Sunskriti Jain

About

I learned business from the operator’s side first.

I was born in the US, but I grew up in Dar es Salaam, and I’m ethnically Indian. My family runs a petroleum and logistics business, and I watched it go from a scrappy operation to a professionalized company. Before I ever took a finance class, I’d seen how owners actually weigh risk against growth: pricing, credit lines, leverage, and supply constraints, and how each of those calls ends up affecting real people.

Traveling made one pattern hard to ignore. Companies with similar products and similar effort would scale in one country and stall in another. The difference usually wasn’t hustle. It was the structure around the business: access to capital, incentives, when to expand, and whether they invested in the right capabilities early enough.

That’s why I study Data Science and Political Economy together. One gives me the tools to work with messy data; the other explains why the same business behaves differently under different rules.

Investing

Why I want to sit on the other side of the table.

Growing up around an operating business, I kept wondering who writes the rules of scaling: who decides which founders and business models get capital, and on what terms. Investing is where business fundamentals turn into real allocation decisions. That’s the seat I want to learn to sit in.

I joined the Berkeley Investment Group, Berkeley’s student-run hedge fund, to get reps. After a 12-week program in value investing, modeling, and pitch development, I now write theses as an L/S equities analyst on the TMT and Industrials pods of a $150K fund.

I’m a value investor at heart. I start where sentiment and price have drifted apart, then make the numbers prove it.

How I find an idea

Read the sentiment. I start with what the market is worried or excited about, and look for places where the story has run ahead of, or fallen behind, the fundamentals.
Screen the multiples. I check valuation against peers to see whether the gap is real or just noise.
Model it out. A revenue build, DCF, and trading comps. If the valuation doesn’t hold up in the model, I don’t pitch the idea.
Hunt for variance. The hardest part is finding a view the market doesn’t already hold. That’s why I lean on alternative data: for Snap, we tracked SMB job postings and four years of app-review language.

Pitches

Two longs, with the decks and models behind them.

Every figure here comes from my own models, and each pitch keeps score: the chart tracks the stock from the day I pitched it, updated every trading day. Open the deck for the full story, or the Excel file to check my assumptions.

Long · NASDAQ: TLN

Talen Energy

Solo pitch · Berkeley Investment Group · Spring 2026

$433.61

Price target

+24.7%

Upside

10.0%

WACC

Where it stands now

TLN is trading below where I pitched it, and honestly, that’s what merchant power does. Independent power producers are cyclical: earnings move with spot power prices, capacity auction outcomes, and fuel costs, so the market prices them on sentiment quarter to quarter. Add the debt Talen raised to fund its acquisitions, and you get exactly this kind of drawdown.

My thesis was never a quarter-long trade. It’s that contracted, infrastructure-like cash flows get valued at a higher multiple than merchant ones, and that re-rating happens on events, not on a schedule: the front-of-meter switch completing, a second hyperscaler PPA, and the first full quarter of $270/MW-day capacity prices showing up in EBITDA. Until those land, I’d expect the stock to keep trading with the cycle. If they don’t land, I’m wrong, and the scorecard above will say so.

Thesis

Talen built the hyperscaler nuclear template. The market treats the $18B AWS deal as a one-off. I think it proves a repeatable model, since the regulatory path is already cleared for the next hyperscaler.
The flywheel re-rates acquisitions. Acquire merchant plants, contract them, and watch EBITDA compound regardless of spot prices.
The gas fleet is underpriced. RMR contracts, hyperscaler contracting, and a deliberately unhedged 2027 to capture spot upside.

Catalysts

The front-of-meter switch completes cleanly, which proves the template is repeatable
A second hyperscaler PPA. Even an LOI or management commentary could trigger a re-rating
Q3 2026 earnings: the first full quarter at $270/MW-day capacity prices, with EBITDA of $400M+

What would make me wrong

Hyperscalers want only nuclear, which breaks the gas side of the flywheel
The 60% unhedged 2027 position is exposed if spot prices fall
NRC approval for co-location at Montour isn’t guaranteed

DCF + EV/EBITDA comps (AES, Entergy, NRG, Constellation…) · $347.74 at pitch

Deck · PDF Model · Excel

Long · NYSE: SNAP

Snap Inc.

