Team

Operators, engineers, and program designers.

A multidisciplinary team that has spent over a decade running innovation programs for governments, enterprises and universities — now building the operating system to run them at global scale.

Leadership

The founding team.

Rajat Shahi

Rajat Shahi

Founder & CEO

Hyderabad, India

Entrepreneur, startup evangelist and community builder. Has spent over a decade designing and operating innovation programs for governments, enterprises and universities. Architect of the Hackmania operating system.

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Major Sunil Shetty, SM (Retd.)

Major Sunil Shetty, SM (Retd.)

Director & Investor

Hyderabad, India

Former Indian Army officer and recipient of the Sena Medal. Specialises in strategic business development and hands-on mentoring of high-growth ventures.

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Tarun Aellaboina

Tarun Aellaboina

Chief Business Officer

Hyderabad, India

Strategic business leader and growth executive with a track record of building, scaling and transforming high-growth businesses across India and the US.

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Core team

The people who run the programs and the platform.

Anna Metelska

Anna Metelska

Customer Experience

Hyderabad, India

Customer experience specialist focused on building exceptional program journeys for organisers, sponsors and participants.

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Rajesh Pondicherry

Rajesh Pondicherry

Government & Diplomatic Relations

Hyderabad, India

Lead for government and diplomatic engagements. Builds strategic partnerships with public-sector organisations and ministries.

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Shivani Singh

Shivani Singh

Business & Growth

Hyderabad, India

Drives business development and partner growth across enterprise and government accounts.

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Advisors & investors

Industry veterans guiding the journey.

Anuraag Gupta

Anuraag Gupta

Strategic Advisor

Bengaluru, India

Entrepreneur and operator. Built and scaled unicorns, led PE-funded staffing ventures toward IPO. Ex President & CEO First Meridian and Quess. Harvard, NYU Stern and LSE alumnus.

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Prof. Ramesh Loganathan

Prof. Ramesh Loganathan

Mentor

Hyderabad, India

Professor of Co-Innovation and Outreach at IIIT Hyderabad. Ex Chief Innovation Officer (interim) of the Telangana State Innovation Cell. Former Managing Director of Progress Software.

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Careers

Build the operating system for global innovation.

We are hiring across engineering, applied AI, product, design, program operations and partnerships. If you want to ship at the intersection of AI and innovation infrastructure, talk to us.

The Platform for Innovation

Build your next innovation program on Hackmania.

From internal innovation challenges to national-scale hackathons, Hackmania gives you the platform, intelligence, and operating system to discover what your ecosystem can build.

11+
Years
2.1M+
Builders
500+
Programs
18+
Countries