At 18, he missed out on IIT and BITS. 30 years later, BITS gave him a startup award

There was a time when Gaurav Kheterpal would shut his ears whenever someone mentioned BITS Pilani. At 18, the institution represented a dream he had narrowly missed. After appearing for the JEE three times between 1995 and 1997 without making it to an IIT, Kheterpal missed the BITS Pilani cutoff by less than 0.5 percent.

Decades later, the same institution became part of his academic journey, this time as a master’s student. Recently, BITS Pilani honoured him with a Startup Excellence Award for his entrepreneurial journey with Vanshiv Technologies.

In a recent post on X, Kheterpal recalled how deeply the setback had affected him. He wrote that he would “shut my ears” whenever anyone mentioned BITS Pilani.

FROM A TIER-3 COLLEGE TO THAPAR

Kheterpal eventually joined what he describes as a Tier-3 college. Rather than allowing his entrance-exam results to define his academic journey, he continued studying and topped a lateral entrance examination.

That achievement helped him move to a Tier-2 college. His academic journey eventually took him to Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, where he completed a BE in Computer Science between 1997 and 2001.

Yet BITS Pilani, the institution he had narrowly missed at 18, would eventually become part of his academic journey.

HE RETURNED TO BITS, THIS TIME AS A MASTER'S STUDENT

In 2002, Kheterpal returned to BITS Pilani as a postgraduate student, pursuing an MS in Software Systems from 2002 to 2004.

The institution that had once represented an academic disappointment had now become part of his higher education.

He later attended an executive programme in Mastering Innovation & Design Thinking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2019. Kheterpal has described studying at MIT as one of his dreams and said he was nominated for the programme by his then employer, MTX.

He went on to build a career in technology and entrepreneurship, working with organisations including Metacube and MTX Group before founding Vanshiv Technologies, which focuses on data, AI and CRM. He is also a Google Developer Expert in AI and a Salesforce MVP Hall of Fame member.

THE IIT-BITS SETBACK DID NOT END HIS JOURNEY

At 18, Kheterpal had missed an IIT seat after three JEE attempts and then fell short of the BITS Pilani cutoff by less than half a percentage point. Years later, he studied at Thapar and BITS Pilani, attended an executive programme at MIT and built a career in technology and entrepreneurship.

His journey eventually brought him back to the institution that had once been a source of disappointment. This time, BITS Pilani honoured him with a Startup Excellence Award.