Hustle Awards 2026 Special: Akshika Wijesundara, Winner of the Top Performing Team Awards

0:01Welcome back to The Serial Entrepreneur. I'm your host, Anna Wood. In today's episode, I'm joined by Aki, co-founder of Snapdrum. We discuss Snapdrum's two-pronged approach to its AI offerings, creating a flat structure rather than a hierarchy within the company, and winning the Top Performing Team Award at the Hustle Awards 2026. Let's dig in. Welcome to the podcast today. How are you doing? I'm really good, and thank you very much for inviting me. Thank you, Anna. Yes, thank you for coming on. So to begin each podcast episode, we start with our signature icebreaker question, which is what is your favorite breakfast cereal and why?

0:40Oh, wow. I'm going to be super boring about this. I would say I would go with like traditional like cornflakes. That's my stuff I go to. It's so reliable and doesn't have a lot of taste in the morning. So I like that. You know what? Fair enough. so would you be able to introduce yourself and tell me a bit about your background yes for sure so i'm aki so my background has been always in computer science machine learning i've trained as a computer scientist and then to become machine learning engineer done a phd postdoc i've been down that road and then i have sort of worked with leading firms like google by MIT and then recently I was head of engineering at a hedge fund based out of London.

1:28It was my last role before I started my own journey. I've always been a tinkerer, builder. I tried to like do these small hustles while I was at school and then sort of that led to becoming the entrepreneur I am right now. But yeah, that's my, I'd say the quick story. Yeah, perfect. So you're an entrepreneur right now and one of the co-founders of Snapdrum. So could you talk a bit more about Snapdrum and what you do there? Yeah, for sure. So Snapdrum has like two avenues. So one is we have an AI consultancy arm. So we do advisory, we build into an AI product. So what that means is like that we sort of understand business sort of requirements.

2:09So and then sort of build products for them. This could be like rack systems, multi-agent systems, could be even things like setting up an agent to improve their business processes. So all of these are like very custom built. So that means like we look at the existing processes and then we sort of like build that for the client. So that's one part of the business. So we also have the education arm, which is TIE Labs. So we went through a bit of a transformation with the naming. So now it's called TIE Labs. So it stands for the AI Labs. so the focus has been we strongly believe that the the whole job replacement people getting fired because of AI is not the way to go about this I feel like people need to get upskilled and that's what I strongly believe in because people already have the skills that they need to do their job so they have the domain knowledge what they need is a bit of help with understanding how to use AI and utilize that domain knowledge like actually excel so this is something myself and my co-hunter to really believe in and because of that we started this arm so we started with this doing live classes and one-on-one coaching and now sort of went on to build platform so we like taught over like 50 ,000 people so far so that's the other aspect of the business that we do we sort of like do these like live courses custom training b2b and also we have a platform that sort of like use ai to like help people learn ai yeah great so what was the inspiration behind starting snapdrum and having these two kind of prompt approach?

3:42Yeah, I think like, I would say like two things, right? And definitely the time was quite crucial for us. AI was mature enough. And there's also the founder problem fit, I would say. So I have a background in machine learning. And this is like the right kind of problem and area to be in at this point with the old GPT boom and everything. So that was like one time. The timing was perfect. and also I've always been super passionate about like teaching and sort of like educating people and AI is my thing right so because that I thought okay hey why don't we sort of like start something like this and similarly my co-founder has the same sort of idea he's really passionate about it so that's that's why we sort of like came to this conclusion and we are builders as well so like what's best way to like sort of live our builder sort of dream is pretty much to sort of like look at these very asymmetric problems and then go and like build solutions using AI and the more more I use AI the more AI solutions I build I'm seeing like this it's just we're just scratching the surface there's like so much that needs to get explored so for us like on business we have a lot of agents that are running right now to complement the team the humans so that's like quite helpful for us to like being a very small like startup for us to like to the 10x of output it's pure because like we use ai it's not just we go and build stuff outside we also use it internally a lot yeah okay so how long ago was the startup founded i mean officially i would say two years ago so but i think like i've been doing this on the side for a very long time like Like maybe four years ago, we started on the side, like doing teaching, doing sort of building these things.

