New York, NYCo-FounderOperatorBSc (Hons) Computer Science

Salar Khan Thakur

Founder and operator who turns communities into revenue.

I co-founded CONNECT, grew it to $2.85M in platform revenue with zero paid acquisition, and saw it acquired by a U.S. hospitality group in March 2026. Alongside it I built the go-to-market strategy that took a VC-backed consumer app to 55,000+ users in 8 months.

Go-to-market strategy
B2B sales
Growth analytics
AI tooling
Team leadership

View my work Contact me LinkedIn

$2.85Mplatform revenue at CONNECT with zero paid acquisition

350K+combined audience across 138 events in 42 U.S. and U.K. markets

55K+users at Cerca Dating in 8 months

178+venue partnerships across DC, NYC, LA, London and Chicago

CONNECTCerca DatingCompassdotAfterhour SocietySilencioCONNECTCerca DatingCompassdotAfterhour SocietySilencioCONNECTCerca DatingCompassdotAfterhour SocietySilencioCONNECTCerca DatingCompassdotAfterhour SocietySilencio

138 events42 markets$2.85M revenue350K+ audience178+ venuesAcquired 2026138 events42 markets$2.85M revenue350K+ audience178+ venuesAcquired 2026138 events42 markets$2.85M revenue350K+ audience178+ venuesAcquired 2026138 events42 markets$2.85M revenue350K+ audience178+ venuesAcquired 2026

01 / About

About me

I started CONNECT in my first year of a computer science degree and ran it through to an acquisition before I graduated.

The work was equal parts sales, data and live production. I recruited and led a sales team of 45 to 55 people, sold sponsorships directly to founders, built an agentic tool with Claude to prioritize our outbound leads, and personally negotiated venues for 138+ events in six cities.

I have applied the same playbook elsewhere: selling an AI-native platform at Compass, building go-to-market strategy at Cerca Dating, and now developing dot, an AI-native consumer recommendation startup. I do my best work where sales, data and product meet.

BasedNew York, NY
DegreeBSc (Hons) Computer Science, GPA 3.89
BackgroundPakistan, South Africa, the UK and the US
LanguagesFluent English, conversational Dutch
SportCricket. Selected to South Africa's U19 national squad

02 / Featured work

Projects

Six pieces of work, each told as challenge, approach and result.

CONNECT: from campus events to acquisition

Co-Founder / 2023 to 2026

Challenge: Grow a media, events and community platform across U.S. and U.K. college markets without paying for acquisition.
Approach: Built a commission-driven sales team of 45 to 55 people, onboarded student creators across campuses, and used campaign data to target SMS and email so sponsors reached the right audience.
Result: $2.85M in platform revenue, $350K in B2B sponsorship closed with founders including a retained relationship with BeReal, and an acquisition by a U.S. hospitality group in March 2026.

$2.85Mplatform revenue

138events

42campus markets

350K+combined audience

$350Ksponsorship closed

Salesforce
Google Analytics
SMS and email campaigns
Outbound sales
Event production

Pulse: an agentic lead prioritizer

CONNECT

Challenge: Decide which outbound leads deserved the sales team's attention first.
Approach: Built an in-house agentic tool using Claude that automatically ranked outbound leads by importance.
Result: Pulse became part of the AI-driven engine behind $2.85M in platform revenue with zero paid acquisition.

Claude
Agentic workflows
Lead scoring

Cerca Dating: Gen Z go-to-market

2025 to 2026

Challenge: Win Gen Z users for a VC-backed dating app, campus by campus.
Approach: Designed the acquisition strategy and an end-to-end playbook: social campaigns, 38 influencer partnerships and ambassadors on 17 campuses, backed by competitor analysis and cohort analysis of 5,000 accounts.
Result: 55,000+ users in 8 months, mainly through organic channels, and a quarterly expansion plan that won leadership approval and budget.

55K+users in 8 months

38influencer partnerships

17campuses

GTM strategy
Cohort analysis
SWOT and PESTEL

Compass: finding Enterprise upgrades in free-tier data

2025

Challenge: Work out which free-tier accounts were ready for an Enterprise plan.
Approach: Analyzed a database of 8,000 active free-tier users, then set up triggers in Mixpanel and HubSpot so an account reaching 80% of its storage limit received an automated Enterprise trial offer.
Result: Identified 600 firms with 50+ employees as prime candidates for an Enterprise upgrade.

