Yash Chhapolia Email & Phone Number

New York, New York, United States

Singapore

Director of Student Affairs subcommittee under the Welfare Committee of NUS College Club, the student council for NUS College. Work with a team of 8 to handle diversity and inclusivity, as well as provide support for exchange students at NUS College. We work with the admin team to organize Diversity Week, an entire week of events including panels, talks, and activities aimed at fostering awareness and including students in the discussion of how we can support and embrace diversity in its many forms here at NUS College. Alongside this, I have the opportunity to manage the exchange buddy program where we pair each of our 19 exchange students with a full-time student to help them along their journey here at NUS College and in Singapore. We flesh out the exchange buddy program with orientation events as well as other welfare activities such as gift packs with local goodies and trips to notable regions in Singapore so that exchange students may better immerse themselves in the local culture.

Singapore

We founded Bro Skin as a couple of college friends who were struggling to find affordable, quality male skincare, and so we decided that we could provide it ourselves. The goal of Bro Skin has always been somewhat personal – providing simple, effective skincare to young males with the aim to cut through the overwhelming information and technicality in the skincare market and deliver something which can empower and instil confidence within each of us. The Bro Skin journey has taken me everywhere, from designing and analysing a market research survey to inform our market entry strategy, to standing in a Singapore warehouse with 1500 products from Thailand. Navigating through liaising with each of our partners along each step of the way to our commercial launch has been enriching and meaningful as I learned business negotiation and interpersonal skills. As Head of Operations, I designed the SOPs for our logistics, including warehouse operations, e-commerce integration, and direct shipping to customers. Near the end of 2023, we had the incredible opportunity to pitch to the Design Orchard programme, an initiative by the Singapore Fashion Council to promote local lifestyle brands in retail, and when we received the acceptance – we knew this was the step to take the brand to next level by featuring in a prominent shop in Orchard Road. This was a big step up from the various pop-up stalls that we had set up across Singapore into a permanent feature and it has been incredible for the brand so far. Working on a startup, especially while still in college, always pulls you in a hundred different directions at once and I always struggle to say it is easy, but it is always incredible to see how far it has brought me.

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

At Arkam I was mentored by Kunwarjeet as I worked on a project investigating potential investment targets in the Indian Insurance Industry. Kunwar’s mentorship style was more hands-off, which I appreciated as it allowed me the freedom to decide my own approach to the project and I could exercise my own intuition and research skills. At the same time, it encouraged me to take the initiative to seek guidance when needed to ensure I was on the right path. This hands-on experience exposed me to new research methods beyond poring over financial statements, I aimed to incorporate qualitative insights through judging the sentiment on articles and even reaching out directly to industry experts for short chats. This greatly helped refine the value chain I produced which positioned the stakeholders and startups in the market. And, with an hour or so staring at the data while drawing every graph possible with the team, we identified the market gaps and who our targets were. I synthesised this entire journey alongside the recommendations in a concise presentation for the senior partners – igniting a call for further research into the 2 targets.

Bachelor'S Degree, Economics

Honours College

Activities and Societies: Program Director for Residential College Horror Nights 2023: - Handled publicity for the entire event, managing.

Education record

Embarked on 1-year-long NOC program in New York City, interning at fintech startup Republic as part of the portfolio operations team

International Baccalaureate Diploma, 44

Activities and Societies: Public Relations and Communications Prefect as part of the student council, Head of the Esports Department.