5:31And then formally sort of like sort of quit my job and then started like two years ago. I think I would say that that's like the official date I give normally. Yeah, great. So we're here because Snapdram won the Top Performing Team Award at the Hustle Awards this year. So congratulations on that. Thank you very much. Yeah. so how did how did winning a hustle award make you feel and what does that mean for the company i think it means a lot for us for for a small team like us to have a recognition like that it's amazing because like if you look at the other winners and the winners in the past has been like people who have done great stuff so it's always inspiring to be among that crowd so i highly like i'm grateful for the award and like team is really happy as well but yeah i'm super excited and like hopefully win more awards in the future yes hopefully so so you mentioned that you are a smooth team so i believe that you stayed quite lean as a team of four what was the thought behind staying so lean um to be honest like we try to keep our costs low as well but i think like there are a few aspects to this one is obviously like if you blow it super fast like it's very hard to manage and when you have like small number of sort of direct reports it's relatively easy to see like how things go and then it's very it doesn't add a lot of overhead into the operations so we try to do that anyway like whoever there is i did directly report to like we've sort of hired a few people right now but it reports to my co-founder myself directly rather than going through anybody else because we want to keep the structure quite flat rather than this hierarchy and also like we're leveraging a lot of AI so that's the other issue whenever we have a problem what we do is like try and solve that using AI like if there's a hiring the first thing we try to do is like can we do this with AI so we try and do that sometimes it is too complex automate it might take a bit of time to automate like so when the demand is there we hire but before hiring we try and do it with ai and see if we can do that and because ai if it's done right it's a lot it's repeatable and they're tired so it's helpful the rest of the team to like take off that load and focus on the creative aspects and doing repetitive tasks that you need to be like doing as a human so so i think like those are some of the reasons for us like to try and stay lean that using AI cost and like having a team that can move super fast.

8:08So those are some of the reasons, yeah. Great. So you mentioned that you have more of a flat structure rather than a hierarchy. What was the thought behind that? Yeah, I think like, I guess it was a natural thing as well when we sort of like building the business. Like we experienced that having, whenever we try to hire people under someone, like there's like, there's no clear sort of like communication that, I mean, obviously it comes through with like maybe some delay but so it's ideally if we can sort of like get people to like communicate directly to us we have a lot more control over speed and like what gets executed so that i think that is something startups have compared to bigger firms and like we should like try to be in that stage as much as possible like actually the size point of view because like that's going to give us the speed that we need like if something is broken we can fix it faster if we need to build something we can build it much faster i think i think i saw somewhere as well like nvidia ceo jensen hong like he he mentioned he has like 60 direct reports and those guys who manage the entire company i think they have like i don't know how i can't remember exactly how many people are in nvidia right now but that sort of like 60 direct reports who get on a group call with him would generally sort of like get what is needed to be done so i think like those are some of the inspiration but practically like when we're operating i've noticed it's much more like better to like try and have this flat structure yeah yeah so what do you think makes your team so strong that's a very good question i think the people that work with us generally people are looking for not just a job like so people are like who really want to like pro point like who really want to excel in their like craft whether it's a designer whether it's a engineer they really care about their stuff rather than just doing a job which i have no issue people doing just jobs but for us like it's helpful like somebody who's passionate about their craft so it's like works because we care about our stuff so anybody who joins the team need to like have a bit more than the foundational skills because it's helpful like early stage startups to have somebody like who cares a bit more so i think like that's something we have like look for getting higher as well so people like who have done something outside their normal sort of like work like done like i don't know it doesn't matter like they run a marathon like whatever that is so they've cared about something beyond what they normally do so those kind of people tend to like work really well and that seems to be like a good filter for us like look at these people and people who have gone through difficult periods in their life like people like who had to like fight through some difficulty but there's an education in their life.

10:45So those people have like lived through bad periods and now they can still like more resilient and do things much better. Those kinds of people like work really well with us and I've seen like we have like a really, I would say a bunch of misfits like got together in a really nice team and we sort of like feed off each other's energy and yeah, we got a really amazing team. Like I'm so grateful to have our team Like just, yeah, everybody's like, I guess like at a top level. So it's got to be helpful for us. Yeah. Great. So going more onto the journey so far, what would you say have been some of the biggest challenges on the Snapdron journey?

