Lead Story

Slumdog Superstar Rising Against Gravity

The story of Alakh Pandey, the founder of edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah, begins at a slum of Allahabad, pauses at the billion-dollar milestone and imagines an ending where every student in the country becomes its equal character

Prateek Maheshwari (left), co-founder of PhysicsWallah with Alakh Pandey

The auditorium was filled to its capacity and a long queue of youngsters waited outside. As he took the stage, there was a deafening roar from the audience. “Alakh sir…,” they shouted. He is not a sports star or a film actor. He is Alakh Pandey, the co-founder and CEO of edtech start-up PhysicsWallah, or PW, as it is popularly addressed.