Headline

People and Culture Leader | Championing Self-Aware Workplaces | Ultra-Runner & Triple-Crown Hiker

About

I build cultures where ambitious people do their best work and then head for the mountains together. Today I lead People & Culture at a boot strapped SaaS startup that helps 40,000+ small retailers run their stores from a phone. My sweet spot is the messy 0→1 and 1→10 stages: hiring for grit over pedigree, wiring feedback loops, and turning “we should” into “we shipped.” Outside the office I’m one of only ~400 humans to finish North America’s *Triple Crown* of thru hiking (AT, PCT, CDT — 7,900 mi). Ultra running, mountaineering, and a few race director stints taught me more about logistics, resilience, and team morale than any MBA ever could. What I love to jam on - Crafting high performance, self aware teams - Embedding mental-health & EI routines into fast moving startups - First principles hiring and culture fit interviews - Outdoor leadership lessons for the boardroom - Story driven employer branding that doesn’t feel like HR Let’s connect if - You’re scaling a scrappy product team and want a culture that lasts - You enjoy swapping trail stories over coffee (or a dawn run) - You’re an early-career talent looking for guidance or a referral - You teach or research org-behaviour and need a guest speaker who’s walked the talk—literally Drop a note; I usually reply faster than I run downhill. 🏔️

Location

Hyderabad

AI stack

antigravity

claude code

claude

codex

Fireflies.ai

Granola

Work experience

People and Culture Leader at Zobaze, Mar 2025 - Present · 1 yr 6 mos, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Race Director at Trimetrix, Jun 2023 - Present · 3 yrs 3 mos, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India

Hiker at Arizona Trail Association, Feb 2020 - May 2020 · 4 mos, United States

Thru-Hiker at Continental Divide Trail Coalition, Apr 2019 - Sep 2019 · 6 mos, United States

Thru-Hiker at The Pacific Crest Trail, Mar 2018 - Sep 2018 · 7 mos

Education

Mountaineering, Nehru Institute of Mountaineering

Master of Engineering - MEng, Mechanical Engineering, Wayne State University

Public links

github: https://github.com/phaneendra235