Beyond the Playing Field: How Collearn Is Training India's Sports Professionals
In a country that’s obsessed with its cricketers and sporting idols, there are more opportunities than ever to create a flourishing career in the sporting industry. We all must have gaped at 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashing bowlers whose experience surpasses his age all over the field.
The Brian Lara-esque stance and swing depositing every other ball into the fence, meaning that the teenager collected most of the awards on offer in IPL 2026. While we admire the skills of the individual, the hard work of performance and data analysts, the sponsorships and partnership liaisons, the social media managers, and so forth, along with the ground staff, creates the ecosystem required in crafting the platform to unearth such talent.
This world seems shiny from the outside; however, navigating on-ramp opportunities and cracking into the ecosystem is a tough task. That’s where platforms like Collearn come into the picture. A sports ed-tech platform providing experience-driven, industry-level-led mentor courses, filling the gap of affordable, accessible, and outcome-based learning in the sports domain.
From Teaching Kids to a Trailblazing Sports Ed-Tech Platform:
While Collearn is slowly turning into a trailblazer in its field, it was initially conceptualised as an ed-tech platform for kids. Srishty Jain completed her MBA in Finance from Alliance University, along with a post-graduation in general management from UCLA Anderson, along with stints at Delloite, and well-paying finance roles in Dubai-based companies.
With this plethora of experiences under her belt, Srishty Jain left the confines of her comfort zone to start her own venture. Being the daughter of a teacher, her natural inclination was towards the education field. Thus, Collearn was born as an ed-tech platform with courses for kids, teaching them concepts like blockchain and bitcoin, with the pivot to sports coming much later.
During COVID, several businesses were struggling to keep their head above water, but that’s the time when Srishty Jain decided to make her courses free and convert most of them into one or two-day workshops. This gave the platform significant momentum, but her mentor’s advice was clear. Instead of going a mile wide and an inch deep, focus on one domain and tackle it with laser-like focus.
Research and analytics unearthed two key sectors where they excelled, i.e., Finance and Sports. Interestingly, she took the road less travelled by choosing sports, and that has made all the difference in their trajectory. But the road less travelled always comes with its own challenges of creating your own playbook.
Without any sports background or dedicated sports personality throwing their weight behind Collearn, consistently hunting for specialised trainers with industry experience was a herculean task in the initial days. That’s when the power of community helped, asking around for help and references to build a dependable pool of trainers.
Jain recounts her mantra of perseverance, which helped her get through the initial dry spell.
‘The first step is the toughest to take. Once that is done, then things ultimately fall in place. If you put your 100%, don’t give up and accept failure as part of the process, things will ultimately fall in place.’
StartUp Awards and Recognition:
Fortune favours the brave, and it was only about time before Srishty Jain’s company developed into a recognisable force. They were conferred the first prize in the gaming and sports category at StartUp Mahakumbh 2025, India’s flagship startup event, as well as Elevate 2024, an initiative by the Government of Karnataka, aimed at supporting innovative startups across the state.
She reiterates that it’s the best time to join the sports industry for anyone looking to make a career in this field. With 21 sporting leagues across India, it mirrors the country's ambition of becoming a sporting giant.
Jain fondly recalls her love for sports, but her mother never allowed her to pursue it as a full-time profession. But those were different days, with less exposure, which meant that becoming a sportsperson was one of the only ways to enter this field, and the probability of making a financially stable career out of it was a minuscule possibility. That’s not the case anymore.
Collearn boasts of 3,000+ students across the sports industry, with some of them working in distinguished places such as Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, Times Now, ESPN, Cricket Ireland, and more. Jain believes that their strong word of mouth, approachable and experienced mentors, along with end-to-end placement support, have propelled Collearn from a brand finding its feet to one that has established itself as the pioneer in the field.
While sports were once considered a hobby, it has now become a viable career path. India’s sporting future won’t be built by athletes alone, but also supported by the scaffolding of analysts, broadcasters, marketers, managers, and so on.