Akash Guru profile photo 1 on Tal

Akash Guru

Senior Product Manager | AI/GenAI Product Journey | 0→1 to Scale | Commerce | Ex-Kotak Mahindra Bank, Just Dial | IIM Alumnus

Greater Bengaluru Area

8+ years of work experience

Protean eGov Technologies
Aug 20251 yr 3 mosPresent

Remote

- Led AI strategy across three product lines,  applied LLM-based product categorization to the Buyer & Seller catalog, cutting operational catalog work by 80%, and automated missing-image generation on the Seller app, reducing invalid listings by 40%. - Led UI/UX design and strategy to convert a manual, complex client onboarding process into a fully self-serve SaaS experience for the Rise API Marketplace, reducing onboarding time from 1 month to 3 days.
Protean eGov Technologies
Aug 20223 yrs 1 moAug 2025

Bengaluru

- Built LLM-powered document summarization and query features on eSign Pro, cutting document signing time by 60%. - Managed a 6-member third-party development team; designed and launched ONDC-powered B2B commerce, gift card, mobility, and B2C commerce applications for clients including scheduled banks, NBFCs, and fintechs. - Took Commerce Applications from 0 to 1 by redesigning the checkout flow, driving 15% MoM GMV growth and 8% MoM DAU growth. - Generated ₹1.5 Cr (~10% of team revenue) by launching applications across commerce, mobility, and gifting domains, including one of the first commerce apps built on the ONDC network.
Kotak Mahindra Bank
Mar 20211 yr 6 mosAug 2022

Bengaluru

- Owned an in-app e-commerce aggregator platform communicating merchant offers to Kotak Mahindra Bank customers (50Mn users). - Redesigned the platform and raised conversion from 2.2% to 7.3% by implementing UI/UX improvements and introducing rewards, offers, coupons, and merchant discovery. - As a result, MAU grew from 16k to 24k, new user acquisition from 8k to 15k, and average monthly transactions from 32k to 54k. - Onboarded 30+ marquee e-commerce merchants and managed their P&L, contributing ₹2.3 Cr (~3%) to platform topline. - Ran A/B tests on home page discovery layouts post-release, increasing DAU by 85%, sessions by 111%, and new users by 87.5%. - Conceptualized 15+ campaigns aligning offers and promotions with target segments, driving a 12% increase in repeat usage. - Led hiring and team expansion, recruiting and managing a team of 2 Product Managers.
Justdial
Jan 20192 yrs 3 mosMar 2021

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

- Owned the Price Comparison Shopping and B2B Marketplace platforms across Just Dial (150Mn quarterly unique users). - Led redesign and technical upgrade of the Price Comparison Shopping platform, improving discovery and customer experience, driving a 62% increase in monthly average revenue. - Built a model that improved price accuracy from 84% to 90–95% for price comparison and merchant platforms. - Defined and led go-to-market strategy for JD Mart, a B2B lead-generation marketplace, from 0-1. - Reached daily average search figures of 44k products, 23k categories, and 156k companies on JD Mart within 3 months of launch.
MedHub
Mar 201810 mosDec 2018

Gurgaon, India

Conducted market research, sales strategy, and 15+ workshops and seminars; secured 17 deals with corporate hospitals including Apollo, Fortis, Vedanta, and Cloud9 for medical devices.
Agarwal Packers and Movers Ltd.
Apr 20172 mosMay 2017

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Internship involved high-potential 100+ client visits and resulted in Conversion of 7 major clients like Honda, Yamaha & international migrating customers

Akash’s AI Stack

aistudio
aistudio
claude
claude
elevenlabs
elevenlabs
gemini
gemini
grok
grok
claudecode
claudecode

Education

Indian Institute of Management Rohtak

Post Graduate Diploma in Management, Marketing, Finance and IT

Indian Institute of Management Rohtak

20162 yrs2018
Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, BANGALORE

Engineer’s Degree, Computer Science Engineering

Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, BANGALORE

20094 yrs2013

Join Akash and 10k+ other professionals on

Tal Boss

Tal is the app where bosses meet engineers & builders directly, without middlemen

Download Tal Boss

Akash Guru on Tal

Headline

Senior Product Manager | AI/GenAI Product Journey | 0→1 to Scale | Commerce | Ex-Kotak Mahindra Bank, Just Dial | IIM Alumnus

