his shirt and tie. Australian graduates may have the highest starting salaries of the Asia-Pacific region, but it is entrepreneurship that has begun attracting business leaders to AGSM.
The business schools' MBA students get the chance to immerse themselves in a Sydney-based start-up as part of a 12 week entrepreneurship program.
Although Kushagra is basing his business in Sydney, he has plans to expand into the UK. As part of the full-time MBA, he is going on a three-month exchange to London Business School, considered one of the best in the world.
“I want to expand my business into London,” he says. “I’m really looking forward to making new contacts in the UK. As I am going to LBS anyway, why not use that opportunity to see if I can launch in Britain?
“Right now AGSM is going through a slow period over the summer. But it will open back up around February, when tens of thousands of students will be on campus -- and I plan to fly back to Sydney during that period.
“But this exchange is a great opportunity to place my start-up in London.”
That is the mind-set of the MBA entrepreneur. Kushagra is keen to exploit any opportunity he can to expand his business.
AGSM was a good place to start and, you sense, it is only the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey.
He is not catching out terrorists and money launderers anymore.
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