11:24And how did you manage to overcome them? I mean, yeah, startups like every day is a challenge, I would say. Obviously, figuring it out, like every couple of months or so, we kind of had to reinvent ourselves because the business expands. So that means that we face a bunch of new problems. So generally things like, which I didn't know before, like all kinds of taxes, all kinds of logistical stuff, those kinds of things to get exposed to. So you need to like sort of like handle that as they come. So I think like every time, whenever that comes through, like myself and my co-founder, we have a chat and figure out, okay, I mean like this is a price you had to pay to play the game.

12:06So that's the condensation we have because you have to like figure out figure these things out if you're like play the startup game so so that's that's the second decision we generally have and yeah i think like some of the things is around like um hiring uh just like finding right people who are passionate about like so we carefully hire as much as possible so we try not to over hire we go through like bunch of interviews and also like we sort of carefully optimize our set of like hiring flow where we give paid assignments people to work with us for a short period of time before they get the opportunity to work with us rather than just like a free assignment that they do like we pay for their time so in that way we can actually see how they work so those kind of things it's helpful for us to handle like the hiring side we heavily use checklists so funnily enough like so we we try to like create processes wherever possible like when things are needs to get done so i learned this for my co-founder.

13:04He's like a really good process person. So he sort of bring about his experience doing this kind of work before. So we learned that having these processes in place is quite helpful. So if somebody is not there who's initiated the work, somebody else can pick that up if you have a checklist. So having this kind of processes in place is quite helpful. And I think like every startup should actually like follow something like that eventually when it's like repetitive tasks. And yeah, and speed. like so we operate at 10x time compared to any of our sort of competitors or peers i know that 100 like so nobody can like out compete us with speed like we are quite fast and we will stick to that as much as possible we can into the future and that's one of our superpowers of not just our general skill set in the domain but like we operate super fast so i think like those are some of the ways we get over like any of the hurdles like i trade super fast and then like look at these processes and then like learn from our mistakes yeah yeah so on the flip side of that question what would you say have been some of the biggest highlights on the snap drum journey i think like having like the first client was super exciting i think like that was the first win for us so we we got a like australian client like who was just like good enough like to put a bit on us like to to get us to do a consultation and build something for them it was quite interesting uh that's one of them and also like we are the highest rated air engineering boot camp on like on maven so which is like a platform in the u.s a marketplace that teaches uh the the top tier sort of like ices in the u.s and we are the highest air engineering boot camp there and we are one of the fastest growing schools in there so that is like quite phenomenal like there aren't a lot of like British sort of founders operating there.

14:57I haven't seen many in the top 100 at all. So I think like we are like the top three. So overall instructors there. So that was been amazing. Like so winning that and like going that, keeping that momentum. These are like really experienced like SVPs at Google, all of these are becoming like these instructors. Like, so we are relatively small, but we are sort of like fighting in the big leagues. So I think like that's another win for us. It's like, yeah, both of us being British and then like sort of like pushing through it's like amazing i think like those are some of the things and then again obviously the award uh it was quite nice to have that uh like we really cherish that yeah whenever i get on a call like i tell people hey hey we got an award so i think like those are some of the wins for us being really happy and and even like getting through different difficult periods i mean that's helpful like whatever that is i think like it helps us to like reflect and sort of like move on like doesn't doesn't everything have to be like really perfect for us like it's part of the journey for us to like learn and sort of like improve and become new version of the startup we are yeah yeah i think earlier you mentioned you work really fast do you think you get a lot of time for reflection on maybe what went wrong or what could have been done better in a sense like yes definitely we do reflection but at the same time it's done super of us i think like not slow reflection i would say fast reflection don't have time to actually do so slow reflection i would love to but i think like i wouldn't have much time for that so we say yeah definitely do reflect do check like take stock like when whenever we do something like whether it goes wrong goes bad like amazing whatever that is we definitely do reflect and And yeah, so it is not as, I would say, a slow reflection.

