From Campus to Codebase: How WinZO Is Working With IIMs to Shape Consumer Tech Talent

With student teams from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Bangalore, and FMS Delhi, the BOSS program brings real product problems, IP exposure, and mentorship directly to campuses.

India’s top management campuses are no strangers to consulting case studies and business simulations. But in a notable shift, students at institutions like IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Bangalore, and FMS Delhi spent their recent semester solving for something far more grounded live product challenges faced by WinZO, a homegrown consumer tech platform with over 250 million users across India, Brazil, and the United States.

This interaction took place under the fifth edition of BOSS – Battle of Super Scholars, a structured initiative designed by WinZO to draw top-tier management talent into real-time collaboration with its internal product and strategy teams. BOSS is not just a branding contest or placement pipeline. It is part of WinZO’s effort to turn academic insight into export-quality product innovation through practical engagement, long-form mentoring, and exposure to live tech infrastructure.

WinZO, launched in 2018 and co-founded by Paavan Nanda, has grown into one of India’s largest consumer tech ventures with a focus on gaming, short-format content, and vernacular digital services. The company’s internal strength lies in its tech stack with over 100 technology patents spanning live streaming, real-time multiplayer engines, GenAI-powered localisation tools, one-click game onboarding, and fraud mitigation systems powered by behavioral AI. BOSS is the company’s academic extension of its internal R&D mindset, with the aim of building long-term pipelines of product thinkers, not just hires.

At the core of BOSS is a simple structure: student teams receive access to real problem statements from within WinZO’s global product roadmap. This year’s edition focused on areas including GenAI integration, global monetisation for emerging markets, IP scalability in the US and LATAM, and vernacular user experience formats. In return, selected student teams received access to deep mentorship from product leads and CXOs, exposure to global teams, and structured learning on intellectual property strategy, go-to-market planning, and data-driven UX testing.

The 2025 edition of BOSS was held under the umbrella of WinZO’s Global Center of Excellence, which the company co-established with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The initiative focuses on embedding talent-building frameworks within high-performing startups by bringing students into long-term collaboration formats distinct from typical internships or case studies.

Winners of this edition were announced on 14 August 2025. Topping the charts was the team of Avinash Sharma and Mashale Prajyot Umakant from IIM Lucknow. Runner-up recognitions were jointly awarded to Sangye Choden and Anwesha Das from IIM Calcutta, as well as Dr. Indumathi S and Nupur Kokate, also from IIM Calcutta. Abhinav Kothari and Rishab Dhir from IIM Lucknow secured third runner-up, while Riya Chaudhary from IIM Bangalore was awarded a direct foreign exchange opportunity.

Select winners will receive access to global exchange programs with top universities, early-stage product incubations, shadow roles with WinZO’s internal teams, and equity-inclusive internship packages. According to the company, BOSS is not a recruitment strategy but an ecosystem strategy bringing industry-level intensity to classrooms and offering high-potential students a front-row view of what it takes to scale product decisions across geographies.

In his note on the 2025 edition, Paavan Nanda, Co-founder of WinZO, stated:
“Our greatest investment has always been in people, the kind who can move fast, think originally, and respond to users at scale. We’re not here to make decks. We’re here to build. And that mindset needs to be seeded while students are still in classrooms.”

Faculty members across campuses echoed the relevance of this shift. Professor Viswanath Pingali from IIM Ahmedabad noted that India’s consumer tech sector is now positioned not just to serve, but to lead the global IP conversation. Professor Prem Prakash Dewani from IIM Lucknow emphasised that programs like BOSS serve as “launchpads for India’s tech leadership.” Professor Amit Bardhan from FMS Delhi added that the relevance lies not in competition, but in aligning academic frameworks with industry pressure and real product constraints.

WinZO’s internal team, now 200+ members strong, includes professionals from Google, Meta, Flipkart, and Microsoft, many of whom serve as direct mentors for BOSS participants. These sessions often go beyond ideation covering legal frameworks around international expansion, payment flows in fragmented markets, and user retention strategies in high-churn segments.

As WinZO prepares to expand its content and payments stack in Brazil, the U.S., and possibly Southeast Asia, its hiring and mentoring strategies are increasingly global. However, its talent engine continues to be anchored in India especially in academic ecosystems that combine analytical thinking with consumer insight.
For WinZO, the BOSS program is not a PR campaign. It is part of a long-term investment in shaping the next layer of product leadership from within India’s academic networks. Unlike sponsored hackathons or pitch fests, BOSS builds on repeated exposure, structured problem-solving, and co-authorship of real prototypes and frameworks. With growing interest from other institutions, the program may be expanded into Tier 2 cities through its Bharat Tech Triumph Program (BTTP), allowing wider participation from emerging campuses.

As the conversation around “tech for India, by India” evolves into a more globally calibrated ambition, the BOSS program sits right at the intersection bridging institutional knowledge, applied experimentation, and startup urgency.
Prittle Prattle News, Featuring You Virtuously, is proud to feature this initiative as an example of how consumer tech brands can drive purposeful talent partnerships without waiting for graduation day.

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