After building products for 50+ million users, raising $3.7M in venture capital, and successfully exiting my startup, people keep asking me the same question: “What’s next?”
The answer surprised even me: I’m starting a blog.
The Unlikely Blogger
Let’s be honest—I never saw myself as a “blogger.” I’m the guy who spent years optimizing conversion funnels, not crafting perfect prose. I preferred building products to writing about them. But after a decade in product management and four years founding Zeda.io, I’ve realized something important:
The best product lessons aren’t taught in business school—they’re learned in the trenches.
And most of these lessons never get shared.
My Product Journey
My path wasn’t linear, and that’s what makes it interesting.
I started as a Product Manager at Paytm, where I helped launch India’s first neo bank and built the country’s first QR code-based payment system. Watching 10 million merchants adopt digital payments taught me that great products don’t just solve problems—they change behaviors.
At Tokopedia (Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platform), I led a 15-person team building AI marketing automation that served 50 million users. We increased engagement by 25% and drove $25M in revenue growth. But more importantly, I learned how to scale AI products in complex, multi-cultural markets.
Branch.io gave me my first taste of Silicon Valley product management, where I worked directly with executives to build products for enterprise customers like Disney, Uber, and Adobe. The experience of launching an AI attribution platform processing 500M+ link clicks daily showed me the power of getting enterprise product-market fit right.
But the entrepreneurial bug had bitten me.
The Founding Story
In 2020, frustrated by the disconnect between what product teams built and what customers actually needed, I founded Zeda.io. We created an AI platform that captures customer feedback, analyzes it using LLMs, and automatically generates product roadmaps and even Jira tickets.
The journey wasn’t easy, but the results spoke for themselves:
- $3.7M raised from top VCs like BEENEXT and Paradigm Shift Capital
- 100+ enterprise customers including teams at Microsoft, PayPal, and SureCost
- Multiple awards including HackerNoon’s “Startup of the Year 2023” for San Francisco Bay Area
- Featured as a “Product to Watch” at ProductSchool’s 2023 Proddy Awards
We built it, scaled it, and successfully exited—proving that AI can truly transform how product teams work.
What This Blog Is (And Isn’t)
This isn’t another generic “product management tips” blog. The internet has enough of those.
Instead, this is where I’ll share the real, unfiltered lessons from building products that millions of people actually use:
- The frameworks that worked (and the popular ones that failed spectacularly)
- The startup mistakes that cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars
- The AI integration strategies that drove $25M in revenue growth
- The leadership lessons from managing teams across 5 time zones
What you won’t find here: Recycled advice from other blogs, theoretical frameworks that sound good but break in practice, or humble brags disguised as wisdom.
What you will find: Practical insights backed by real data, honest failure stories, and actionable frameworks you can implement tomorrow.
Why Now?
Three reasons made me start writing:
1. The Product Management Industry Is Having an Identity Crisis
AI is changing everything. Traditional PM frameworks are breaking down. Remote work has fundamentally shifted how we build products. Yet most of the content out there still talks about product management like it’s 2019.
Having built AI-powered products before it was trendy (and learned from plenty of failures), I want to share what actually works in this new landscape.
2. The Startup Advice Industrial Complex Is Broken
Most startup advice comes from either:
- VCs who’ve never built a product themselves
- Founders of unicorns whose experience doesn’t apply to 99% of us
- “Growth hackers” selling courses
I’ve been through the full cycle: early-stage PM at Paytm, growth-stage at Tokopedia, enterprise-focused at Branch.io, and founder/CEO at Zeda.io. Each stage taught me different lessons, and I want to share the nuanced reality—not just the highlight reel.
3. The Future of Product Management Needs More Voices
The PM community is incredibly generous, but it’s also becoming an echo chamber. We need more diverse perspectives, especially from founders who’ve been on both sides—building products as employees and as entrepreneurs.
What You Can Expect
I’ll be sharing insights across four main areas:
Product Strategy & Frameworks
Real frameworks that have guided multi-million dollar decisions, not theoretical models. I’ll share the prioritization methods that helped us choose which features to build for our AI platform, the customer research techniques that uncovered $25M opportunities, and the roadmapping approaches that actually kept teams aligned.
AI in Product Development
Having built AI products since 2017 (before the current hype cycle), I’ll share practical insights on when to use AI, when not to, and how to integrate LLMs without falling into the common traps that I see 90% of teams making.
Entrepreneurship & Startup Lessons
The real story of building Zeda.io: from the initial frustration that led to the idea, through the struggles of finding product-market fit, to raising millions in funding and ultimately exiting. I’ll share the specific mistakes, the breakthrough moments, and the lessons that only come from doing it yourself.
Industry Analysis & Predictions
Where I think product management is heading, which trends are real vs. hype, and how the role of product managers is evolving in an AI-first world. Plus occasional deep dives into industries I’m passionate about, like healthcare technology.
A Personal Note
Starting this blog feels vulnerable in a way that building products never did. When you ship a feature, you get immediate feedback—usage metrics, user complaints, revenue impact. Writing puts your thoughts out there with no clear success metrics.
But that’s exactly why I need to do it.
The product management community gave me so much—mentorship, frameworks, opportunities, and eventually the confidence to start my own company. This blog is my way of giving back and continuing the conversation.
Let’s Build Something Great Together
Product management is ultimately about understanding people and solving their problems. This blog is my attempt to understand and solve problems for the PM and founder community.
What challenges are you facing in product management or entrepreneurship? What topics would you like me to cover?
I’m always open to discussions, feedback, and learning from your experiences too. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or via email.
Let’s build something great together.
P.S. If you’re currently struggling with product prioritization, customer feedback analysis, or thinking about starting a company, don’t hesitate to reach out. I remember what it was like to face these challenges without a clear path forward, and I’m happy to share what I’ve learned.