About

As Product Manager at Protean, I help Banks, Financial Technology (Fintech), and Non-Banking Financial Companies(NBFC) to get enabled on the ONDC network by providing them with Buyer Applications that provide discovery of Products in the ONDC network to their customers. Previously, I worked with Kotak Mahindra Bank helping Mobile Banking customers explore online platforms in e-commerce, mobility, hospitality & travel and transact and get rewarded. Before that, I helped Just Dial Ltd customers discover products from all e-commerce platforms by aggregating them into a single platform. Areas of Expertise: Product management, Software development, B2B SaaS, Marketplace, B2B2C, Product strategy, Change management, Govtech, ONDC, e-commerce, fintech, Data & Business Analysis Product Road maps, Product Development using Agile methodologies, Digital Transformation, Program & Portfolio Management Specialities: Customer research and usability, project management, cross-functional communications, data-driven analysis, PowerPoint presentations, P&L handling. My interests include diving into refreshing waters, smashing shuttlecocks, exploring cutting-edge technology, travelling the world and whipping up culinary delights.

Location

Greater Bengaluru Area

AI stack

aistudio

claude

elevenlabs

gemini

grok

claudecode

Work experience

Senior Product Manager - Lead Development at Protean eGov Technologies, Aug 2025 - Present · 1 yr 3 mos, Remote, - Led AI strategy across three product lines, applied LLM-based product categorization to the Buyer & Seller catalog, cutting operational catalog work by 80%, and automated missing-image generation on the Seller app, reducing invalid listings by 40%. - Led UI/UX design and strategy to convert a manual, complex client onboarding process into a fully self-serve SaaS experience for the Rise API Marketplace, reducing onboarding time from 1 month to 3 days.

Product Manager - Lead Development at Protean eGov Technologies, Aug 2022 - Aug 2025 · 3 yrs 1 mo, Bengaluru, - Built LLM-powered document summarization and query features on eSign Pro, cutting document signing time by 60%. - Managed a 6-member third-party development team; designed and launched ONDC-powered B2B commerce, gift card, mobility, and B2C commerce applications for clients including scheduled banks, NBFCs, and fintechs. - Took Commerce Applications from 0 to 1 by redesigning the checkout flow, driving 15% MoM GMV growth and 8% MoM DAU growth. - Generated ₹1.5 Cr (~10% of team revenue) by launching applications across commerce, mobility, and gifting domains, including one of the first commerce apps built on the ONDC network.

Senior Product Manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mar 2021 - Aug 2022 · 1 yr 6 mos, Bengaluru, - Owned an in-app e-commerce aggregator platform communicating merchant offers to Kotak Mahindra Bank customers (50Mn users). - Redesigned the platform and raised conversion from 2.2% to 7.3% by implementing UI/UX improvements and introducing rewards, offers, coupons, and merchant discovery. - As a result, MAU grew from 16k to 24k, new user acquisition from 8k to 15k, and average monthly transactions from 32k to 54k. - Onboarded 30+ marquee e-commerce merchants and managed their P&L, contributing ₹2.3 Cr (~3%) to platform topline. - Ran A/B tests on home page discovery layouts post-release, increasing DAU by 85%, sessions by 111%, and new users by 87.5%. - Conceptualized 15+ campaigns aligning offers and promotions with target segments, driving a 12% increase in repeat usage. - Led hiring and team expansion, recruiting and managing a team of 2 Product Managers.

Product Manager at Justdial, Jan 2019 - Mar 2021 · 2 yrs 3 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, - Owned the Price Comparison Shopping and B2B Marketplace platforms across Just Dial (150Mn quarterly unique users). - Led redesign and technical upgrade of the Price Comparison Shopping platform, improving discovery and customer experience, driving a 62% increase in monthly average revenue. - Built a model that improved price accuracy from 84% to 90–95% for price comparison and merchant platforms. - Defined and led go-to-market strategy for JD Mart, a B2B lead-generation marketplace, from 0-1. - Reached daily average search figures of 44k products, 23k categories, and 156k companies on JD Mart within 3 months of launch.

Assistant Manager Marketing at MedHub, Mar 2018 - Dec 2018 · 10 mos, Gurgaon, India, Conducted market research, sales strategy, and 15+ workshops and seminars; secured 17 deals with corporate hospitals including Apollo, Fortis, Vedanta, and Cloud9 for medical devices.

Summer Intern at Agarwal Packers and Movers Ltd., Apr 2017 - May 2017 · 2 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Internship involved high-potential 100+ client visits and resulted in Conversion of 7 major clients like Honda, Yamaha & international migrating customers

Education

Post Graduate Diploma in Management, Marketing, Finance and IT, Indian Institute of Management Rohtak

Engineer’s Degree, Computer Science Engineering, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, BANGALORE