This isn’t
a resume.
It’s a story.
My name is Harshil Barot. I’m a Gujarati kid who got humbled by NCERT, collapsed in 12th boards, refused to settle for a safe degree, took engineering with zero English, graduated with a 7.70 — and then, on 5 May 2026, started a studio called Akshar Nirmaan. This is the actual journey.
Because jobs never sat right.
Every time I imagined myself in a cubicle, something died inside me. It wasn’t rebellion — it was clarity. I was born to build my own thing. So I did. Akshar Nirmaan is that thing.
Build a studio where an ambitious Indian founder can get world-class tech, brand and growth — without stitching together five agencies.
Ship 100 category-defining Indian brands by 2030. Obsess over craft. Refuse vanity. Compound trust.
Because I know what it feels like to feel invisible in your own classroom. Every underdog founder deserves a studio that gets it.
Peaks. Craters. And a 7.70 that meant something.
Two decades. Two schools. One university. Multiple crashes. One graduation. This is the whole map — the peaks and the honest craters.
The topper years. Report cards were framed on the wall. Life was easy — subject was rote, so was I.
First real dip. First time a textbook out-worked me. First time I realised effort > memory.
Locked in. Studied like the school’s reputation depended on it. It didn’t — but mine did. Result: back on top.
11th during COVID was fine. 12th, though — the reckoning was coming.
I don’t sugarcoat it. This was rock bottom. Two paths: settle for BCA and coast… or bet on myself and take engineering. I chose the harder road.
I couldn’t hold a full English conversation on Day 1. Every class was a translation exercise. Every doubt required 2× courage to ask. I stayed.
Odd sems dipped. Even sems spiked. Sem 6 peaked at 8.85. Sem 8 major project tanked to 7.00. Perfect metaphor for how growth actually works — non-linear, honest, done.
Jobs didn’t light me up. I couldn’t fake enthusiasm for a Product Manager’s slide deck. So I chose the hardest thing you can choose — to build something from zero.
Odd sems dipped. Even sems flew.
A 4-year rhythm nobody warned me about. Semester 6 was the mountaintop. Semester 8’s major project brought me back to earth.
I have a CSE degree.
I am not a software engineer.
I skipped placement on purpose. Not because I couldn’t. Because I could tell — deep down — that a paycheck-first life would kill me slowly. I chose the harder inheritance: build. Fail. Ship. Repeat. Own the outcome.
The sports that shaped me.
Righty at the crease, lefty with the ball — confuses everyone. Grew up worshipping MS Dhoni. Rohit’s pull shot is religion. Kohli’s intent is the standard. India first, always.
Rahul Chaudhari made me a kabaddi fan for life. The poster boy of PKL taught the whole country this sport was cool. I watch every season.
11+ years
at BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha.
Started as a bal karyakar when I was still a kid. It taught me community before school did — discipline, service, showing up even when nobody’s counting. Many of my earliest clients came from this circle of trust. Faith and business, honestly, are cousins.
Off-hours, on-obsession.
Arijit Singh in the ears, Sonu Nigam in the throwback playlist. Music is the only tab I keep open 24/7.
Sang in school. Then puberty happened — and my voice packed its bags and never came back. Now I sing only when nobody’s listening. Which is often.
Started with Clash of Clans — built villages, raided villages. Then Free Fire — got carried, carried others. My in-game IQ is higher than my board IQ ever was.
Two wheels, no engine, one clear head. Best product ideas hit at 20 km/h with wind in the face.
The editing timeline.
From tapping on a phone screen to keyboard-shortcut fluency in Premiere. Every phase left something behind.
Where every editor is born. Portrait crops, snappy cuts, first taste of timing.
Same brain, bigger canvas. First real project deliveries.
Tried. Bounced off. Respect the tool — not my flow.
Where I actually live now. Every gaming montage, every reel, every ad — cut here.
Failures I’m grateful for.
Highlight reels lie. So here’s the honest bench.
And then the studio opened.
No investor. No team. No template. Just YouTube, ChatGPT, blessings from home, and a lot of chai. Every piece of paperwork — done by me, myself, alone. It felt harder than it should’ve. It also felt like the first honest thing I’d ever built.
Add anything you love. This wall is yours.
The best chapter
isn’t written yet.
Akshar Nirmaan is Year 1 of a decade-long bet. 100 brands by 2030. An Akshar Labs product suite. A team of obsessed craftspeople. And a Made-in-India studio the world respects. That’s the plan.