Globe & Mail Changemaker 2023 The Peak Emerging Leader 2025 MoneySense Columnist Founder & CEO, S1:E2 Techstars Mentor · HBR Advisory Council Effie Canada Jury Member

VICKRAM
AGARWAL

The Work

Financial services marketing leader. Business builder. MoneySense columnist. Founder of S1:E2, bridging strategy and execution to drive growth.

The Track Record

20+ years across markets. Built businesses from the ground up, including an exit. Now focused on driving growth across finance, SaaS, insurtech, and consumer credit.

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Published Work

The
Column

Personal Finance Columnist at MONEYSENSE. Contributor to ENTREPRENEUR and INC. ARABIA.

Writing at the intersection of money, markets, and the entrepreneurial mindset — for people who want to understand finance, not just survive it.

MONEYSENSE
On Money, Credit & Financial Resilience
Read the full column — personal finance for Canadians who want clarity, not jargon
ENTREPRENEUR
On Growth Strategy, Execution & Building Businesses
Read the full contributor archive — entrepreneurship for founders who want substance, not motivation
INC. ARABIA
Customer Acquisition Is Broken. Here Is the Fix.
Why legacy acquisition models fail and what replaces them
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Guide to Building Better Web Experiences
Report on Business — digital strategy ahead of Google's algorithm shift
Vickram Agarwal
Toronto, Canada
The Story

Built
Different

Vickram Agarwal sits at a rare intersection as a marketing leader, entrepreneur, and personal finance columnist, and moves between all three with intent.

His career has been built on one consistent thread: understanding how people make decisions and helping businesses meet them there. From his early days in Dubai to building businesses from the ground up in Canada, that focus on connecting strategy to real-world execution has remained constant.

A significant chapter of that journey was spent in the consumer credit space, where he worked closely on initiatives that reached millions of Canadians navigating debt. It is where his interest in personal finance deepened, not as theory, but as something people live with every day.

Today, through S1:E2, he partners directly with founders and leadership teams to build growth from the ground up in a way that is practical, measurable, and built to last. In parallel, his writing reflects the same philosophy — grounded, experience-led, and focused on making complex financial topics easier to understand and act on.

Along the way, he has contributed his time as a board member, strategic advisor, mentor, and industry juror, always with the same underlying belief: strategy only matters if it works in the real world.

20+
Years Building
1
Exit
25+
Global Brands
3
Ventures Founded
Track Record

Global Brand
Portfolio

Automotive. CPG. Now financial services and insurtech. 25+ brands shaped across the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Entrepreneurship

Ventures
Founded

S1:E2
Active · 2023–Present

Strategy. Execution. Growth. S1:E2 is a boutique consultancy that embeds with founders and leadership teams to build growth from the ground up—connecting strategy to execution in a way that drives real revenue. Focused on financial services, SaaS, and consumer finance.

01
Daddy's Digest
Founded 2017 · Acquired 2021

A media brand that challenged how fatherhood was portrayed in mainstream culture — building an engaged community of over 1 Million users around authentic modern parenting. Acquired in 2021.

02
Stroke Consulting
Founded 2011 · Dubai

Built from scratch in Dubai — a strategy and digital agency that served global automotive, finance, and FMCG brands. The proving ground for everything that followed.

03
Press & Recognition

In the
Media

People Who've Been There

What They
Say

Leaders, clients, and colleagues — people who've worked alongside Vickram across markets, categories, and continents.

“

Whatever you are good at, working with Vickram will make you better at it. If you take a problem to him, you can trust that he will solve it. He is a true leader in every sense of the word. He leads by example and inspires the growth of people who work for and around him. He has accomplished a level of mastery in digital marketing and is generous with sharing his learnings along the way.

Gursharon Singh
Operations Lead, Financial Recovery
“

Vick has deep expertise in digital commerce. I've worked with him to optimize customer journeys for the world's top brands. He understands how to approach digital experience from a data driven and creative perspective to move the needle on traffic and conversion — ultimately driving sales growth for some of the world's top brands. If you get an opportunity to work with Vick to grow your business, I'd highly recommend it.

Tyson Graham
GTM Leader, Enterprise AI
“

I had the incredible opportunity to work closely with Vick during my time at Hershey. It was an absolute pleasure — he was an amazing partner on all of our digital activations. Very knowledgeable, approachable, passionate, organized, kind and truly invested in ensuring success. I would recommend Vick in a heartbeat for any opportunity. An awesome leader who I know will be successful in all his future endeavours.

Donna Brenkel Rosenberg
Senior Brand Manager, Kellanova
Quick Answers

Common
Questions

Vickram Agarwal is a Toronto-based financial services marketing leader, entrepreneur, and personal finance columnist. He is the Founder and CEO of S1:E2, a growth consultancy that works directly with founders and leadership teams. He is a Globe & Mail Changemaker 2023 and The Peak Emerging Leader 2025.

S1:E2 is a strategic growth consultancy founded by Vickram Agarwal and based in Toronto, Canada. It partners directly with founders and leadership teams in financial services, SaaS, insurtech, and consumer credit to build measurable, practical growth strategies. Learn more at s1e2.com.

Vickram Agarwal is a Personal Finance Columnist at MoneySense and a contributor to Entrepreneur and Inc. Arabia. He has also been published in The Globe and Mail's Report on Business.

Vickram Agarwal has built his career across financial services, insurtech, consumer credit, automotive, CPG, and digital media. He has worked with 25+ global brands across the Middle East, Europe, and North America, and now focuses on supporting SMBs around the world access growth.

Vickram works directly with founders and leadership teams through S1:E2. He does not work through intermediaries or agencies. To start a conversation, reach out via the contact form on this page or directly through s1e2.com.

Vickram has been named a Globe & Mail Changemaker (2023), a Top Emerging Leader by The Peak (2025), and has served as an Effie Canada jury member, a Techstars mentor, and a member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council. He has over 20 years of experience building businesses and brands across three continents.

Let's
Build
Together

Whether you're a founder ready to scale or part of a leadership team looking for strategic clarity, reach out through S1:E2. Vickram works directly with leaders who are serious about growth.

Start the Conversation
Email info@S1E2.com
Venture S1:E2
Location Toronto, Canada
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