Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Accomplishments
Timeline
Kumar Gandharva

Kumar Gandharva

VP - Growth & Marketing
Bangalore

Summary

With over 7 years of experience in marketing, I specialize in growth and customer acquisition for online and e-commerce businesses in India and overseas.

Led growth at Anarock, PagarBook & Livspace. 7.5+ years in e-commerce / online businesses / startups. Built high-performing teams, Managed marketing for top brands in India & SEA. Consulted startups in MEA markets.

Overview

8
8
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education

Work History

VP - Growth & Marketing

myHQ by Anarock
Bangalore
09.2022 - Current
  • As VP of Growth, I am responsible for driving customer acquisition, revenue growth & brand initiatives at myHQ.
  • Leading Performance Marketing (App & Web), Retention Marketing, Brand Marketing, SEO & Brand comms.
  • Currently oversee a team of 10 members including Brand Manager, Retention Manager, Social Media Manager, Creative Designer, SEO Manager, Operations team and an external agency for Performance Marketing.
  • Spearheaded brand relaunch to ensure consistent and compelling brand communication and visual design across all channels.
  • Crafted a clear and concise messaging framework to effectively convey myHQ's value proposition and unique positioning. Developed a comprehensive set of visual guidelines, including logo usage, typography, color palette, and imagery style.
  • Spearheaded the growth of a key business line at myHQ, achieving an impressive 2.2x increase in GMV.
  • Moreover, successfully propelled the top of the funnel for another key business line by achieving 2x increase, with a subsequent 2.4x increase in GMV & overall revenue.
  • Significantly increased SEO traffic from 1 lakh to 3 lakh within 7 months, accompanied by a notable 13-point increase in domain authority.
  • Spearheaded cross-functional initiatives across departments (sales, marketing, product & technology) to achieve business goals for bottom-line profits.

Director - Growth & Marketing

Crypso
Bangalore
04.2022 - 09.2022
  • Spearheaded growth marketing, revenue, and analytics initiatives at Crypso.
  • Established growth and analytics infrastructure, including team setup, acquisition channels, social media, and analytics, CRM, and data pipeline implementation.
  • Led user acquisition through performance campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and influencer partnerships. Managed social media and product analytics. Achieved 30k Registered Users, 11k KYCed Users, and 3k Trading Users in one month.
  • Successfully executed pre-launch campaign with 5000+ sign-ups for early access, utilizing referral, rewards, and social media. Implemented and managed a referral program resulting in 20k+ sign-ups in 10 days through influencer and referral initiatives.

Associate Director , Growth & Marketing

PagarBook
Bangalore
06.2020 - 04.2022
  • Headed growth marketing and revenue initiatives at PagarBook since June 2020. As the first member of the growth team, established the entire growth infrastructure, including paid and organic acquisition channels, data tracking tools, and event integrations.
  • Managed a team of 20 members in Growth, 150+ members in Revenue, and 5 members in Financial Services.
  • Responsible for setting up and leading the growth and marketing function, overseeing performance marketing managers, social media managers, creative designers, content writers, and organic growth managers.
  • Scaled active user base from 10k to 10M+ in 6 months using paid and organic acquisition channels. Increased follower base across Social Media (FB + IG) to 100k+ in 10 months and YouTube subscriber base from 0 to 24k in 4 months through targeted content marketing initiatives.
  • Managed a monthly budget of 2M USD across Brand, Performance, Influencer, and Offline campaigns.
  • Successfully established an offline acquisition channel with 1000 feet on the street within 2 months, achieving a productivity rate of 10 SME onboarded per person per day. Operated at a scale of 500,000 SME onboardings per month.
  • Led revenue initiatives, initiating a 20-member offline sales team in Chennai, which rapidly scaled to a 250+ member team across 30 cities within 3 months, resulting in a 20x revenue growth within 6 months.
  • Drove growth for financial services at PagarBook, scaling assets under management (AUM) from INR 1 lakh to INR 1.5 crore in 6 months.

Digital Marketing Manager

Livspace
Bangalore
06.2017 - 12.2019
  • Served as the Performance Marketing Lead for Livspace Singapore, overseeing end-to-end strategy and operations for brand and performance campaigns on digital channels.
  • Owned the comprehensive media planning, execution, and optimization strategy for brand and performance campaigns in Livspace India and Singapore, managing an Annual Operating Plan (AOP) of INR 36 crore.
  • Led customer acquisition and engagement through performance and organic channels such as Google Ads (Search, Display, Video), Facebook, DBM, Criteo, Email, and Affiliate Partners.
  • Managed organic growth (SEO) and retention marketing for Livspace India and Singapore, handling all organic and content-based digital marketing activities and developing SEO strategies for website, local, and YouTube SEO, as well as email and SMS marketing.
  • Took charge of conversion rate optimization and engagement rate improvement by conducting hypothesis-based experiments (A/B and Multivariate) on UI/UX, landing page designs, user engagements, and web events.
  • Collaborated closely with creative and media buying agencies, providing strategic briefs and executing diverse marketing campaigns. Worked in close coordination with PR and social media teams.
  • Collaborated with business teams to understand target audience and consumer insights, identify consumer behavior patterns across serviceable cities, analyze existing market share, and identify new growth opportunities.
  • Supported business teams in demand forecasting, growth planning, and achieving monthly and annual goals for Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).
  • Collaborated with cross-functional teams including City Sales Operations, Data Analytics, Web Developers and UX Designers, Product Managers, Content, and Graphic Designers.

Performance Marketing Manager

Merkle Sokrati
Pune
06.2016 - 06.2017
  • Responsible for managing customer acquisition (app & website) through performance marketing for a portfolio of e-commerce, BFSI, and OTT clients including ShoppersStop App, eBay India, SBI Life, and NexGTV.
  • Managed an annual portfolio budget of 24 Cr, encompassing strategy, planning, and execution of performance campaigns with hands-on experience in Google Search, Display, Facebook, App-Install, and Shopping campaigns.
  • Accountable for achieving customer acquisition goals, including app installs, website sessions, transactions, and lead generation. Monitored key metrics such as CPI, CPR, CPT, CPS, and ROI.
  • Oversaw end-to-end management and optimization of client accounts, utilizing compelling ad copies, high-quality campaign structures, A/B testing, and analysis of seasonal market trends and competitor behavior to drive growth and cost reduction.

Education

Bachelor of Technology -

National Institute of Technology, Nagpur
05.2012 - 05.2016

Skills

    Performance Marketing

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Accomplishments


  • App Marketing Knight 2020 - Affle Technologies | Yearly award for best mobile app marketers across India.
  • ISB Hyderabad - Mentor & Lead - Experiential Learning Programme
  • Spot Award @ Livspace - Employee of the Quarter for three consecutive quarters - Q1 '18, Q2 '18, Q3 '18.
  • General Secretary '15 - Head Student Representative @ NIT, Nagpur

Timeline

VP - Growth & Marketing - myHQ by Anarock
09.2022 - Current
Director - Growth & Marketing - Crypso
04.2022 - 09.2022
Associate Director , Growth & Marketing - PagarBook
06.2020 - 04.2022
Digital Marketing Manager - Livspace
06.2017 - 12.2019
Performance Marketing Manager - Merkle Sokrati
06.2016 - 06.2017
National Institute of Technology - Bachelor of Technology,
05.2012 - 05.2016
Kumar GandharvaVP - Growth & Marketing