Midterm team pitch with Ritika Rawat & Saksham Uboweja · Mar 2026

$6.11

Price target

+34.7%

Upside

1.33x

EV / NTM revenue

Where it stands now

SNAP is up since we pitched it and is now trading close to our price target, so most of the gap we identified has closed. The open question is the one we flagged: whether the Perplexity deal and the shift to SMB advertisers show up in reported revenue, or whether the move was just sentiment catching up.

Thesis

An SMB flywheel drives CPM growth. The Street sees ad volatility as a Snap problem. We saw it as a large-enterprise problem, with SMBs (growing 25%+ as a share of ad revenue) replacing big brands and adding auction density.
Engagement depth is undervalued. The market anchors on slowing DAU growth and misses time spent, retention, and outside demand for Snap’s engagement, like the Perplexity deal.

Alternative data we used

SMB job postings that mention Snapchat Ads: 82% tied directly to the ad platform
App-review language: the share of “utility” mentions grew from 20% to 38% (Q1’21–Q1’25)
Snap’s engineering output (recommendation-system papers, Camera Kit SDKs) as a read on engagement

What would make us wrong

The Perplexity deal is delayed or underperforms
The shift from large clients to SMBs stalls. We watch for large-client share dropping below 40% as the confirmation signal
Creator subscriptions cannibalize ad spend

EV/Revenue comps (Google, Meta, Reddit, The Trade Desk…), since SNAP is barely profitable

Deck · PDF Model · Excel

Also: Finalist, USIT Texas Stock Pitch Competition · Finalist, Leerink Partners Investment Banking Case Competition

Experience · Three continents in 2026

Where I’ve done the work.

Scroll through. The globe turns to each place I’ve worked, starting with the most recent.

Denver, COSep 2026 – Present

Irving Investors

Fall Investment Analyst

Built peer sets and public comps for Nscale’s S-1, and synthesized the valuation work behind a $25M pre-IPO AI position
Sat in on buy-side management calls and researched semiconductors and healthcare to inform long/short theses
Read SEC filings and earnings transcripts to distill competitive dynamics and key debates across portfolio companies

What it taught meA pre-IPO position is really a view on how public investors will price the company. Building Nscale’s comp set showed me how much of valuation comes down to which peers you pick, and why.

Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaJun – Aug 2026

RSM International

Finance & Compliance Intern

Resolved accounting, payroll, and tax discrepancies across 150+ clients through Excel reconciliations and direct client outreach
Built Alteryx workflows that automated reconciliation, cutting manual effort by 30%+
Handled bookkeeping and Z-report filings in Xero to keep client accounts compliant

What it taught meMost discrepancies traced back to manual processes, not bad intent. Fixing the workflow in Alteryx did more than fixing any single account, which is the same lesson Mount Meru taught me from the other side.

Dubai, UAEMay – Aug 2026

Mount Meru Group

Summer Investment Analyst

Managed $20M+ AUM across commodities, equities, and venture positions. My live Excel P&L tracker with entry/exit signals helped preserve ~$4M in capital, with 26%+ returns across 5+ asset classes
Worked with government officials to speed up terminal operations (a 4-hour daily gain) while negotiating credit lines and evaluating cross-border commodity hedges
Helped grow diesel and petrol sales to 5M+ liters loaded daily, onboarding ~3 new long-term accounts a week

What it taught meThis is what business looks like before the software layer exists. Most of the 4-hour gain came from replacing phone calls and scattered spreadsheets with clean data flows. Huge parts of the global economy are still early in basic automation, and that’s an investable gap.

San Francisco, CAJan – Jun 2026

Chakra Growth Capital

Growth Equity Spring Analyst

Diligenced 30+ startups across 5 climate segments, focusing on revenue models and customer concentration
Wrote a 20+ page report on climate and data infrastructure, mapping 50+ US–India startups, their competitors, and their timelines

What it taught meThe same problem gets solved very differently depending on the market. India’s scale and price sensitivity force lean, modular software, while US adoption is driven by enterprise budgets and compliance. The rare companies that work in both are the most interesting to me. And because I was screening inbound deals, my work shaped which founders got a meeting.

