1:1 Consulting · one hour, one problem
One hour with me.
I don't sell mentorship-as-a-vibe. You bring one concrete problem from the list below, and you leave with a complete action plan and pages of notes — the kind of hour that reorganizes the next six months. If your problem isn't on the list, email me first and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person.
Pick your lane.
Get into your dream college
International applications, US colleges especially. I took the SAT on a whim at 17, with two barely-passed years behind me, and landed at Carnegie Mellon — I know exactly which parts of this game are real and which are theater. (For MIT/Stanford-tier admissions consulting I'll tell you plainly if you need a heavier specialist than me.)
the full pitch →Get your dream job
Software and adjacent. I've been hired by a CEO I met moving a couch, recruited by a CTO over a LinkedIn DM and flown to New York with an offer the next day. The playbook is raising your value, not grinding conversion — and I'll apply it to your specific situation.
the full pitch →Exam prep that actually works
SAT, GRE, GMAT, CAT — any of the reasoning-and-language gauntlets. Not a tutoring subscription: one session to rebuild how you prepare, so the hours you're already spending stop leaking.
the full pitch →Figure out what you actually want
The big one. I walked away from a quarter-million-a-year job because the life around it was wrong, then spent two years systematically sampling lives until the right one showed up. If you're lost, I've been lost with a map.
the full pitch →For teams — software & AI
Startups and teams at established companies: architecture, process, hiring, and finding where the real bottleneck is. I've been the sole owner of a core engine at an AI company through hypergrowth; I know what breaks and in which order.
the full pitch →Something else?
The honest truth is the lanes above are the common cases, not the boundary. Write to me with one paragraph on where you're stuck — worst case I say no and point you somewhere better.
How it works.
One hour, $300, on a video call. You book with a $25 booking fee — the only mandatory upfront payment. It's non-refundable (it's what makes the calendar real), and it counts toward the $300. The remainder is payable after the session, when you've seen what the hour was worth.
Can't afford $300? Tell me. The price subsidizes by need — students and people between things pay what's honest for them, and the booking fee is often most of it. I'd rather have the conversation than protect the rate card.
Within a day of the session you get the write-up: a concrete action plan plus several pages of notes from the call, so nothing said in the hour evaporates.
Book the hour.
Pay the $25 booking fee, and I'll email you within a day to schedule — include your lane and one paragraph of context at checkout, or just reply to the receipt.
Checkout runs on Polar. Plain-language terms — the short version: the fee books the slot, the rest is pay-after, subsidies are real.
People I've already done this for.
“I was preparing for CAT but not really spending time studying and found my days and afternoons tiring. Within just one week of following Swarnim's advice, my entire life and prep turned around with my days feeling energetic. Now I'm the best candidate at my prep school.”— Vedant Korde, BCom student
“Working with Swarnim helped us validate our approach as well as build new pathways for the company's success. I was filled with newfound enthusiasm to go work the whole week after talking with Swarnim about various parts of it.”— Pranay Khariwal, founder, Zintlr