About Sahil Nijhawan
His career began in travel with Ebookers and Expedia, before moving into private aviation as the first employee of what became one of Australia’s largest private fleet companies. From there, Sahil built businesses across retail travel, inbound tourism, and destination management, working in the middle of the travel ecosystem where agents, suppliers, tourism boards, sporting clubs, membership groups, and global travellers all connect.
Before joining Nexus DMC as Director and CEO Oceania, Sahil had built a portfolio of retail travel stores and an inbound tourism business generating around $22 million in annual sales. Then COVID hit, and the businesses went to zero. He shut things down and took work wherever he could find it, including real estate, supermarket shifts, and teaching RSA certification courses in schools. Real estate became the bridge back: he sold more than 30 projects in 12 months, rebuilt momentum, and later used that experience to invest in a construction company.
Today, Sahil leads Nexus Oceania while also investing in and building ventures including HostOS, an AI-native operating system for short-term rental hosts; AUM Tea, a consumer wellness brand; and TravelTwin, an upcoming AI travel platform connecting personalised destination reports with local human experts. His wider portfolio reflects the same belief: businesses can grow faster when technology supports people, not replaces them, and when community relationships are treated as a serious growth channel rather than a nice-to-have.
Sahil’s perspective is shaped by building, losing, adapting, rebuilding, and now backing other founders with both capital and operational guidance. He is especially interested in AI as a practical leverage tool, community-led growth, portfolio entrepreneurship, and what founders learn when success is stripped back to first principles.
As a podcast guest, Sahil brings a grounded, energetic perspective on resilience, business growth, AI, investing, community, and rebuilding with sharper judgement after the market forces you to start again.
Latest episodes
Key topics
You cannot build a portfolio if every business needs all of you
Most founder conversations assume you have to bet everything on one company. Sahil's approach is different. He focuses day-to-day on Nexus Oceania with a target to scale it to $1 billion in regional sales, while his other ventures - HostOS, AUM Tea, TravelTwin - are monitored and delegated, run by co-founders with fortnightly calls and clear ownership. The unlock is that he has actively trained himself on AI systems including OpenClaw, Claude, Sintra, and others, using them as a personal leverage layer to extend his oversight without extending his hours. He believes learning never stops - and that if you don't evolve, you will be replaced. For ambitious founder and business audiences, this is a practical conversation about how to compound across ventures without dropping the ball on the main one.
Building AI-native businesses, not bolting AI onto old ones
There's a real difference between adding AI to an existing workflow and designing a business where AI is the workflow. Through TravelTwin and HostOS, Sahil is building AI-native platforms from scratch. Across his wider portfolio, he is a strong believer that AI's biggest value is enhancing what good people already do - a sales consultant doing $2 million today can realistically do $4 million with the right AI support, without changing who they are or how they sell. He has also personally trained on AI systems like OpenClaw, Claude, and Sintra to run a portfolio of businesses with a small core team. He can speak to all three angles: AI as a multiplier for individual performance, AI as the foundation of a new venture, and AI as a personal leverage tool for operators running more than one company.
Scaling global businesses without losing local credibility
Sahil can speak to what it actually takes to scale a global business inside a regional market - building Nexus Oceania from launch to over $30 million in sales in year one with a target to reach $1 billion, while staying close enough to the ground to keep agent, supplier, and community relationships warm. Nexus itself is on track to become one of the top few names in the global travel industry, and the same principle applies across his other ventures: global ambition, local credibility. For business audiences operating across borders, this is a conversation about why the companies that scale fastest are usually the ones that resist the temptation to centralise everything.
View all topics →
Latest episodes
Key topics
You cannot build a portfolio if every business needs all of you
Most founder conversations assume you have to bet everything on one company. Sahil's approach is different. He focuses day-to-day on Nexus Oceania with a target to scale it to $1 billion in regional sales, while his other ventures - HostOS, AUM Tea, TravelTwin - are monitored and delegated, run by co-founders with fortnightly calls and clear ownership. The unlock is that he has actively trained himself on AI systems including OpenClaw, Claude, Sintra, and others, using them as a personal leverage layer to extend his oversight without extending his hours. He believes learning never stops - and that if you don't evolve, you will be replaced. For ambitious founder and business audiences, this is a practical conversation about how to compound across ventures without dropping the ball on the main one.
Building AI-native businesses, not bolting AI onto old ones
There's a real difference between adding AI to an existing workflow and designing a business where AI is the workflow. Through TravelTwin and HostOS, Sahil is building AI-native platforms from scratch. Across his wider portfolio, he is a strong believer that AI's biggest value is enhancing what good people already do - a sales consultant doing $2 million today can realistically do $4 million with the right AI support, without changing who they are or how they sell. He has also personally trained on AI systems like OpenClaw, Claude, and Sintra to run a portfolio of businesses with a small core team. He can speak to all three angles: AI as a multiplier for individual performance, AI as the foundation of a new venture, and AI as a personal leverage tool for operators running more than one company.
Scaling global businesses without losing local credibility
Sahil can speak to what it actually takes to scale a global business inside a regional market - building Nexus Oceania from launch to over $30 million in sales in year one with a target to reach $1 billion, while staying close enough to the ground to keep agent, supplier, and community relationships warm. Nexus itself is on track to become one of the top few names in the global travel industry, and the same principle applies across his other ventures: global ambition, local credibility. For business audiences operating across borders, this is a conversation about why the companies that scale fastest are usually the ones that resist the temptation to centralise everything.
View all topics →