---
title: "Varun Gupta - Strategy Lead, Founder’s Office in Gurugram | Tal"
description: "Meet Varun Gupta, Building HiAstro | Strategy, Operations, Growth & Consumer AI | Ex- Accenture Strategy, ZS Associates | IIM Lucknow | UTU Finland | NIT-Bhopal based in Gurugram. AI stack includes claude, codex, and grok."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/varun-gupta-8/share-image"
---

# Varun Gupta on Tal

## Headline

Building HiAstro \| Strategy, Operations, Growth & Consumer AI \| Ex\- Accenture Strategy, ZS Associates \| IIM Lucknow \| UTU Finland \| NIT\-Bhopal

## About

I moved from strategy consulting into operating to stay with problems through execution, not just stop at the recommendations\. At HiAstro, a consumer AI platform with 1M\+ downloads, people engage with AI astrologers through chat and voice\. Currently, with \~5 years of experience across consulting & growth, I lead strategy and operating initiatives in the Founder’s Office and report to the founder\. I run the weekly operating review across product, engineering and growth, turning company\-level metrics into clear priorities, decisions, owners and follow\-through\. My remit spans lifecycle growth & retention, analytics, partnership and vendor strategy, user safety, and investor reporting\. Recent work includes improving adoption of flagship features through controlled lifecycle experiments, securing material non\-dilutive AI\-infrastructure support, implementing safety screening and escalation controls for user–AI conversations, and rebuilding operating reporting used in founder and investor reviews\. I chose the category deliberately\. Building AI products for deeply personal use cases in India sits at the intersection of consumer behaviour, trust, safety, retention and unit economics which is exactly the kind of ambiguous operating problem I enjoy\. Before HiAstro, I worked in Accenture Strategy’s CEO & Enterprise Strategy practice and at ZS Associates, where I ranked among the top 1% of associates firmwide\. I hold an MBA from IIM Lucknow and a B\.Tech from NIT Bhopal\. My experience is most relevant to Founder’s Office, Strategy & Operations, and Chief of Staff roles in consumer technology and AI, especially where growth, operating cadence and cross\-functional execution need to come together\. Outside work, I paint, strength train, travel and occasionally find a dance floor\. I am always happy to chat about current trends and new ideas\!

## Location

Gurugram

## AI stack

claude

codex

grok

notion

perplexity

ChatGPT

## Work experience

Strategy Lead, Founder’s Office at HiAstro, Oct 2025 \- Present · 1 yr, Gurugram, Chief of Staff equivalent\. Everything business\.

Strategy Analyst at Accenture Strategy & Consulting, Aug 2023 \- Mar 2026 · 2 yrs 8 mos, Gurugram, Haryana, India, Collaborating with global stakeholders and clients across Life Sciences, Retail and FMCG industries on strategic priorities\. \-Design and implementation of enterprise\-wide knowledge management strategy for leadership's key strategic priority\. \-Development of a forward\-looking digital transformation strategy focusing on sustainability for a Fortune 500 client in the healthcare & life sciences industry\. \-Data management platform assessment for global clients across multiple industries\. \-Product management for the development of an upskilling platform for the beneficiaries of non\-profit clients globally\.

Consulting Intern at Takshashila Consulting, Aug 2022 \- Sep 2022 · 2 mos, Remote, \- Conferred Pre\-Placement Interview Offer \- Felicitated with Certificate of Recognition among 200\+ teams pan India for best business proposal STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT \(Fintech\) \-Formulated a 5\-year growth strategy for a $3\.4B discount brokerage platform through, competitive benchmarking, market & unit economics analysis to increase ROI by 30% & revenue by 2x

Human Resources Intern at Medhavi Association, Aug 2022 \- Aug 2022 · 1 mo, Remote, \-Worked on a social initiative to connect inspirational leaders \-Curated national outreach program & developed personas to identify young inspirational leaders

Alliances & Partnerships Manager at Regal Fincorp™, Jul 2022 \- Aug 2022 · 2 mos, Remote, \-Reported directly to the CEO \-Prospected alliances across banking, insurance & payments for a $1M gold loan NBFC

## Education

Master of Business Administration \- MBA, Business Administration and Management, General, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow

Exchange Student, Economics, Turun yliopisto \- University of Turku

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/varun-gupta-8)

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