Dharmesh BA 🕵🏽‍♂️

Co-Founder

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India11 yrs 8 mos experience

Highly StableAI Enabled

Key Highlights

Expert in product strategy for India-first markets.
Founder of successful research labs and newsletters.
Extensive experience with global brands and startups.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Product Strategist specializing in Consumer Insights and User Research for the Indian market.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Product StrategyUser ResearchAi DevelopmentConsumer InsightsWritingUser Research Methodologies

Other Skills

Adobe IllustratorAdobe PhotoshopAndroid DevelopmentArduinoBenchmarkingCommunity BuildingConcept DevelopmentConsumer BehaviorCreative EntrepreneurshipCreative WritingField StudiesFocus GroupsGraphic DesignHeuristic EvaluationIllustrator

About

I'm product strategist focused on India-first markets. He helps teams turn ethnographic insight into narrative clarity, go‑to‑market focus, and measurable business outcomes. Formerly at Setu (employee #9) and co‑founder of D91 Labs, I have led research and strategy for global brands and Indian startups across finance, education, and commerce. I currently run 1990 Labs, where I work with Indian and global teams with product and GTM strategy for India. I have worked with Meta, Duolingo, CRED, Udaan, Plum Insurance, Jar, Allen Digital, People+AI. My love for DPI led me to designing the earliest consent flows for Account Aggregator. I run a popular Substack newsletter called 'The India Notes' where I shared Indian consumer insights which is currently read by more than 16,000 founders, VCs and operators. DM to talk product strategy and consumer inisghts.

Experience

Business hero

Founder

May 2024 – Present · 1 yr 10 mos · Bangalore Urban, Karnataka, India · On-site

Building AI agents on WhatsApp + voice calls

AI Development

The india notes

Writer

Sep 2022 – Present · 3 yrs 6 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

A weekly newsletter on deconstructing Indian consumer behaviour. Published on Tuesdays .

WritingUsability TestingBenchmarkingField StudiesFocus GroupsHeuristic Evaluation+2

Nextleap

Course Instructor

Jun 2022 – May 2025 · 2 yrs 11 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · Remote

I teach user research methodologies courses at Next Leap for young product designers and product managers.

User Research Methodologies

1990 research labs

Founder

Jun 2021 – Present · 4 yrs 9 mos · Bangalore Urban, Karnataka, India · Remote

1990 Research Labs is a specialist research and strategy partner for companies building for India.
We enable global product and growth teams win in India by turning field insight into narrative, GTM, and metric movement. We study real behavior across “Bharat” segments, low‑end Android, UPI, and informal economy workflows, then convert qualitative signal into quantified business cases your leaders act on.
Past clients: Meta, Duolingo, CRED, Udaan, Plum Insurance, Jar, Meta, Allen Digital

Consumer BehaviorUser ResearchProduct Strategy

Setu

2 roles

Head Of Research

Jan 2020 – Jun 2021 · 1 yr 5 mos

Design Lead

Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 · 1 yr

Productnation/ispirt

Design Volunteer

May 2019 – Dec 2024 · 5 yrs 7 mos · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

D91 labs

Co-Founder

Apr 2019 – Jun 2021 · 2 yrs 2 mos · Bengaluru Area, India

D91 labs is an open source initiative by Setu to understand and enhance the lives of Bharat through financial inclusion at a grass root level. D91 Labs aim to bridge the empathy gap between the product developers and the last mile understanding of Bharat. We publish open source research, insights, frameworks and component libraries for any fintech company to develop digital offerings for India.

Cleartax india

2 roles

Lead Product Designer

Oct 2017 – Jan 2019 · 1 yr 3 mos · Bangalore

Design Consultant

Jan 2017 – Sep 2017 · 8 mos · Bangalore

Whuffie design private limited

Design Partner

Jul 2016 – Oct 2017 · 1 yr 3 mos · Bengaluru Area, India

Rupeek

Product Designer

Oct 2015 – Jun 2016 · 8 mos · Bangalore

Holachef hospitality pvt. ltd.

Product Designer

Jan 2015 – Oct 2015 · 9 mos · Mumbai Area, India

Lead the design team which spanned across product design, photography and marketing design for the chef-curated cloud kitchen platform. I was part of the core team overlooking product design, design hiring and design management.