Harkoi - (Solo founder of a 7-member D2C beauty brand designed to celebrate dusky Indian skin tones, in India, UAE & Saudi Arabia.) | Mumbai

Founder

• Cracked Product-Market-Fit within the second launch (most brands average 4-5 products before PMF). Achieved this by identifying deep problem statements like whitecast when applying sunscreen, hormonal hair fall, deep under eye bags faced by the user during customer research interviews.
• Launched 10+ high-margin SKUs in Makeup, Skincare & Haircare, focused on solving problems for one customer rather than category, overseeing formulation strategy, ingredient innovation, packaging architecture, building manufacturer relationships, excitement-inducing social media campaigns & complex retailer partnerships. Harkoi was sold through Tira, Purplle, Vanity Wagon, Amazon & Flipkart.
• Generated a ROAS of 2 on AOV of INR 699 across 2 years (industry averages of ROAS 1.5 at a similar price point) by designing data-backed performance marketing funnels across Meta, Google & Amazon. Harkoi hit the top 10 in Tinted Sunscreen category on Amazon for 2 months, competing against Lakme. Increased website conversion rate from 0.8% to 2.1% by restructuring product pages, simplifying checkout, and aligning landing pages with ad creative.
• Achieved 10% of new monthly acquired customers through a community-led referral program, improving CAC in the short term by building strong ties with our repeat customers. Through the ‘Gift your friend’ program, our loyal customers could select a friend, family member or colleague to give a gift of the sample size of our sunscreen to try. 30% of these gifts converted to full-size products, and 8% of these customers turned into loyal customers of the brand.
• Improved product-level gross margins from 45% to 52% through vendor renegotiation and formulation optimization, extending supplier payment terms from pre-payment to 45 days - improving working capital without external debt.
• Built brand visibility organically - securing press coverage in Grazia, LBB, Verve, and Tweak India within year one (no PR agency).
• Expanded into offline retail across Vanity Wagon and Shoppers Stop - 10 stores across 7+ cities - training 10 sales associates on product and customer engagement.
• Cleared stock worth 10+ lakhs, of an unsuccessful launch, by listing on Meesho & creating viral content to cater to volume-conscious buyers from small towns.

ThatSlaps (A short-term course taught in a consultancy model to founders struggling with performance marketing) | Mumbai

Marketing Consultation & Strategy Freelancer

• Helped 5 clients across therapy, e-commerce, services, and ghostwriting. Trained and coached the internal team on performance marketing fundamentals over several months - covering campaign structure, creative testing, audience building, and day-to-day optimization - transferring full capability in-house rather than creating long-term external dependency.
• Scaled lead generation for one client from 20–30 to 600+ leads/month within two months - a 20x increase - and supported 3 new program launches (₹1–2L price point, ~30 students/batch) through the funnel.

• Harkoi won the Nykaa x LBB Top Emerging Brand Award in 2023 in the Beauty Category, amongst 22 other brands in the beauty category.

• Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting, Finance & Marketing),
• Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Oct 2015 - Jun 2018

• Created a pro-bono WhatsApp community called ‘All Things Pop-Up’, made up of 430+ brand owners, helping each other out by discussing physical pop-ups, past experience and sharing new opportunities.
• Start-Up & Niche Vertical Head for IIM A Placement Committee, 2026.