Leadership · Across the capital stack

Learning to invest at every stage of a company’s life.

On campus I’ve spread myself across early-stage venture, private equity, and public markets on purpose, so I can see how the same questions change as a company matures. Select a stage on the curve.

Company scale Time →

Stage 1 · Venture capital

Free Ventures

Venture Associate · May 2026 – Present

The question at this stageCan this team find product–market fit before the money runs out?

Advise 10+ early-stage student startups. Portfolio companies have raised from YC, Kleiner Perkins, and Greylock
Host speakers from firms like Citadel and Base Power, and run weekly mixers for Cal’s finance community

What I’m proudest of

Getting the right people into the same room.

TEDxUpanga Youth · Dar es Salaam How to make youth reintegration more just Watch the talk

TEDx talk

A talk that turned into computers for kids in detention.

My TEDx talk was about my work with juvenile offenders in Tanzania, and why reintegration fails when young people come out with no practical skills and a community that has already written them off.

After the talk, a local church reached out to partner with me. Together we donated computers so the youth could learn Microsoft Office and basic accounting before going back into society. The partnership also changed how the wider community saw them: less prejudice, more willingness to back their growth.

Flyer for the Elevate Investment Banking Panel, November 18, 2025, Dwinelle 145, Berkeley, featuring MDs and VPs from Qatalyst, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Lazard, Moelis, Bank of America, and Evercore

Elevate · Investment Banking Panel · Nov 18, 2025

An IB panel we built from cold emails.

With a few classmates, I co-hosted the 2025 Elevate Investment Banking Panel, which brought together bankers from eight top firms across the Bay Area. We cold-emailed managing directors and VPs to build the panel, covering Technology, Software, Emerging Growth, and Regional Coverage groups.

Our panelists were managing directors and VPs from Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Qatalyst Partners, Evercore, Lazard, Moelis & Company, Barclays, and Bank of America.

We designed it for anyone curious about how deals get done, not just students already recruiting. The panel covered the day-to-day across different groups, how firms navigate market cycles, rates, and regulatory shifts, and how to build a career in a high-performance environment. It was open to every major and class year.

250+

Berkeley students in Dwinelle 145 for the panel, open Q&A, networking, and resume drop

What I’m learning right now

On my desk and in my ears.

Book

The Heart of Business

Hubert Joly

Joly’s account of the Best Buy turnaround, which took the stock up almost 3x. It changed how I think about turnarounds: he didn’t cut his way out. He price-matched Amazon, turned the stores into an advantage, and bet on employees as the growth engine.

Podcast

Uncapped with Jack Altman

Long conversations with founders and investors on how companies actually get built. It’s my way into the private-markets side.

Show

TBPN

My daily catch-up on what’s moving in tech and public markets, and on which narratives are forming before they show up in the multiples.

Substack · New territory

SACR & cybersecurity

I’m teaching myself how cybersecurity businesses are built and valued, starting with Software Analyst Cyber Research’s deep dives.

Book

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky’s study of a man who talks himself into believing he’s above the rules. A good reminder of how convincing a flawed argument can feel from the inside.

Podcast

Invest Like the Best

Patrick O’Shaughnessy

Long-form interviews with investors and operators about how they actually make decisions. I listen for the frameworks, not the stock tips.

Up next

More coming soon.

This shelf changes as I read. Check back, or email me your best recommendation.

Why Recalc

What I’m looking for, and what I’ll give back.

What I want. A community of people who take investing seriously and will pressure-test my thinking. I’ve built most of my finance skills on my own, through pitches, case competitions, and internships, and I’m ready for the structure and the honest feedback of people a few steps ahead of me.

What I bring. I’m a giver by default. I helped cold-email our way to eight banks for Elevate, and at Free Ventures I run the weekly mixers, because I like building rooms where people help each other. I also bring a perspective most finance programs don’t have: I’ve seen businesses operate in East Africa, the Gulf, India, and the US, including what it looks like when the infrastructure doesn’t exist yet.

And grit. I learned early to keep going when things don’t get easier. I’ll show up to every session, do the homework properly, and answer in the Slack.

Photography · 45+ countries