19+ Years of Building
CAREER
Through startups, consulting, big tech, and a coffee chain. The logos behind — the journey so far.
My Philosophy
Three Pillars
Three ideas I try to keep in mind. I don't always get it right, but they help me stay grounded.
Financial Sustainability
Having a stable financial base makes it easier to take risks and try new things. It's practical, not glamorous, but it enables everything else.
Excellence in Everything
Whatever I'm working on — code, a ride, a song — I try to give it my full attention. Not about being perfect, just about caring enough to do it well.
Social Responsibility
Trying to give back where I can — mentoring, sharing what I've learned, helping others when the opportunity comes up.
Something I keep coming back to: the importance of making sure what you think, what you do, and what you say are consistent. Easier said than done, but worth working toward.
Writing
From the blog
Posts tagged career.
On Camera
A Bit of Career Advice
The Journey
Chief Technology Officer
Third Wave Coffee
India's leading technology-driven specialty coffee chain with 190+ cafés and $28M+ annual revenue.
- Own end-to-end technology strategy — ERP/POS, consumer mobile apps, in-store systems, data engineering, and cloud infrastructure for the national café chain
- Lead a 42-member engineering and product team
- Drive 16.5% increase in online orders through enhanced mobile apps with loyalty and dine-in
- Deliver 21% reduction in transaction times with LS Retail + MS Business Central POS across 190+ locations
- Reduce development overhead by 40% via migration from native mobile apps to Flutter
- Build scalable data engineering pipelines on DataBricks with real-time analytics dashboards
Founder & Developer
TravafaAI-powered collaborative travel assistant — live on App Store and Play Store.
- Conceptualized and launched an AI travel assistant from ideation to market with multi-turn agentic AI experiences
- Conducted extensive market research — 57 interviews and 12 surveys — shaping product vision
- Architected scalable backend on Django with LLM-based personalized recommendations
- Led a cross-functional team (developers, designers, QA) through rapid MVP iterations
- Launched on App Store and Google Play with positive user feedback and steady adoption
Sr. Technical Program Manager
Amazon (Alexa)
Voice-controlled assistant powering smart speakers, in-vehicle systems, and smart home devices.
- Delivered Alexa Auto solutions (offline music streaming) to 500K+ vehicles, achieving 32% increase in user engagement
- Generated $30M+ in global revenue through 15+ impactful product features for Alexa Audio's Auto initiative
- Managed full product lifecycle from ideation to deployment across engineering, legal, and business teams
MBA — Technology & Entrepreneurship
UCLA Anderson
MBA focused on Technology, Global Management & Entrepreneurship.
- Completed an MBA at UCLA Anderson School of Management
- Concentration in Technology, Global Management, and Entrepreneurship
- Built a global cohort and networks across tech, consulting, and finance
VP of Technology & Program Management
Inviz.ai
AI/ML technology services company specializing in NLP, computer vision, and deep learning.
- Built and scaled the program management function from the ground up, directly contributing to 4x revenue growth — from $500K to over $2M
- Established delivery frameworks, governance structures, and client engagement models that became company standards
- Directed an AI-driven drone project for precision agriculture — achieving 14% cost savings for a US agriculture enterprise
- Developed a warehouse optimization AI solution reducing operational expenses by 37%
- Led cross-functional teams across India and US, managing complex stakeholder relationships
Senior Technology Consultant
ThoughtWorks
Global technology consultancy serving Fortune 500 clients across APAC and LATAM.
- Led enterprise e-commerce search and personalization for Falabella Group (Chile's second-largest retailer, $10B+ revenue) — improving search conversions by 10% across Falabella, Sodimac, and Tottus
- Architected personalized logistics integrating real-time inventory and location data, increasing checkout conversion by 8%
- Spearheaded mobile banking transformation at DBS Bank (Singapore) — modernizing legacy apps for 7 million customers
- Delivered technology consulting across India, Singapore, and Chile in retail, banking, and logistics
- Mentored junior consultants and led workshops on microservices, TDD, and continuous delivery
Senior Technology Consultant
Cognizant
American multinational IT services and consulting company.
- Managed Walmart's digital merchandising ML project — deploying 100+ models enriching 35M+ active SKUs
- Achieved 2.3% sales increase and 3% reduction in order returns through intelligent product enrichment
- Developed automated spend analysis solution contributing $2M+ in cost savings recommendations
Founder & CEO
Buybazaar.com
Pioneering online-to-offline grocery commerce platform — one of Chennai's first hyper-local e-commerce ventures.
- Founded and scaled a hyper-local grocery e-commerce venture from concept to ₹45M+ turnover with 216% average YoY growth
- Developed the business plan, pitched to investors, and raised $300K seed capital
- Built and led a team of 50+ across tech, operations, logistics, warehousing, and customer service
- Acquired 25,000+ registered customers and fulfilled 500,000+ orders
- Pioneered an omnichannel model integrating the online platform with physical stores and warehouses
- Designed and developed the full e-commerce stack — website, iOS and Android apps, order management, delivery tracking
- Navigated a competitive landscape (BigBasket, Grofers) through hyper-local focus and service
Education
MBA — Technology, Global Management & Entrepreneurship
UCLA Anderson School of Management
2021 – 2023 · Los Angeles
Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical)
Anna University
2002 – 2006 · Chennai
Certifications
- Post Graduate Program in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning — McCombs School of Business, UT Austin
- AWS Solutions Architect — Associate
- Full Stack Software Development — BITS Pilani
- Management Program — IIM Kozhikode
- MBA — Global Management and Technology, UCLA Anderson