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Yash
Vardhan.

๐Ÿ“ Based in Bangalore, India

I build products that work at scale and own whether they succeed. 10+ years across payments, platform, and AI-native products. Also: hobby developer, startup consultant, and someone who builds things just to see if they can.

Yash Vardhan portrait
IIT Bombay
IIM-A
10+
years
About me

Builder. PM. Human.

I am a Senior Product Manager with 10+ years building products at scale โ€” from payment rails processing crores of rupees daily, to consumer apps used by lakhs of users, to things I built at 2am just because an idea would not leave me alone.

I hold a CS degree from IIT Bombay and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and I write real code in Python, Django, and React. I use AI tooling hands-on every day โ€” not as a novelty, but as a genuine way to build and think faster.

I am equally comfortable at zero to one โ€” finding the right problem and establishing early traction โ€” and at one to hundred, where discipline, data, and execution determine whether a product wins.

Outside of work: hobby developer, startup consultant, badminton regular, football follower, cook, and someone who thinks about publishing and todo lists in ways that probably need their own product.

10+
Years across fintech, mobility, retail, and SaaS
1.6L
MAU on a live payment platform owned end to end
3.6ร—
DAU growth delivered through data-driven iteration
5+
Side projects built and shipped independently
What I do

Areas of strength

โšก
Payments and Platform
Payment lifecycle, API-driven infrastructure, NETC rails, gateway integrations, cross-border and multi-currency contexts.
๐Ÿค–
AI-Native Product
Hands-on with Claude, Cursor, OpenAI. Uses LLM workflows for prototyping, spec generation, and product validation daily.
๐Ÿ“
Systems Thinking
Naturally asks what breaks downstream. Designs for reliability and scale, not just the next sprint.
๐Ÿ“Š
Data-Driven PM
Sets success criteria before building. Owns dashboards, defines telemetry, and iterates on signal over instinct.
๐Ÿš€
Zero to One
Comfortable in ambiguity. Runs structured experiments, defines PMF signals, and iterates until the market responds.
๐Ÿ”ง
Technical Fluency
Python, Django, React, SQL, REST APIs. Works with engineers as a peer, not just a requirements document.
Experience

Where I have worked

Authorize.net, Visa Inc.
Sep 2025 โ€“ Mar 2026
Senior Product Manager
Owned Reports and Analytics platform on the Authorize.net rebuild serving thousands of global merchants. Drove product from concept through pilot. Championed AI-native workflows as a team standard.
Zero SLA breachesAI-first workflowsCross-border payments
IDFC First Bank
Sep 2023 โ€“ Mar 2025
Product Lead โ€” Digital and CX
Owned First Forward FASTag platform at 1.6L MAU. Built Engagement Engine from scratch. Redesigned self-service reducing support calls by 20%.
Login 60% โ†’ 89%Recharge 78% โ†’ 85%Support โ€“20%
Sugarbox Networks
Mar 2021 โ€“ Aug 2023
Associate Director, Business Vertical Lead
Led product and business for metro platforms. Technical PM for Mumbai Local Trains โ€” 100% uptime from a 5% baseline.
3.6ร— DAU growth2.2ร— top engagement100% uptime
Levi Strauss and Co.
May 2018 โ€“ Oct 2020
Head, Center of Excellence
Omni Channel product across 180 stores. POS overhaul across 450 stores. GTM and launch for Innerwear line.
38% unit growth52% revenue growth
Accenture + Equanimity
2014 โ€“ 2018
Analyst and Investment Associate
Management consulting at Accenture for global financial services clients. VC at a 30M USD fund evaluating fintech and consumer tech startups.
VC evaluationEnterprise consulting
Side projects

Things I have built

2018
Songbee
Spotify for YouTube โ€” before YouTube Music existed
A custom music streaming interface layered over YouTube, built entirely by hand before AI coding tools existed. Turns out Google had the same idea and shipped YouTube Music shortly after.
What I learned
  • Custom JS framework architecture from scratch
  • The satisfaction and pain of hand-rolling everything
  • Timing is a real thing in product
JavaScriptRuby on RailsCustom CSSNo AI โ€” hand coded
2025
Tradelogger
A trading diary that thinks visually
Most trading journals are spreadsheets. Tradelogger is a whiteboard โ€” log a trade, annotate it visually, revise your thinking, and build a genuine record of how you think as a trader.
What I learned
  • Canvas-based annotation is harder than it looks
  • AI-assisted coding changed my velocity significantly
  • The gap between working and usable is enormous
ReactDjangoBootstrapAI Assisted โ€” Copilot
2026
optionview.in
Making options trading make sense
Tools and educational content for intermediate options traders who want to go deeper. Live, instrumented, and monetised. My most complete independent product to date.
What I learned
  • Claude Code changes what one person can ship
  • SEO and distribution is its own full-time job
  • Building for yourself first is the fastest path to product sense
ReactDjangoTailwindCSSAI First โ€” Claude Code
Visit optionview.in โ†’
2026 ยท In Progress
Quest ๐Ÿ”’
A todo app that challenges how you lead your life
Most todo apps are list managers. Quest is a rethink of how tasks relate to goals, habits, and the kind of person you want to be. Built in React Native. More when it is ready.
Early learnings
  • React Native is powerful for solo builders
  • The todo space is crowded for a reason โ€” and that is the opportunity
React NativeAI First โ€” Claude Code
๐Ÿ”’ Details coming soon
Under Review ยท Secret
Project Pickwick ๐Ÿ”’
A fresh look at the publishing industry
Publishing is one of the last industries where the relationship between writer, reader, and platform has not fundamentally changed. Project Pickwick is an attempt to change that. Early stage, actively being shaped.
๐Ÿ”’ Under review โ€” details to follow
On my mind

Currently thinking about

๐Ÿ•
Hardware Clock
A tabletop ambient information display. First hardware project โ€” somewhere between art object and product.
Exploring
โœ…
Quest
A todo app that thinks about life goals, not just tasks. React Native, AI-first.
Building
๐Ÿ“ˆ
optionview.in
Continuously improving โ€” new tools, better content, smarter features.
Live and iterating
๐Ÿ“–
Project Pickwick
Rethinking publishing. The industry is ready. The idea is forming.
Stealth
For startups
I consult early-stage startups.
If you are building something and need a product brain โ€” someone who can help you define what to build, prioritise, talk to users, and move fast without expensive mistakes โ€” I am available for advisory engagements.
Product StrategyRoadmap DesignGTM PlanningUX Review0 to 1 Guidance
Let's talk โ†’
Beyond work

What I am into

๐Ÿณ
Food and cooking
Always experimenting. Food is one of the best ways to understand a culture.
๐Ÿธ
Badminton
Regular on court. Speed, strategy, and instant feedback.
๐Ÿ๏ธ
MotoGP
Passionate follower and a proud Marc Marquez fan. The combination of man, machine, and pure nerve at 300km/h is unlike anything else.
๐Ÿ“ˆ
Options trading
Enough of an obsession to build a whole product around it.
Academic background

Where I studied

IIM Ahmedabad
MBA / PGDM
2012 โ€“ 2014
Summer internship: Group Treasury, Bharti Airtel, New Delhi
IIT Bombay
B.Tech, Computer Science
2008 โ€“ 2012
Summer internship: Group Tech Division, UBS AG, Hong Kong
Let's connect

Open to the right
opportunity.

Looking for Senior PM and Staff PM roles at growth-stage companies in Bangalore. Fintech, payments, platform, and B2B SaaS. Also available for startup consulting.