The Long Way to LEAP
Before LEAP had a name, its founder had already spent eight years on the other side of the compliance desk, doing the filing, standing in the queue, and answering for it in front of auditors. Here's the road that led here.
Started out at a traditional compliance consultancy in Mumbai, learning the trade from the ground up: filing PF and ESIC challans by hand, clearing backlogs of PF 7A cases buried in backend paperwork, personally visiting PF offices to push through employees' withdrawal claims, and sitting at client helpdesks answering worried questions about someone's pension money. Long hours, sometimes even Sundays, were simply part of the job. This is where the lesson took root: compliance isn't paperwork, it's someone's family's savings and someone's peace of mind.
Moved to a fast-scaling compliance-tech firm for a first real look at establishment compliance beyond payroll. Started as a client-facing executive, and within a year was promoted to run premium accounts and a small team, working closely with sales through client meetings and closures. This is where compliance stopped looking like a job and started looking like an industry.
Joined a large facility management and manpower outsourcing company, where the compliance team's job was to procure and prepare audit documentation every month across client locations like Google, JLL, Godrej, Tech Mahindra, HDFC, Piramal, JSW and Reliance, so principal employers were never left exposed. Refused to let the work become routine paperwork: automated a manual ECR-highlighting process that used to eat entire days. In March 2022, right in the middle of this grind, LEAP was quietly co-founded with a partner, built on the side while the craft kept sharpening in the corporate world.
Became Account Manager for some of India's most recognisable brands, Red Bull, Crompton, Pipeline Infrastructure and the Taj Group of Hotels. Also led Bajaj Finance's compliance as a backend project, put in the late nights that annual return season demands, and completed an Executive Development Programme in Labour Law for Managers at XLRI Jamshedpur. That year also brought "The Highflyer" award for Best in Business Support Function.
Walked away from a stable Assistant Manager role at Thomas Cook India, where the job was single-handedly running pan-India compliance for the entire group's branches and entities, one of the most demanding roles yet, and one that made the need for a genuine compliance partner, not just a vendor, undeniable. In September 2024, LEAP became a full-time commitment.
"Ten years, five companies, more government offices than I can count, and one lesson that never changed: behind every approval is a real person, an employee's pension, a founder's peace of mind, a company's reputation. I've attended audits to resolve NC points and sat on the other side reviewing audit documents, and either way, I learned what it feels like to be stretched thin holding up someone else's promise, because that is simply how one person ends up carrying compliance for entire businesses in this industry. Commitments slip when one person carries too much, and the client rarely gets to hear why. That's exactly what LEAP is built to not repeat. When you work with LEAP, you're not getting a faceless vendor or one overloaded executive. You're getting someone who has seen compliance from both sides of the table and understands exactly what it means to the people it protects."
— Shrilesh Batwal, Co-Founder, LEAP Business Solutions
