Financial Modeling Done, CFA Level 1 Next: How Akash P Shenoy Is Quietly Building an Edge While Running the Family Business

There’s a particular kind of ambition that doesn’t announce itself loudly. It shows up early, stays late, and stacks one deliberate decision on top of another. That’s Akash P Shenoy in a sentence.

While managing Finance and Operations for his family business — a role with real stakes and real responsibility — he found the time to complete QuintEdge’s Financial Modeling course. And now, without pausing to celebrate, he’s preparing for CFA Level 1. Not because he has to. Because he’s decided that the version of himself running the business five years from now needs to be meaningfully sharper than the one doing it today.

The Interview

Q: Akash, set the scene for us — who are you, and what does your day actually look like?

I handle Finance and Operations for my family business — which means the responsibilities are real, the decisions matter, and there isn’t really a “learning mode” separate from a “working mode.” Both happen at the same time, every day.

It’s a role I genuinely enjoy. Running finance and operations for a business teaches you things that no classroom fully replicates — how cash flow decisions feel under pressure, how operational choices ripple into financial outcomes, how to read a business beyond its numbers.

But I also knew that instinct and experience alone weren’t going to be enough for where I want to take things. I needed a more structured, rigorous financial toolkit.

Q: What made you decide to do a Financial Modeling course specifically — given everything already on your plate?

Honestly, I’d been conscious of a gap for a while. I understood the business well — I could read the financials, I knew where the pressure points were. But I couldn’t model scenarios with the kind of precision and speed that proper financial decision-making demands.

If we were evaluating an expansion, I wanted to be able to build a proper model — not just estimate. If we were looking at a capital allocation decision, I wanted to stress-test it across scenarios, not rely on gut feel. Financial modeling is what turns financial understanding into financial control. That’s what I was after.

And practically speaking — the family business context makes this even more valuable. When you’re both the decision-maker and the analyst, your modeling skills directly determine the quality of the decisions you make.

Q: Why QuintEdge, and what was the learning experience like coming in with real business exposure?

I came across QuintEdge through research — I wanted a course that went beyond basic Excel and actually taught financial modeling the way practitioners do it. The curriculum covered integrated three-statement models, valuation methodologies, scenario and sensitivity analysis, investment appraisal — the full toolkit, not a surface-level introduction.

Coming in with business exposure was actually a double-edged sword. On one hand, I could immediately see the real-world application of everything being taught — which made the learning stick faster. On the other hand, I had to consciously unlearn some shortcuts and habits that work fine in day-to-day business but don’t hold up in a rigorous modeling framework.

The faculty pushed a standard of model discipline — clean architecture, fully traceable assumptions, no hardcoded values — that genuinely elevated how I think about financial analysis. That shift in standard was the most valuable part of the experience.

Q: Has the financial modeling training changed anything about how you actually run Finance and Operations day to day?

Significantly. The biggest change is in how I approach planning and evaluation. Before the course, financial planning in the business was largely backward-looking — reviewing what had happened and reacting. Now I’m building forward-looking models that let us run scenarios before committing to decisions.

I also communicate financial information differently now. When I’m presenting a capital decision or an operational trade-off to the rest of the family, I can back it with a structured model rather than a verbal argument. That changes the quality of the conversation entirely.

There’s a confidence that comes from knowing your numbers are built on solid logic, not approximation. That confidence shows up in every financial discussion I’m part of now.

Q: And now CFA Level 1 — that’s not a small next step. What’s driving that decision?

The financial modeling course showed me what structured, rigorous financial thinking looks like at the applied level. CFA takes that rigour to a completely different depth — investment analysis, portfolio theory, equity valuation, economics, ethics. It’s the qualification that builds the intellectual foundation that serious financial professionals operate from.

For someone running finance in a business — especially one with growth ambitions — CFA gives you a framework for evaluating investments, understanding capital markets, and making allocation decisions with genuine sophistication. It’s not just a credential. It’s a way of thinking about money and value that permanently changes how you see financial problems.

The modeling course got me sharp on the tools. CFA is about developing the judgement to use those tools at the highest level.

Q: Preparing for CFA Level 1 while running Finance and Operations is a serious time commitment. How are you approaching it?

With a lot of intentionality about how I use every hour. The business doesn’t stop, so the CFA prep has to fit around it — early mornings, late evenings, weekends. I’ve blocked specific study hours and I treat them as non-negotiable, the same way I’d treat a business commitment.

What the financial modeling course taught me — beyond the technical skills — was the discipline of structured learning alongside real work. That rhythm of juggling active responsibilities with serious study is something I’ve now done once and know I can do again.

CFA Level 1 is a large syllabus. But I’m not approaching it as something overwhelming — I’m approaching it as a project. Break it down, build a plan, execute consistently.

Q: You’re enrolled with QuintEdge for CFA Level 1 as well. What made you come back?

The financial modeling experience made the decision straightforward. When you find coaching that genuinely improves how you think — not just what you know — you don’t go looking for alternatives.

For CFA specifically, I needed faculty who understand the depth of the curriculum and can make it accessible without dumbing it down. CFA Level 1 covers an enormous range — from fixed income and derivatives to ethics and portfolio management. Having structured, expert-led teaching rather than trying to navigate that entirely alone makes a material difference to both efficiency and retention.

QuintEdge was the obvious choice. I already knew what the standard of teaching looked like. I didn’t need to take a gamble on someone new.

Q: What would you say to someone else running a business — or working in one — who keeps telling themselves they’ll invest in upskilling “when things slow down”?

Things don’t slow down. That’s the honest answer. There is no version of running a business where the calendar suddenly empties and you have unlimited time to study. If you’re waiting for that moment, you’ll wait indefinitely.

What actually works is deciding that the upskilling matters enough to happen alongside everything else — and then building the discipline to make it happen in the hours you do have. It’s not comfortable. But it’s entirely possible.

The financial knowledge you build compounds the same way capital does. Every concept you add, every skill you develop, every qualification you earn makes the next decision you take in your business marginally better. That compounding is worth every late night it costs you.

Start. Don’t wait for the right moment. The right moment is the one you create.