Rajiv K. Chawla is one of India's most respected SME coaches — a practitioner who had spent years helping small and medium businesses fix the operational and strategic gaps that keep them stuck. When he decided to formalise that knowledge into a structured coaching program, he needed a partner who could build the entire commercial engine around it.
That's where I came in. GAPS — Growth Accelerator Program for SMEs — had the content and the credibility. What it didn't have was a complete GTM system: no performance marketing infrastructure, no digital presence built for conversion, no program delivery technology, and no clear go-to-market sequencing for reaching SME founders at scale.
I designed and deployed the full stack. That included the positioning and messaging strategy to differentiate GAPS in a crowded coaching market, the performance marketing architecture across paid search, social, and retargeting, the tech infrastructure to support online and offline program delivery, and the launch sequencing that turned initial interest into enrolled cohorts.
The result was a program that went from zero to multi-crore revenue — with a repeatable acquisition model that could scale cohort over cohort. GAPS became a case study in what happens when genuine expertise meets a disciplined, well-funded GTM engine built from first principles.
This engagement is what built my deep understanding of the Indian SME sector. We spoke directly with 6,000+ SME founders across industries, geographies, and revenue sizes — learning how they think, what they fear, and what actually moves them to act.
It also taught me how to sell high-ticket programs at ₹2 lakh and above per unit — understanding what makes a founder trust you with that kind of commitment. Credibility, specificity, and proof are the only things that close at that price point.
This on-ground exposure is the foundation of everything I now build for MSMEs, including Grantsetu.