16:46It's more of a fast reflection we do, yeah. Great. So what have been some of the biggest lessons that you've learned on the entrepreneur journey so far? I think it's definitely non-linear. It's not obvious. It's not what it's set out to be. Unless you start something, I have a massive respect to all the entrepreneurs out there after starting something. so I think like definitely like it's definitely hard work especially do like a full-time startup like because you have to pay your bills like so all of these things you need to manage and I think like that's that's one part of it the other aspect is like making sure that we move fast in the sense like in every aspect like even like for example if a client messages you like we need to like get back to them super fast and especially like a new prospect like if somebody that's your interest if you don't close them like relatively fast that lead sort of like gets called and then you lose the lead so those kind of things like you learn by experience and I think like all of these are now baked into our processes like whenever we do get a lead you need to reply within like a couple of hours and like somebody needs to like flag that all of these and funnily enough we operate whatsapp uh the entire company so far we tried slack it was kind slow and we came back to Slack, WhatsApp again.

18:08So it's helpful for us to like keep communication much faster. So we will try our best to like stay there as much as possible. And we have like thousands of WhatsApp groups now, like, so I don't know what to do with it when we sort of evolve into a bigger firm. So I think like, yeah, those are some of the things and principles we need, like we try to follow, like from our learnings where like speed, like, and then like sort of like bringing these processes in place as much as possible for us to like can move faster. yeah okay so looking at the journey so far what is one lesson or piece of advice that either you could give to another founder or if you could go back in time and tell yourself before the journey i think i mean obviously i told the thing about speed i think like that's coward but i think like if you are interested in doing a startup go for it i think that that's the best kind of experience you could have it is it is amazing like yeah it will be painful sometimes definitely i'm not gonna lie it's difficult but the experience wise the person you become going through that it's it's unmatched with any kind of experience you may like it's very hard to like create that experience so i think like at least as a life experience try doing that it'd be amazing and i think like go for it if you ever have an idea because the idea doesn't really matter until it kind of hits the market like you sort of like top that like the initial idea we had to have transformed a bunch of times and it will continue to get transformed so entrepreneur journey is pretty much looking at this and sort of like doing these iterations super fast every couple of weeks every month whether it's a very strong pivot or maybe like some iteration of that so you'll have to do that so so until you start doing something it wouldn't make sense you won't be able to like achieve your greatness like i think like what's sitting between you becoming that 2.0 version of yourself is that jumping into doing that so take go for it yeah yeah so kind of rounding off the episode now what does the future hold for snap drum and yourself do you have any big plans in the pipeline that you can discuss yeah i think like so we initially launched thai labs which is our sort of this AI platform that helps enterprise upscale super fast.

20:22So this is, we onboard the entire team to our platform. So each individual in your team could go through their AI journey, whether it's like learning cloud, whether it's AI fundamentals, whatever that is, which are relatively affordable price. And we leverage a lot of AI to help you sort of improve your learning. And I feel like that's going to be a huge hit. And I think like there's a lot of demand for it. EdTech Space is quite competitive. Like the AI EdTech Space is quite competitive. But at the same time, we are in a good position to like leverage this, looking at the patterns, et cetera. So I think like Tile Labs is our sort of like biggest bet in the next, I would say next year or so, at least like this version.

21:04And I think like, yeah, sort of like getting a lot of people onboarded. We already have around like a thousand people going through the platform, but we would like to like get more sort of like enterprise clients in sort of like trying to see how to like help them upscale and how to like get that productivity gains from ai uh i think that yeah that's the biggest focus for us in the next few months great so to completely round it off now is there anything that you wanted to add or anything that you wanted to plug at the end of today's episode i think like i just want to thank you guys i mean especially you thank you for taking in the time to like appreciate us it means a lot because we don't have time to do that ourselves uh it's quite grateful like you guys do that for us and yeah and also i want to thank my team everyone like um yeah i think my co-founder my sort of like work colleagues family everybody has been like super supportive like this is not easy uh to like do this like it's mean like family has been super helpful like just my sort of like sleepless nights and everything just like just been there to help me throughout.

22:12I think like at least the first few years is going to be like this and everybody in my family understand this and obviously yeah and do something great in the coming years that's the only hope yeah. Yeah well thank you for doing what you do. The life of a founder is not easy as many founders say. Yeah. So yeah thank you so much for coming on the episode today. It's been great talking to you and learning more about Snapdram and once again congratulations on winning the top performing team award at the Hustle Awards this year. Thank you very much, Anna. Thank you very much for inviting. Yeah, thank you.

22:46And hopefully we'll speak soon. Yeah, 100%. If you like this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and check out Startup Magazine's socials to stay up to date on the latest Startups news.