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 etc 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 optimisation - 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.