Kavir Kaycee
I'm a versatile product manager with 8+ years of experience (total 12) and led product management for several Tier 1 VC (Accel, Sequoia) funded startups including CarDekho and Hashnode. Worked across B2B and B2C in the spaces of auto, fintech, AI, workplace collaboration, media and content. Most recently, I was a Senior PM at Hashnode, a blogging platform for developers with 3M MAUs. I improved the new monthly sign up growth rate by 80% and increased the monthly active registered users by 52%. Currently I consult with startups, build side projects with AI, and write a newsletter of 5K+ subs. In past roles I’ve been an founder of a bootstrapped HR tech startup, product manager at early stage startups, and as an Senior PM at CarDekho, I helped build a 0-1 platform to disburse 3000+ loans valued at $12M. Currently the platform does $80M disbursals monthly. ISB alum (2015), On Deck Fellow (2021)
Work Experience | Writing | Side Projects | Media | Contact
💼 Work Experience
Consulting
Product Management Consultant (Dec 2023 — Present)
Consulting with startups and companies on product and growth
- Product Management Consultant for a Series D+ startup building an MVP of their e-commerce web store catered towards Tier 2-3 cities in India
- Consulting with Antler India’s residency program founders on product and growth
- Developed a Telegram bot for AI mental health by tinkering with AI software development
Hashnode
Senior Product Manager (Feb 2023 — Nov 2023)
Blogging platform and community for developers (Accel and Sequoia Surge backed)
- Increased new monthly sign-ups growth by 80% by conceptualizing and shipping a sign-up modal to drive growth on blog pages
- Accelerated monthly active registered users by 52% by building a new homepage redesign, more personalized feed, improving recommendations of blogs and tags, and a dedicated discussions page
- Additional features shipped: Import newsletter subscribers, community likes, following feed, AI writing features, onboarding emails, AI chat with article (beta), Command bar (beta), Block-based editor (beta)
- Leading the product management function from conceptualizing the product roadmap, writing product specs, wireframing, acceptance criteria, project management, review, launch
- Handling product feature marketing through coordinating social launches, writing blogs, X threads, and creating demo videos
Launch articles of key features:
Launch videos of key features:
Creator
Writer, Builder, Advisor (Jun 2020 — Present)
Worked on several high-impact side projects that involved writing and building an audience and creating no-code apps for social causes
- Built an audience of 15,000+ across Twitter, LinkedIn, newsletter, and email lists
- Shipped a covid relief app during India’s second wave covid crisis that was used by 150K+ people and raised $500K+ in donations
- Created a mental wellness app that was featured on the platform’s customer stories page
- Crafted reusable templates for product management, productivity, design that are used by 4500+ people
- Product and Growth advisor at Workduck (seed funded collaborative note-taking platform, think Roam meets Raycast meets Readwise) and ReHive (climate fundraising platform)
The Product Folks
Program Director, No-code Program (Oct 2021 — Feb 2023)
4-week cohort program to teach non-technical people how to build apps without code
- Launched The Product Folks first paid CBC and ran three successful cohorts selecting 100 applicants from 1080+ applicants
- Got 10+ experts in from top no-code platforms like Bubble, Glide, Softr
- We had diverse learners from 5 continents and varied backgrounds and companies like UNICEF, AngelList, Bumble, Cornell University, Duke University, Polygon
Showcase Day Tweet:
Bord.com
Product Lead Consultant | Remote, Mumbai - SF HQ (Sep 2020 — Jul 2022)
Building a remote whiteboarding tool targeting management consultants
- Built an MVP of a whiteboarding tool with templates, auto shapes, marking up presentations. Early users include people from McKinsey, Bain, BCG
- Conducted multiple experiments and validated through user interviews and usability testing, collecting ~800 data points
