From the Corporate World to Entrepreneurial Journey: EarlyJobs CEO Champions Recruitment Reform

PNN
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 5: In an industry dominated by first-time entrepreneurs and tech-focused founders, EarlyJobs stands out with leadership that brings decades of corporate expertise to the recruitment technology space. Asish Chakraborty, Co-Founder and CEO of the rapidly expanding hiring platform, has leveraged his 20-year pharmaceutical industry career to build a recruitment model that's reshaping how India connects talent with opportunity.
When Asish joined EarlyJobs, he was drawn to the company's innovative origins. The platform had evolved from Victaman, Saurav Kumar's youth empowerment initiative that unexpectedly revealed a significant market gap. While Victaman attracted numerous women with recruitment backgrounds seeking flexible work after career breaks and students eager for internship experiences, it wasn't built to handle recruitment operations at scale. Asish saw tremendous potential in this challenge--an opportunity to apply his corporate expertise to transform this grassroots concept into a sophisticated recruitment ecosystem. His pharmaceutical industry experience proved invaluable in structuring EarlyJobs' operations to support both experienced professionals returning to work and young talent entering the field, while implementing the systems needed for enterprise-grade service delivery.
"My years in corporate leadership taught me what companies truly need in their talent acquisition process," explains Chakraborty, who joined EarlyJobs as CEO in February 2025 after nearly three years as Regional Sales Manager at Lupin. "I've experienced firsthand the frustrations of lengthy hiring process, mismatched candidates, and the challenges of finding quality talent beyond tier-1 cities." With an MBA from the Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Chakraborty is passionate about transforming the employment sector by promoting freelancers and empowering women to work from home.
This perspective has been instrumental in shaping EarlyJobs' distinctive approach to recruitment. Unlike conventional platforms that focus primarily on technology, EarlyJobs has pioneered a hybrid model that combines AI-driven matching with a distributed network of human recruiters--a strategy that Chakraborty credits to his experience managing field teams across multiple regions.
"In pharmaceuticals, I learnt that technology alone can't replace human judgment and relationship building," he notes. "Our platform leverages technology to enhance human capabilities rather than attempting to eliminate the human element completely."
Asish's corporate journey spans some of India's most respected pharmaceutical companies, including leadership roles at Lupin, Biocon, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Biocon, and Piramal Healthcare. This progression through increasingly senior positions provided him with invaluable insights into organizational structures, talent needs, and the critical factors that determine successful hiring.
Perhaps most significantly, his experience managing teams across diverse regions of India--from metropolitan hubs to smaller cities--shaped EarlyJobs' commitment to geographical inclusivity. The platform now operates in 150+ cities, connecting talent from non-metropolitan areas with opportunities they might otherwise never discover.
"Having managed businesses across Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, I saw exceptional talent in smaller markets that often remained invisible to companies based in major cities," Chakraborty explains. "This realization directly influenced our decision to build a platform that transcends geographical limitations."
His expertise in building and managing distributed teams has proven particularly valuable in developing EarlyJobs' network of 200+ freelance recruiters, over 80% of whom are women working remotely. This model enables flexibility while maintaining quality standards--a balance that Chakraborty perfected during his years overseeing field teams in the pharmaceutical industry.
"The skills required to manage a geographically dispersed sales force transfer remarkably well to operating a distributed recruiter network," he observes. "Both require clear communication, standardized processes, performance-based incentives, and regular quality checks."
EarlyJobs also provides valuable internship opportunities for students and aspiring recruiters looking to gain hands-on experience in the recruitment field. The internship program serves as an entry point for young talent to learn recruitment processes, develop skills in candidate sourcing and screening, and eventually transition into freelance recruitment roles.
Since stepping into the role of CEO at EarlyJobs, Asish Chakraborty has led the company through a phase of rapid and strategic growth. Under his leadership, the platform has successfully placed over 1,300+ candidates and partnered with 50+ enterprise clients, including prominent names like Flipkart, Cogent, Star Health Insurance, and Teleperformance. Today, EarlyJobs actively oversees nearly 3,000 open roles across multiple sectors, reinforcing its position as a dynamic force in India's recruitment space.
This rapid scaling reflects another strength Chakraborty brings from his corporate background: the ability to build and maintain relationships with enterprise clients. His experience working with institutional customers and key opinion leaders in pharmaceuticals prepared him well for navigating the complex decision-making processes of major corporations.
"Enterprise sales cycles are remarkably similar across industries," he notes. "Understanding organizational hierarchies, identifying decision-makers, demonstrating clear ROI, and providing consistent service quality--these principles apply whether you're selling pharmaceuticals or recruitment services."
Asish's transition from established corporations to a growth-stage startup represents a significant career pivot, but one that he describes as a natural evolution. "Throughout my corporate career, I was consistently drawn to growth challenges and market development opportunities. Leading EarlyJobs allows me to apply those same skills while building something truly transformative."
His academic background--combining life sciences, microbiology, and business administration--has also informed his multidisciplinary approach to leadership. "In science, you learn to analyze complex systems with multiple variables--a skill that's directly applicable to building and scaling a platform like EarlyJobs."
With fresh capital now secured, Asish is executing an expansion plan that draws directly from his pharmaceutical industry playbook. Having previously scaled regional operations across diverse Indian markets, he's applying similar principles to EarlyJobs' ambitious growth strategy. The company aims to onboard 10,000 recruiters by late 2025 while establishing a nationwide network of 750+ franchise recruitment centers. 'The franchise model was inspired by pharmaceutical distribution networks,' Asish explains. 'Just as those networks efficiently deliver medicines to remote areas, our recruitment franchises will bring economic opportunities to entrepreneurs and job seekers across India's diverse geographical landscape.' This approach doesn't just extend EarlyJobs' reach--it creates an entirely new category of small business owners who can establish their own recruitment agencies under the company's umbrella.
"Our vision is to facilitate 1 million job opportunities monthly by 2027," he shares. "This isn't just an ambitious business target--it represents a genuine opportunity to impact livelihoods across India, particularly in regions traditionally underserved by the digital economy."
Asish's leadership style--combining corporate discipline with startup agility--has created a distinctive culture at EarlyJobs. Team members describe an environment that balances structured processes with entrepreneurial flexibility, maintaining quality standards while encouraging innovation. This dual perspective informs EarlyJobs' zero-subscription, pay-per-hire model, which eliminates upfront costs for clients. Companies pay only when they successfully onboard candidates, ensuring alignment between the platform's success and client outcomes--an approach that reflects Asish's focus on delivering measurable results. Additionally, EarlyJobs offers replacement benefits, providing another candidate without additional cost if the hired candidate leaves within the guarantee period.
"In pharmaceuticals, everything is measured by outcomes--sales figures, market share, prescription data," he observes. "I've brought that same results-oriented mindset to EarlyJobs. We succeed only when our clients succeed in finding the right talent."
The company's mission extends beyond just creating a business; it's about empowering individuals across five distinct groups: experienced recruiters seeking remote work flexibility, aspiring professionals gaining hands-on recruitment experience through internships, employed recruiters looking to earn additional income in their spare time, colleges and universities seeking in-campus internship programs, and entrepreneurs wanting to establish recruitment agencies through franchise opportunities.
As India's hiring needs shift toward efficiency and flexibility, Asish's corporate experience and startup vision position EarlyJobs to lead the transformation--bridging traditional recruitment with modern, agile solutions for both companies and talent.
"The future of work requires solutions that understand both the boardroom and Bharat," concludes Asish. "That's the perspective I'm privileged to bring to EarlyJobs--and it's the foundation of our approach to reimagining recruitment for India's next growth chapter."
(ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)