Jitendra Joshi

Jitendra is a sports entrepreneur and a triathlete. His entrepreneurial journey began in 1995, a year after graduating. His initial ventures, which he playfully calls "My School of Hard Knocks", were unsuccessful attempts at building a viable business.

Driven by a passion for sports and a desire to get others involved, he has built sports companies that help millions of people, from children to adults, play and be active through mass participation sports programs. Since 2003, he has been on an extraordinary entrepreneurial journey that involves developing ideas, identifying product-market fit, testing business models, building teams, adapting strategies, securing funding, managing cash flow, and striving for profitability. He thrives on the uncertainty and enjoys the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship. With the support of incredible friends, colleagues, customers, and investors, he feels fortunate and grateful.

Throughout his journey, he has collaborated with exceptional teams to create sports intellectual properties (IPs), leagues, activation programs, and mass participation sports programs. He works with global companies, sports federations, and government bodies on various sports initiatives, leveraging the power of sport to create and execute impactful programs. He is fortunate to have received backing from supportive investors, including family, friends, high-net-worth individuals, and private equity firms.

Some of the programs he is most proud of include the Premier Badminton League (PBL), the Pro-Volleyball League, World Series Hockey, the Jr. NBA program (the largest grassroots program in the world, involving over 5 million children), the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) program across India, the Mumbai Games multi-sport event with over 15,000 participants, the DNA Women's Marathon (Asia's first women-only marathon), the Coca-Cola Cup (spanning over 3,000 schools and 83 cities), the PADKAR initiative by the Government of Gujarat to train over 250,000 girls in self-defense, and the HERO pan-India sports programs in cricket, hockey, and athletics.

His work has brought him into collaboration with major brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, HERO, NBA, TATA Tea, HCL, Boost, PNB Metlife, BBC, Reliance Foundation, Axis Bank, Milo, and others. He also works closely with sports governing bodies like the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Hockey India, the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI), and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) (KHELO India).

In recognition of his contributions to sports development through SportzConsult, he received the prestigious PRCI's Chanakya Award for Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017.