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SG.
PortfolioPokhara, Nepal

An MBA candidate building the commercial case for brands that trade on desire — positioning, market entry and the client experience that has to justify the price.

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A stupa above the treeline at dusk, photographed by Samir Gautam
Based in
Pokhara, Nepal
Reading
MBA — Islington College
Status
Open to 2026 engagements

01

I work where brand meets balance sheet.

I am Samir Gautam, a brand and commercial strategist based in Pokhara, Nepal, currently reading for an MBA at Islington College. My interest is in businesses that sell meaning as much as product — houses where the margin is defended by story, service and restraint rather than by discount.

I came to this from the build side. My first degree is in computing, and my early working years were spent shipping software for clients: commerce, booking, content platforms. That work taught me what most strategy decks leave out — a positioning statement is only as good as the operation that has to deliver it on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon.

So I read a business two ways at once. There is the story it tells, and there is the machinery underneath, and a premium only holds when the two agree. Who is the client, precisely? What are they actually buying? Which part of the experience earns the price, and which part is merely expensive?

I am building toward work with houses that trade on desire — luxury retail, hospitality, premium consumer goods — particularly in markets that are still being made. If that describes your business, I would like to hear about it.

A stupa above the treeline at dusk, photographed by Samir Gautam

Pokhara, from the ridge

In brief

Based in
Pokhara, Nepal
Reading
MBA, Islington College
Read
BSc (Hons) Computing, Informatics College Pokhara
Working in
English and Nepali
Open to
Strategy mandates and brand work, 2026

Method

How I work

  1. 01

    The client before the category

    Categories are a convenience for analysts. People buy for reasons of their own, and the reasons are rarely the ones in the brief.

  2. 02

    Name the trade-off

    A strategy that costs nothing decides nothing. I would rather say plainly what we are giving up, and why it is worth it.

  3. 03

    Make it operable

    If a decision cannot survive contact with a rota, a stockroom and a spreadsheet, it is not a decision. It is a wish.

  4. 04

    Keep the numbers honest

    Ambition belongs in the story. The model should be the most sceptical reader in the room.

02

Six disciplines, and one question running underneath all of them: what makes this business worth paying more for?

0101 / 6

Brand Strategy & Positioning

Defining what a house stands for, who it speaks to, and the distance it should keep from everyone else.

  • Positioning frameworks and brand architecture
  • Category and white-space analysis
  • Narrative, tone and codes of expression
0202 / 6

Luxury Retail & Client Experience

Designing the encounter — boutique, concierge and digital — so the experience carries the premium the price implies.

  • Client journey mapping across physical and digital touchpoints
  • Service standards and clienteling programmes
  • Retail concept and merchandising principles
0303 / 6

Market Entry & Expansion

Reading a new market honestly, then choosing the model that earns the right to operate in it.

  • Market sizing, segmentation and demand assessment
  • Entry-mode evaluation: owned, franchise, distribution, joint venture
  • Localisation strategy and partner selection
0404 / 6

Commercial & Financial Analysis

Turning ambition into a model that survives contact with a spreadsheet.

  • Unit economics, margin structure and pricing architecture
  • Business cases, scenarios and sensitivity analysis
  • Performance dashboards and commercial reporting
0505 / 6

Digital Commerce & Transformation

Bringing heritage businesses into modern channels without diluting what made them worth buying.

  • Omnichannel and direct-to-consumer strategy
  • Platform, payments and fulfilment decisions
  • Data, CRM and lifecycle marketing foundations
0606 / 6

Stakeholder & Team Leadership

Aligning founders, operators and partners around a decision — and keeping them aligned once it is made.

  • Executive communication and board-level reporting
  • Cross-functional programme delivery
  • Vendor, agency and partner management

Swipe the strip

03

Education and experience, kept short and verifiable. Everything here is checkable; nothing here is inflated.

Education

  • In progress

    MBA (Candidate)

    Islington College

    • Reading for a Master of Business Administration, with a focus on strategy, brand and commercial management.

  • 2024

    BSc (Hons) Computing

    Informatics College Pokhara

    • Graduated with Upper Second Class Honours.

Experience

  • [Year — Year]

    [Role]

    To be completed

    [Organisation]

    • [One line on the mandate and the scale you worked at.]
    • [One line on what changed because you were there.]

  • Feb — Apr 2024

    Full-stack Developer

    Websoft Technologies

    • Delivered client projects end to end, working directly with stakeholders on scope and priorities.
    • Collaborated across design and engineering, and contributed to review and delivery practice.

04

Twelve small games, in the spirit of the puzzle page at the back of the paper. Three for the hand, five for the mind, and — since the trade runs on language — four built out of words.

Wait for gold, then strike. Nothing else to it.

Tap to begin—
SlowFast

Best—

05

Briefs, collaborations, or a conversation about a market you are weighing up — all welcome.

Based in
Pokhara, Nepal