Headline

Fractional product & growth operator for startups | I take products from user insights into execution & real adoption with AI-powered systems | 10+ products shipped | 10K+ users activated

About

Hey there! AI has democratized building - anyone, anywhere, can turn an idea into a working prototype in a weekend. So the prototype is no longer the moat. The user is. The hard part is everything the demo doesn't show you: who will actually use this, how they'll use it, when it fits into their day, and what they'll want from it next. That's not a building problem, it's a knowing problem. Know the user, know your data, then take bets: experiment, let things fail, and find the one thing that truly moves the needle. That's the part I do - I'm a fractional product & growth operator. I take products from user research to real adoption - interviews and hypotheses to find what people actually need, validation to prove it, then the onboarding, journeys, and AI-powered systems that turn signups into active, retained users. Over 8+ years across the US, EMEA & APAC, I've shipped 10+ products and activated 10K+ users by understanding users and fixing activation, not by buying traffic. Generalist by design, execution-first, in short 2–4 week sprints. If your product works but your users aren't sticking that's exactly my problem to solve. → https://firstchair.in/

Location

Bengaluru

AI stack

claude code

claude

gemini

lovable

n8n

claudecode

Work experience

Founder - Fractional product consultant at First Chair, Oct 2023 - Present · 3 y, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, We take on the ambiguous, early-stage problems startups don't yet have anyone to own. Product, growth, and strategy from first diagnosis to shipped outcome. Give us the problem. We own it end to end. 10+ products shipped across India, US. EMEA, 100,000+ users activated. Discovery, MVP builds, GTM, and systems design. Selected outcomes: * Built the lead engine for one of the fastest-growing US real-estate brokerages - cut speed-to-lead from ~2 days to under 5 minutes (99%+ faster) across a 50+ agent beta, feeding a qualified pipeline worth ~$20M in potential transaction volume. * Built and repositioned an ed-tech simulation product to an ed-tech gaming app and scaled it to 1,000 users via paid acquisition holding 21% Day-7 retention, nearly 2x the education-app benchmark. * Led deep user research for a compliance SaaS, 100+ exporter interviews to map their day, process, tools, and friction and turned it into a validated product roadmap before a line of code. Some true honesty: I've been doing this as an independent consultant, now I am figuring out how to build this into a consulting studio, its a journey....

Product Manager II at HighLevel, May 2022 - Sep 2023 · 1 yr 5 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, - Proposed the concept of an affiliate manager feature in the HighLevel CRM, secured approval and support from both end-users and internal stakeholders, developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and successfully expanded the product to 10,000 users within a span of less than 10 months, generating over one million dollars in affiliate sales. - Proposed a redesign for the HighLevel CRM landing page i.e. the CRM Dashboard – a highly sought-after enhancement requested by thousands of customers. Successfully implemented a dynamic dashboard within a swift three-month timeframe, allowing users to personalize it based on their preferences. Implemented an email-based prompting system to boost adoption rates. The dashboard offers comprehensive reporting on user activities, including emails, calls, texts, and social interactions. - Expanded the reach of the call scheduling tool, Eliza, to over 250 customers and conducted training sessions to enhance customer retention and encourage referrals.

Product Manager at HighRadius, Jan 2021 - May 2022 · 1 y 4 mo, Hyderabad

Customer Success Manager at SquadStack.ai, Jan 2018 - Jan 2021 · 3 y, Noida

Education

Master of Business Administration - MBA, Strategy and Marketing, Indian School of Business

GrowthX®

Public links

github: https://github.com/sharmishtha30

sharmishthasharma.notion.site: https://sharmishthasharma.notion.site/Proof-of-Work-f87fe83ed08a46908879e3dfdbec13c2