Our Story · Balewadi, Pune · Since 2018
The only agency started by someone
who sat on both sides of the admissions table.
Before GladOwl®, our founder was an Admission Officer inside an institution. He experienced firsthand what families go through, what institutions need, and what most agencies never understand. GladOwl® was started to close that gap.
"I sat across the table from students and parents at the most important moment of their lives. I understood their anxieties, their questions, their hesitations — and I saw how few marketing agencies understood any of it. GladOwl® was built from that understanding. Not from the outside looking in."
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2000s — The learning years
Starting inside the institution — MIT Academy of Engineering, Alandi
Shailendra's career in education began at MIT Academy of Engineering (MITAOE), Alandi, Pune — one of MAEER's MIT Group's flagship engineering institutions — as an Admission Officer. This role placed him at the centre of the admissions experience: counselling students and parents, understanding their motivations, and witnessing first-hand the gap between what institutions needed from their marketing and what most agencies provided. It was an education in education that no classroom could replicate.
MITAOE, Alandi · Admission Officer -
The MAEER chapter — Avantika & MIT University Shillong
Building two startup universities across India
Within MAEER's MIT Group, Shailendra earned the opportunity to work as Manager — Marketing and Admissions for two of the group's startup universities: Avantika University, Ujjain (India's first design-centred university, promoted by MIT Group, Pune) and MIT University, Shillong, Meghalaya. Both were newly established institutions that needed to build their presence, admissions pipeline, and brand identity across India from near-zero. This experience — taking an unknown university and establishing its credibility and student recruitment in a national market — is something almost no agency professional has ever done.
Avantika University, Ujjain · MIT University, Shillong · Building from zero -
The distance education chapter
MIT School of Distance Education — reaching working professionals online
Alongside campus-based university marketing, Shailendra also got the opportunity to work on admissions marketing for MIT School of Distance Education (MITSDE) — MAEER's distance and online learning division established in 2008. This gave him a dual perspective that few education marketers have: how to reach and convert traditional full-time students for campus institutions, and how to market online and distance programmes to working professionals seeking career advancement. That dual expertise — offline campus admissions and online programme marketing — is now fully embedded in GladOwl®'s service capability.
Online + Offline · Working professionals · Distance learning -
The ground connect years
Outreach across India — schools, coaching centres, exhibitions
Travelling across India to build admissions for universities, Shailendra developed a ground-level understanding of how students and parents in different geographies, cities, and communities make educational decisions. This included extensive outreach with leading schools and coaching institutes — design-focused, engineering-focused, management-focused, and law-focused — understanding how a Class 12 student in Indore thinks differently from one in Chennai, and how their parents ask entirely different questions. That ground-level market intelligence, now reinforced by eight years of digital campaign data across 150+ institutions, is the research foundation that GladOwl®'s campaigns are built on.
Pan-India travel · Schools & coaching outreach · Ground + digital intelligence -
2017 — The founding decision
Starting GladOwl® — while still working in education
GladOwl® was founded while Shailendra was still working inside the education sector — not after he left. The gap he had watched widen for years — between what institutions genuinely needed from a marketing and brand partner, and what generalist agencies were offering — became the reason the company was started. The first client came from inside his network, trusting him before he had a single case study. That trust set the standard for every institutional relationship that followed.
Founded 2017 · Both sides of the table -
2018 — Incorporated · Bootstrap · Google Partner
GladOwl Web Solutions Pvt Ltd — education only, from day one
Incorporated in Balewadi, Pune with a single-sector mandate: higher education and nothing else. Bootstrap from the start — no external funding, every capability earned through the work. In the initial stage itself, GladOwl® became a Google Partner — a certification that reflects campaign depth and performance quality, not just spend. The same agency that started with one client in 2017 is today a Google Partner and Meta Business Partner managing ₹250Cr+ in education admissions media.
Incorporated · Google Partner · Bootstrap · Pune -
2018–2024 — The MITADT & MITWPU years
Seven years with MITADT. Three with MITWPU. The work that built GladOwl®.
After founding the agency, GladOwl® was entrusted with managing marketing and digital campaigns for MIT Art, Design & Technology University (MIT-ADT University), Pune for seven years — and with MIT World Peace University (MIT-WPU), Pune for three to four years. Both are flagship institutions of MAEER's MIT Group. These multi-year engagements — with institutions Shailendra already understood deeply from his time inside MAEER — became the proof of what GladOwl® could deliver: consistent performance, institutional trust, and year-on-year growth that earned the relationship beyond any contract.
MITADT · 7 years · MITWPU · 3-4 years · Pan-India campaigns -
2026 — Today
150+ institutions. ₹250Cr+ in managed media. Education only.
150+ institutions — universities, colleges, schools, and EdTech platforms — across India, served by an in-house team of education specialists. ₹250Cr+ in education admissions media managed. A 90% client retention rate since inception. Google Partner and Meta Business Partner. The same conviction that started this agency — that education deserves better — has never changed.
150+ institutions · ₹250Cr+ · 90% retention · Education only
Why GladOwl®'s six pillars are different
These are not services we built.
They are capabilities we lived.
Across twenty years inside Indian higher education — at MITAOE, Avantika University, MIT University Shillong, MITSDE, and the institutions GladOwl® has served — every pillar of what GladOwl® delivers was experienced first from the inside. Research meant travelling across India and understanding how students search. Technology meant watching institutions fail because their CRM and tracking systems were disconnected from their campaigns. Branding meant building a startup university's identity from scratch. Marketing meant running campaigns for multiple institutions simultaneously, each needing a different voice for a different programme audience. Admissions meant sitting across the table from families and understanding exactly what moves a decision. And AI is the new chapter — applied on top of two decades of education sector knowledge that no algorithm alone can replicate.