Aug 2018 – Oct 2022 · 4 yrs 2 mos · India

• Keka is an end-to-end HRMS platform serving the SMB market. They are market leaders in India and expanding across the world.
• Achievements:
• Led the company from $500k ARR to $10m ARR in 4 years (Q4 2018 to Q3 2022)
• Instrumental in their fundraising.
• Oversaw all things Business including:
• Revenue (Sales, Inside Sales, Marketing, Customer Success),
• People (Talent Acquisition across the org, Talent Management for Business teams)
• Strategy (Org Design, Partnerships, Corporate Development, New Initiatives, Fundraising)
• Role:
• Set vision, execution plan and hand held folks to success
• Coached team members to become leaders of teams and Departments
• Hired the leadership where necessary
• Set the blueprint till 2025

Aug 2016 – Present · 9 yrs 7 mos · Hyderabad Area, India

• OVL Advisors helps founders of Tech Product companies navigate their 0 to $10m revenue journey capital efficiently.
• Long term engagements are in a Co-Founder as a Service model for post seed companies with product and traction. This covers Founder Coaching, Organization Design and interventions across Product Management, Engineering, Revenue, Customer Success, People & Culture, Strategy & Execution and Corp Dev.
• Shorter term engagements are in Founder Coaching for idea stage organizations.
• Achievements:
• Helped two companies cross $1m ARR and one company cross $10m ARR.
• Helped built L1 leadership at 5 companies.
• Helped companies become funding ready and raise >$60m across 4 companies
• Interactions with over 100+ startups per year
• Areas of specialty include:
• Developing Clarity (Idea vetting, Sounding Board)
• Product Market Fit (Gap identification, Positioning, Product Marketing, Early stage BD)
• Growth Marketing (GTM, Marketing Strategy/Execution, Content Strategy/Execution)
• Customer Success (Customer Support, Customer Lifecycle Optimization, Culture Creation)
• Corporate Growth (Strategic Hiring, Funding - Angel, Seed, Series A; Partnerships)
• Active Portfolio:
• A $5.5m funded Future of Work company solving challenges for manufacturing companies in the US
• A Game development, publishing and esports organization
• A real time analytics infrastructure company with products in Digital Nudging, Product Analytics
• A fintech company solving problems in the fixed income market
• A Gen AI company solving problems in the Talent Management space
• A wellness tech company providing solutions based on Indic teachings
• Past Portfolio
• Questbook - Technology infrastructure for Web3 developers {2023}
• Travel Tech - US based Tech company serving Travel Agencies that manage group travel {2023}
• Keka - End to End HR Tech platform for SMBs [Funded $57m by Westbridge] {2018 to 2022}
• EdTech - Serving the school market in the US - [Acquired] {2018}
• + 8 more.

Apr 2015 – Aug 2016 · 1 yr 4 mos · Hyderabad Area, India

• Gaian Group consists of 3 major business units:
• (1) Gaian Solutions - A product company with a content distribution platform (GaiaTV) catering to the Media & Entertainment businesses [Broadcasters, Operators (DTH, Cable and MSOs)] and Enterprises [Retail (companies with a consumer facing retail presence) and Government]
• (2) Gaian Consultants - An ODC for late stage statups in Silicon Valley
• (3) Gaian Foundation - Engaged in philanthropic training and development to empower women in rural areas to get white collar jobs
• I created the Enterprise Business Unit in Gaian Solutions as a P&L leader and was responsible for the entire business cycle - Product Management, Marketing, Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Sales & Collection, Product Rollout, Customer Support and Satisfaction.
• Created and rolled out 3 major offerings -
• Enterprise Video Networks
• Digital Out of Home Advertising System
• Emergency Announcement Management System
• Key Achievements:
• Played a key role in progressing the Railway Display Network (a $500m project) with the Indian Railways. Presented to the Railway Board including the Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu
• Created several strategic partnerships including the largest ISP in India - Railtel
• Secured a large government project with INCOIS, Ministry of Earth Sciences - USD 1 mn
• Closed DOOH Advertising deals with an annualized pipeline of ~ USD 1 mn
• Created value propositions, closed sales and built case studies for repeatable sales in 6+ retail business verticals including Fashion Retail, Healthcare, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Hospitality and BFSI
• Identified and hired senior sales resources for Field Sales Management, Government Sales and Key Accounts
• Defined a new Android based version of the product; Identified appropriate vendors in China; Managed all BIS certifications etc. needed for such imports.
• Helped create a Rural BPO to absorb graduates of the Gaian Foundation to support content needs of customers

Oct 2012 – Jul 2017 · 4 yrs 9 mos · Hyderabad Area, India

• Snap Step is a digital marketing agency and services company
• Role: Founder Advisor
• Available on demand to be a sounding board for all strategic decisions
• A dispassionate, second pair of eyes on all large projects in the pipeline
• Founder Coach in organization and team building

Oct 2012 – Apr 2015 · 2 yrs 6 mos · Hyderabad

• Kony was the first Enterprise Mobile Software company to create a build once, deploy everywhere product.
• Role: Product Manager for Security Products (competing with Airwatch, Mobile Iron)
• Manage the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) product at Kony. This included Mobile Device Management, Mobile Application Management and Mobile Content Management across iOS, Android, Windows (6.x, Phone 8, 8.1 and Pro 8.1), and Blackberry.
• Defined product specifications, design, coordinated with release infrastructure management, documentation on the engineering aspects
• Trained customer support, solution sales, product marketing on the product and customer use cases
• Achievements:
• Managed an engineering team of 57 people (including Dev, QA, Release Management, Documentation)
• Created a $2m revenue generating product within 10 months of launch
• Made 4 product version releases with on-premises and cloud deployment options
• Responded to 10+ RFPs
• Directly onboarded (along with customer success) customers from Mexico, Middle East and the US.

