Ashwin Chandrasekar Work

The work
so far.

I’ve worked across startups and larger companies, leading teams and building technology for businesses and consumers.

20+ years in technologyB2B & B2CIndia · Singapore · Chile · US · Canada

01 / EXPERIENCE

People, products,
and a lot of learning.

June 2026 – PresentBangalore

Chief Information & Technology Officer (CITO)

Table Space
IPO-boundWorkspace-techEnterprise Data & IoT
About the role

One of India's largest managed-workspace providers — scaling toward a public listing.

  • Lead the company-wide technology charter — enterprise data engineering, software development, and physical devices & IoT across the portfolio
  • Bring technology deeper into the workspace journey to improve operational efficiency, strengthen controls, and scale business processes
  • Drive sharper decision-making through business analytics and an enterprise data strategy
  • Own end-user technology — access systems, workflows, and the digital tools employees rely on daily — making everyday workplace experiences smoother and more intuitive
  • Champion automation across the business as the company scales toward the public markets
July 2024 – June 2026Bangalore

Chief Technology Officer

Third Wave Coffee
Digital Transformation190+ CafésAgentic AI
About the role

India's leading technology-driven specialty coffee chain with 190+ cafés and $28M+ annual revenue.

  • Own end-to-end technology strategy for a national café chain — ERP/POS, consumer mobile apps, in-store systems, data engineering, and cloud infrastructure across 190+ outlets
  • Own App CRM strategy end-to-end — segmentation, lifecycle journeys, KPIs, and behavioral analytics that drive loyalty, frequency, and lifetime value
  • Set the forward-looking technology vision and rally cross-functional squads around shared OKRs aligned to business outcomes
  • Build the right team mix — in-house senior engineers and outcome-based vendor contracts — to balance velocity, cost, and IP ownership
  • Architect a cloud-native stack — single codebase, micro-services, real-time data pipelines, and CI/CD — to ship faster with fewer regressions
  • Set up live analytics on sales, inventory, and campaigns with self-serve dashboards so operators and marketers act on signal in minutes, not days
  • Modernize ERP and POS workflows — automate inventory, procurement, and reconciliation; cut manual ops and shrinkage at scale
  • Institute vendor scorecards and SLA-driven governance — driving double-digit cost savings without compromising delivery
  • Partner deeply with performance-marketing and CX to ship loyalty, delivery, and personalization features that move the top-line
  • Champion an experimentation and automation culture — low-code, AI copilots, and blameless post-mortems — to compound learning across the org
Jan 2024 – PresentBangalore

Founder & Developer

Travafa
Travel-techAgentic AI0 to 1
About the role

AI-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 and ICP
  • Architected a scalable backend on Django with LLM-based personalized recommendations and real-time itinerary collaboration
  • Led a cross-functional team (developers, designers, QA) through rapid MVP iterations and weekly releases
  • Launched on App Store and Google Play with positive user feedback, steady adoption, and a roadmap for monetization
Oct 2022 – Jan 2024Seattle

Sr. Technical Program Manager

Amazon (Alexa)
Alexa Auto500K+ vehicles$30M+ revenue
About the role

Voice-controlled assistant powering smart speakers, in-vehicle systems, and smart home devices.

  • Delivered Alexa Auto solutions (offline music streaming) to 500K+ vehicles, achieving a 32% increase in user engagement
  • Generated $30M+ in global revenue through 15+ impactful product features for Alexa Audio's Auto initiative
  • Managed the full product lifecycle from ideation to deployment across engineering, legal, design, and business teams
  • Owned program governance for multi-org launches — partner OEM integrations, certification, and global rollout schedules
  • Built operational dashboards and weekly business reviews that surfaced risks early and accelerated executive decision-making
Dec 2020 – Aug 2022Bangalore & LA

VP of Technology & Program Management

Inviz.ai
AI/ML4x Revenue GrowthDrones & Warehouse AI
About the role

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-wide standards
  • Directed an AI-driven drone project for precision agriculture — delivering 14% cost savings for a US agriculture enterprise
  • Developed a warehouse optimization AI solution that reduced operational expenses by 37% for a Fortune 500 retailer
  • Led cross-functional teams across India and the US, managing complex stakeholder relationships and time-zone delivery
  • Played a hands-on role in pre-sales — solution architecture, RFP responses, and technical demos — converting strategic logos
Dec 2017 – Dec 2020Hyderabad · Singapore · Chile

Senior Technology Consultant

ThoughtWorks
E-commerceDBS BankFalabella
About the role

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 ran workshops on microservices, TDD, evolutionary architecture, and continuous delivery
Aug 2016 – Dec 2017Chennai

Senior Technology Consultant

Cognizant
Walmart ML35M+ SKUsSpend Analytics
About the role

American multinational IT services and consulting company.

  • Managed Walmart's digital merchandising ML project — deploying 100+ models that enriched 35M+ active SKUs
  • Achieved a 2.3% sales lift and 3% reduction in order returns through intelligent product enrichment
  • Developed an automated spend analysis solution contributing $2M+ in cost-savings recommendations
  • Led an offshore engineering pod and partnered closely with US-based product owners on agile delivery
Feb 2012 – Aug 2016Chennai

Founder & CEO

Buybazaar.com

E-commerce Pioneer₹45M Turnover$300K Seed
About the role

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 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, neighborhood pricing, and service quality
Earlier roles 2006–2011 +

Jan 2011 – Dec 2011 · Bangalore

SEO Specialist

Sumeru Digital Solutions

On-page and off-page SEO for enterprise client portfolios across US and EU — keyword research, content optimization, and link-building playbooks.

Jan 2008 – Mar 2009 · Chennai

Senior Marketing Executive

K7 Computing

Product marketing for K7's consumer antivirus and security suites — channel partners, sales collateral, and regional launch plans.

Jul 2006 – Dec 2007 · Chennai

Quality Solutions Specialist

Indium Software

Functional, regression, and performance test strategies for global software clients; early test automation and CI/CD pipelines.

02 / HOW I WORK

A few things
I try to get right.

01

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.

02

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.

03

Social Responsibility

Trying to give back where I can — mentoring, sharing what I've learned, helping others when the opportunity comes up.

Borrowed, with gratitude, from ThoughtWorks and Ben & Jerry’s.

Thoughts. Actions. Words.

I try to keep them consistent. Easier said than done.Read more about this ↗

03 / EDUCATION

Still learning.

2021 – 2023 · Los Angeles

MBA — Technology, Global Management & Entrepreneurship

UCLA Anderson School of Management

2002 – 2006 · Chennai

Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical)

Anna University

FURTHER STUDY & CERTIFICATIONS

Postgraduate Program — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Texas McCombs School of Business (UT Austin)

Postgraduate Degree — Full Stack Engineering, BITS Pilani

Management Program — IIM Kozhikode

AWS Solutions Architect — Associate

04 / NOTES & CONVERSATIONS

Thinking out loud.

Let’s talk.

About technology, teams, or something you’re building.

Find me on LinkedIn ↗

Ask about Ashwin

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