Emtropy Labs
Senior Product Manager | Bangalore/Remote - Boston HQ (May 2019 — Dec 2020)
Early-stage startup solving customer service quality using machine learning
- Developed QA automation to analyze 30K monthly support tickets increasing quality by 15% and resulting in $400K cost savings for Whoop
- Created feedback and recognition products (pivot) used by 400+ employees to share 700+ kudos and 500+ feedback
Key Case Studies
MakeMyResume.co.in
Co-founder | Mumbai (Jan 2017 – May 2019)
Early-stage venture providing career advancement products/services to boost customers' job prospects
- Generated $80K annual revenue through SEO optimization, process and quality improvements, and partnerships
- Initiated, negotiated, and set up franchise partnerships in Bangalore and Delhi
- Built no-code apps Cover Letter Builder to create 2000+ cover letters and Order Tracking App to reduce support costs
- Increased website conversions by 107% and achieved top 3 Google rankings by redesigning the website and optimizing page speed
- Hired, trained, and led a team of 17 remote contributors – 4 ops, 10+ writers, 2 developers, and 1 designer
CarDekho.com
Senior Product Manager | Gurgaon (May 2015 – Nov 2016)
Sequoia and CapitalG funded company; CarDekho is India's leading auto portal valued at $1.2B
- Facilitated 3000+ used car loans valued at $12M by building a platform across mobile (Android + iOS) and web
- Reduced loan application processing time by 60% through an innovative camera user interface for document capture
- Led a cross-functional team of 7 Engineering, 2 QA, 2 Design, 1 Junior PM, 50+ Sales and Operations in 5 cities
Accenture
Software Engineering Analyst | Mumbai (Jul 2010 – Apr 2014)
🎓 Education
- Post Graduate Program in Management (MBA equivalent), Indian School of Business (ISB), 2015 Finalist of 2 Global Case Competitions – IESE Barcelona, Impact Investing; CEIBS Shanghai, INNOVATE China
- Bachelor of Engineering, Information Technology, University of Mumbai, 2010
Side Projects
😷 IndiaCovidResources.in
No-code Maker / Core Team (Apr 2021 – Jun 2021)
During India's devastating Covid second wave, I worked with two online communities with 200+ volunteers to build an app that helped 150K people get access to life-saving resources like oxygen, beds, medicines in time.
- Built a no-code app in 2 days to help connect people to life-saving resources including hospital beds, medicines, oxygen, mental health experts, and more
- Helped build a donation website visited by 3M users to raise $500K over a period of 2 months
- Press coverage: HardCopy
😌 Mind Health
No-code Creator (Jun 2020 – Present)
Mind Health is an app that helps you improve your mental wellbeing by practicing mindfulness, and challenging negative thinking by identifying distortions.
- Illustrated designs for 10 cognitive distortions and created an app in Glide to help users identify faulty thinking patterns and challenge the negative thinking
- Added guided meditations to help users practice mindfulness meditations
⚡ Showw.work
No-code Creator (Sep 2020 – Present)
A platform to help designers to create their personal portfolios using Notion templates and help keep them updated
- Created this platform in 30 days as part of Makerpad's 30-day challenge, serving 121 customers
- Developed a 7 day email course and automated the operations with Zapier
Writing
I've been writing consistently over the last year and a half. I have ~5,500 subscribers to my newsletter The Discourse. My writing has been published in publications such as Product Craft and Mind The Product. Here are some of my favorite articles:
A deep dive into how Polywork aims to be part of the cooperation economy
What's the speed feature stack and what are the apps that offer this experience
Discussion of the jobs-to-be-done and comparison between whiteboarding apps
Video Podcasts
This includes some of my top audio and video appearances over the years
Tools proficiency
Product Management/Design:
- Notion, Figma, Linear, Amplitude, Intercom, Excalidraw, Figjam, JIRA, Notability, Miro, Mixpanel, Segment, Userbrain
No-code tools:
- Glide, Zapier, Webflow, Carrd, Softr, Bubble, Make