8,000accounts analyzed

600upgrade candidates

Mixpanel
HubSpot
Lifecycle automation

Afterhour Society / Silencio

Founder / 2025 to present

Challenge: Build a membership community that people stay in.
Approach: Kept it invitation-only across New York City and Washington, DC, with Silencio events featuring international artists.
Result: About 700 active monthly members with roughly 90% retention.

~700active monthly members

~90%retention

Community
Membership
Events

dot: AI-native consumer recommendations

In development

What it is: An AI-native consumer recommendation startup based in New York.
My role: Co-Founder. I am architecting the product direction and the data-sourcing strategy.
Status: MVP build in progress.

03 / Experience

Experience

2026 to present
Co-Founder
dot, New York, NY
- Architecting product direction and data-sourcing strategy for an AI-native recommendation product, with the MVP in progress.
Aug 2025 to Mar 2026
GTM Strategy Builder
Cerca Dating, VC-backed startup
- Scaled Cerca to 55,000+ users in 8 months across college campuses, owning strategy design, channel development and market execution.
- Delivered a quarterly expansion plan that ranked markets by ROI, then launched its paid acquisition model for Q3 and Q4.
- Tracked app growth in 6 new cities and worked directly with the cofounders to add or remove features based on user demand.
May 2025 to Aug 2025
Business Development Intern
Compass, New York, NY
- Sold Compass's agentic, AI-native platform to real estate agents and firms on 2 to 4 week sales cycles, translating AI concepts for non-technical buyers.
- Generated 8 to 9 qualified meetings a week from 150 to 175 daily outbound touchpoints, with every prospect BANT-qualified in HubSpot.
- Revived 45 abandoned leads from a 200+ record backlog and converted 8 into active opportunities.
- Supported 3 strategic partnership integrations with outside firms.
Jan 2025 to present
Founder
Afterhour Society / Silencio, NYC and Washington, DC
- Run an invitation-only membership community with about 700 active monthly members and roughly 90% retention.
Oct 2023 to Mar 2026
Co-Founder
CONNECT, New York, NY. Acquired by a U.S. hospitality group
- Recruited, trained and led a 45 to 55 person sales team, administered Salesforce, and built commission systems that tied payouts to revenue contribution.
- Closed $350K in B2B sponsorship revenue through full-cycle outbound sales to founders, then renewed and expanded several sponsors across event cycles.
- Finalized partnerships with 178+ venues across DC, NYC, LA, London and Chicago, each pitched with custom financial predictions and ticket price estimates.
- Owned 138+ live events from venue sourcing to breakdown, at 300 to 5,000+ capacity, managing 10 to 15 vendors per market.
Jun 2024 to Sep 2024
Project Management Intern
Decusatio Ltd, United Kingdom (remote)
- Ran client discovery sessions and turned business requirements into process documentation and workflow specifications.
- Implemented AI-driven workflow automations with ServiceNow and Microsoft Power Automate across multiple client environments.

04 / Skills

Skills

Go-to-market and sales

Full-cycle outbound sales
Founder-level selling
BANT qualification
Sponsorship and partnerships
Account renewal and expansion

Data and analytics

Cohort and churn analysis
Mixpanel and Google Analytics
Financial predictions and pricing
Market and competitor analysis
Python, SQL, R, Power BI

Programming languages from degree coursework.

AI and automation

Claude Code
Agentic tools with Claude
ServiceNow
Microsoft Power Automate
Lifecycle triggers in HubSpot

Operations and leadership

Hiring and leading sales teams
Commission and compensation design
Salesforce administration
Event production and venue negotiation
Vendor management

05 / Education and recognition

Education

2023 to 2026

BSc (Hons) Computer Science

University of the District of Columbia

GPA 3.89. Minor in International Relations.

Completed 2019

A-Levels

Charter College International, Johannesburg, South Africa

2024 to 2026

NABA Tax Clinic

National Association of Black Accountants, UDC Chapter. Prepared income tax returns for the public, with 2 client projects per semester.

2024 to 2026

Marketing Club

University of the District of Columbia. Developed marketing plans and promotional campaigns for local businesses.

Acquired

CONNECT was acquired by a U.S. hospitality group in March 2026.

U19 squad

Selected to South Africa's U19 national cricket squad. Captained my district team.

3.89 GPA

Honours degree in Computer Science, completed while running CONNECT.

BeReal

Landed and retained BeReal as a sponsor by selling directly to a founder.

Let's talk

The fastest way to reach me is email or LinkedIn.

Email me LinkedIn

sal.thakur199@gmail.com