Hello, I'm Om Desai
get to know me
Enabler
B.Tech, Computer Science and Design, 2023–2027
I like helping people see what they can do themselves. I do it with clear communication, and with systems I first built when I was working by myself. These days I do this as a Founder's Office intern at Shivansh AI & Innovation Labs.
If something needs doing, I treat it as mine.
Nxog began as a WhatsApp group for study material, became a website with 12,000+ clicks, and stayed alive through exam periods. When NSS needed people for its causes, I turned marketer and pitched class to class, and trip sign-ups went from 39 to 110. ISTE had been dormant for about ten years when the faculty coordinator gave me a leadership role, not an executor role. So I spent the year developing people and process instead of doing the work myself, and we ran seven events for 363 attendees.
When something works, I write it down so someone else can use it.
My placement interview playbook covers the self-intro, three kinds of technical questions, and explaining a project. It isn't all mine. It's drawn from advice HR and tech leaders shared with me, and it has helped 20+ students get placed. At Shivansh I built Working With Me with AI help: a questionnaire that tells a team of five how each person likes to work.
The biggest roadblock is rarely outside. It's inside the team.
Someone feels they don't belong or feels neglected, egos clash, or someone doubts what they're capable of. I've met all of these with classmates and juniors. At the Ancient Intelligence Lab, which I started unofficially as a safe place to build confidence, creativity and courage, 70+ applied across three cohorts, 14 were offered a place and 7 graduated. I worked with them through fear and ambiguity and challenged them on purpose, and the Courage module ended with each student organising their own performance.
Coordination is the most expensive cost once a team grows. I try to keep it low.
I write clearly on every channel. In meetings I make sure every voice is heard, and anyone who misses one gets the takeaways. For Margdarshanam, a placement-simulation event, I coordinated over 60 people in one day with an SOP, checklists and voice notes, and every attendee still got individual feedback. When I present, I keep it simple enough that nobody thinks it's rocket science, and I watch that the room is still with me.
I've handled other people's money and data.
I looked after a freshers' event budget of about ₹1.4 lakh. For the NSS trip I collected ₹88,000 and refunded ₹16,500, because NSS doesn't keep profit. I kept the 200+ student NSS volunteer database and the placement cell's company and student records. Crack Your First Job (omdesai.in/cyfj), which I built with AI help, puts placement news from three colleges in one place and has 255 active users.
I like to know each person individually, so I'll pick a real conversation over a polite hello. I push teammates to reach their full potential. I ask for feedback regularly and act on it, which sometimes makes my process slow. It works.
Got something nobody owns? Write to me.
Perspective Dealer
I observe stationary moments of life and turn them into stimulating philosophical takeaways.
The Rule-Breaking Era. Don't know much about being born, but before I learned to break actual rules, I broke three cycles at home. Peak toddler chaos.
The Great Escape Era. Ran away from school to home: 13 kilometers on foot (sorry, no Rapido back then). Classic overreaction.
The Breakthrough Era. Finally spoke 3 sentences in a fancy dress competition. After 3 years of just standing on stage and staring at everyone, words happened.
The Billion Dollar Team Era. Cracked the code to win the science fair (first of 50 projects) and demolished standards 10-12. Hit them hard on the face. Their ego, precisely.
The Rank-One Era. Took first rank in two of the four rounds I entered at a district Mahabharat Olympiad, with 70,000+ students in the field.
The Addiction Recovery Era. Came out of my Clash of Clans madness. Used to wake up at 2 AM just to keep my builder busy. Dark times.
The Golden Era. Best years of my life: friends, ambition, rocked every possible aspect. I'll tell you these stories in person. On paper: a ₹50,000 SSIP grant at SOIC, and a semi-final at Eureka Juniors, IIT Bombay.
The Failure & Discovery Era. Yes, I failed Std 12. Got sponsorship deals for a friend's 260k+ YouTube channel. Best memory: my 47 lines of chat took one deal from $50 to $100.
The Reset Era. Back on track, explored everything possible, discovered myself. Week one: volunteered to speak in front of about 50 people, no plan. Then talked to one new person a day for a month.
The Truth Seeker Era. Became a curious explorer, trying to seek TRUTH at ADIT. (Yes, I actually framed it that way in Sem 2.)
The Storytelling Era. Learned storytelling. A dear friend helped me realize my gift of writing. I wrote 14 stories about college life. You can read them all. Also got named college Best Speaker in Sem 4.
The Execution Era. Finally got the courage to EXECUTE things. No more just thinking, time to do.
The Leadership Era. Got my hands dirty enabling people to do things they didn't want to, or hadn't liked, doing.
The People & Politics Era. Got hands-on with how people actually work together, egos and conflicts included. Developed my own way of getting through it.
Reading recommendations are always welcome. So is a conversation, if you know the reference: “How’d you solve the icing problem?”