Sep 2012 – Apr 2013 · 7 mos · Hyderabad

• Startup Leadership Program has been established by veterans in the global investment community to create opportunities for entrepreneurs to learn from the best among their peers.
• It is a voluntary program facilitated by alumni to learn all facets of running a business. It heavily involves the local investment community, successful entrepreneurs and other startup facilitators like incubators, accelerators to help entrepreneurs along their journeys.
• The program has helped:
• 1300+ Startups, 2200+ Entrepreneurs in 27 Cities | 12 Countries
• $500M Raised To-Date in investments and M&A.

Aug 2011 – Jun 2018 · 6 yrs 10 mos · Hyderabad

• Game Hub is an initiative by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIIT Hyderabad (one of the top 5 Indian universities in the technology space.)
• The vision of Game Hub is to create an environment that fosters Entrepreneurship in the Gaming Industry. The aim is to provide the knowledge, tools and work environment for game developers to design, build and launch games, gaming technology, auxiliary technology that would enhance the state of the industry as a whole.
• Individuals and start up teams from around India and Asia are encouraged to participate at Game Hub to bring their gaming concepts to reality.

Jan 2010 – Jun 2010 · 5 mos

• KMO International is a Market Entry Consulting company with mandates for strategy and execution.
• Role:
• Grow the team to include 2 Associates
• Expand the sectors served to include Healthcare, apart from Telecom VAS, Building Materials, and Security Packaging
• Achievements:
• Hired 2 Associates and trained them
• Expanded the customer base include customers from India for a US market entry
• Assisted a US based healthcare company in the infertility space to explore franchisee options in India
• Identified potential partners across Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune
• Initiated activities for the first operation in Hyderabad. Established the process for the same.
• Explored the export of several building materials including fly ash, white cement, etc. from India to the US
• Explored the opportunity for a US based flooring technology company to enter India

Feb 2009 – Jan 2010 · 11 mos

• KMO International is a Market Entry Consulting firm.
• Role:
• Execute India entry client engagements across Telecom VAS, Building Materials
• Conducted market research - primary and secondary to understand the market
• Built business models to determine viability of businesses
• Determined the right India entry strategy among joint ventures, M&A, distribution partnerships, local entity establishment, franchise licensing
• Achievements:
• Assisted with the post-acquisition strategy of a company in the Telecom VAS space
• Explored the potential of an SMS advertising business.
• Aggregated supply of 500m SMSes per month through partnerships with Aircel, Way2SMS, 160by2, Indyarocks and others.
• Over 8 months determined that demand was too weak, fragmented and unorganized for this business to scale.
• Suggested to sunset the business.
• Assisted a security packaging company to explore the India market
• Determined that there was demand in the online jewelry space
• TCO for the production and shipping from Canada did not work for the India market against cheaper Chinese products
• Assisted a US based family-owned construction chemicals business to enter the India market
• Identified potential distribution partners for the US entity, conducted product tests
• Secured a distribution partner in the NCR region just in time for the Commonwealth Games 2012

Nov 2009 – Dec 2013 · 4 yrs 1 mo · Hyderabad

• Founded the company in 2009. Served on the Board of the Company from November 2009 to December 2013. Operated in a full-time capacity from July 2010 to October 2012.
• Company Focus:
• The company focused on developing gaming technology platforms and games for the casual and real money gaming sector - online, social, and mobile.
• Fortuity owned and operated http://taashtime.com - one of the first five rummy sites in India (now defunct).
• The company provided its technology and games in a multi-tenant SaaS model to partners
• Role & Achievements:
• Created the product, marketing, and revenue strategy for the company
• Grew revenue from 0 to a peak ARR of INR 3 cr
• Grew the team from 0 to 25+ with all hiring in-house
• Navigated the complex legal and regulatory challenges associated with the space
• Initiated several partnerships with Goa based casinos, digital marketing companies, large online portals. Significant wins were Rediff and Ibibo,

Jun 2007 – Dec 2008 · 1 yr 6 mos · India

• Greenko Group [June to August 2007] - A pioneer in clean and renewable energy
• Assisted the CFO with the IPO roadshow paperwork for the initial listing on the Alternate Investment Market (AIM) in London.
• Greenko raised $60m with a $137m market cap at its IPO
• Synovel Technologies [August 2007- February 2008] - A software services company that built a product in the Productivity space.
• Assisted the company with a seed round fundraise of USD 50K
• Enabled co-marketing opportunities with Mozilla Foundation
• Laid the foundations of Branding and Marketing. Their first product Finch (an integrated email client) achieved over 5000 downloads globally.
• Chelbis [2008] - A real money gaming company (with bingo and casino games) focused on the European market
• Helped revenue grow from $1m to $10m ARR
• Created their entire Analytics suite from scratch including marketing attribution, fraud detection, employee productivity, and product wise usage and financial contribution.
• Assisted the company in acquiring a gaming license from Malta (including RMG license from AUS)
• The company was acquired by a large international gaming group in 2015

Apr 2006 – Jun 2006 · 2 mos

• Created a competitive analysis for the online ad industry in India
• Assisted in business development by shortlisting companies for the Google Reseller program
• Assisted in merchandising and helped in finalizing INR. 500,000 worth of merchandise after quality control
• Performed an analysis on CPC for various industry verticals present in India

Sep 2003 – Apr 2005 · 1 yr 7 mos

• Market Research and Strategy for Mastek's Software Services
• Sales Support to program managers and sales personnel across the globe (US, UK, Asia Pac)
• Marketing, lead generation and content development for Mastek's websites