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Journalism of Courage
Written by Shivangi Vashisht
After two decades in global leadership roles, Vishal Sood returns to Mohali to build an AI platform that levels the placement field for students outside India’s top institutes.
Leaving the corner office
After nearly two decades in global leadership roles, including a stint as group CEO of a multinational conglomerate, IIM Ahmedabad alumnus Vishal Sood stepped away in 2021 with one question: why do students in smaller towns still struggle to access quality placements?
Having begun his career in Singapore and later overseen universities, schools and media businesses across regions, Sood says the hiring disparity for tier-2 and tier-3 colleges was impossible to ignore. “Students outside top institutes face structural challenges. Pedigree often gets more weight than skills,” he recalls. “I wanted to change that.”
That conviction led him, in October 2021, to launch PlaceCom, an AI-driven career and hiring platform built to democratise access to jobs.
Building an AI-led placement ecosystem
Run by Sood and his wife, Shelly, PlaceCom automates campus recruitment and offers personalised preparation support to students who often lack access to structured guidance.
At the heart of the platform is a hiring automation suite that streamlines CV generation, candidate shortlisting, assessments and job-fit analysis. Its second vertical, PrepEdge, provides tailored, last-minute interview preparation based on a student’s profile. The tool even generates answers to open-ended questions such as “Tell me about yourself” in multiple languages: English, Hindi, Punjabi and Bahasa Indonesia.
“AI is an enabler. It allows both applicants and employers to overcome geographical and pedigree-based barriers,” Sood says. PlaceCom has now begun bringing international placement opportunities from the Middle East to Armenia to smaller Indian campuses.
Within three months of its launch, the startup raised 2 million dollars, a process Sood says was eased by the founding team’s networks and experience. Today, the company hires AI engineers, full-stack developers, app developers and business development professionals from across the region, including from IIT-Ropar and PEC.
Choosing Mohali
PlaceCom is headquartered in Mohali’s IT Park, a choice Sood describes as more about lifestyle than strategy. After years in Singapore, he and Shelly chose the Tricity for its balance, quiet and liveability.
But he is candid about the region’s limitations. “Acceptance of new technology is slower here,” he says. “The talent pool and investor ecosystem still don’t match Bengaluru, Hyderabad or Pune. But things are improving.”
The company has partnered with IM Punjab, offering recruitment automation tools to startups supported by the institute. It is also preparing to launch CampusShark, an entrepreneurial skilling programme for university students across Punjab. The standout incentive: the top performer will take home Sood’s own two-seater sports car. “If you want to make it big, give away your sports car,” he laughs, recalling how the idea began as a team suggestion.
A founder grounded in routine
Despite the pressures of building a tech company, Sood says his stress busters remain simple: coffee, writing and basketball. And even as his startup scales beyond borders, his roots, he says, remain firmly in the region.
“Tricity has always felt like home,” he says. “This is where we wanted to build our lives and now, something larger for students who need it most.”
The writer is an intern with The Indian Express
