Senthil Kanthaswamy
Angel Investor at Quidient- Claim this Profile
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Bio
LinkedIn User
A serial entrepreneur with a tremendous network.
Nishant Rao
I typically work with large teams so rarely provide recommendations (to avoid any kind of perceived bias). But am proud to do so for Senthil, a one-of-a-kind leader who I worked very closely with and who has created disproportionate impact for us. He role-models a really great mix of IQ (incredibly smart, always curious & an avid reader so is continuously improving himself), EQ (team-player, builds strong relationships & motivates teams, situational leadership) AND HQ (heart quotient – someone whose passion, generosity and sincerity helps win over folks at all levels of the org hierarchy). He was my partner-in-crime at a critical juncture in Freshworks’ scale journey where in-spite of past growth, a key ingredient of our future success rested on our ability to scale our teams, processes and our unique Freshworks culture. We needed to ensure the right levels of collaboration and communication across the org as we doubled & tripled our headcount, plus quickly expanded to new locations. He immediately understood the significance of the ask & leaned fully to scale the most important product of all – our Freshworks' employees! Despite coming from a product and engineering background, he quickly came up to speed by reading up on the HR & culture journeys (both what worked / didn’t) of the best companies in the world from Google to LinkedIn to Amazon. Then he applied first-principles thinking to question status-quo and come up with bold, unconventional solutions (leveraging his expertise in product and tech) to help create a true People Ops solution (vs classic or traditional HR). We were able to rebuild foundations across all aspects from Talent Acquisition & Manager Development to Leadership Alignment & Meritocratic Performance Mgmt and Employee Engagement. In doing so, Senthil was also able to coach others in People Ops on the need for data & metrics, process orientation, and staying focused on results & OKRs. Finally, it showed tremendous grace & humility when, once the foundations were put in place, he willingly helped hire a formal CHRO while returning back to his core strength as an amazing Product Leader. We experimented a lot, achieving both successes & failures. That’s exactly why I believe he was the best choice to lead our new FreshTeam product, which formally productizes these many learnings so companies world-over (who are faced with similar scale challenges) can benefit from our journey. I believe the fact that Senthil brings an unique outside-in perspective to the HR world, combined with his problem-solving prowess & tech mindset, make him uniquely positioned to solve super interesting problems in this space. Thanks Senthil for being a great partner to me & a role-model leader that others should seek to emulate!
LinkedIn User
A serial entrepreneur with a tremendous network.
Nishant Rao
I typically work with large teams so rarely provide recommendations (to avoid any kind of perceived bias). But am proud to do so for Senthil, a one-of-a-kind leader who I worked very closely with and who has created disproportionate impact for us. He role-models a really great mix of IQ (incredibly smart, always curious & an avid reader so is continuously improving himself), EQ (team-player, builds strong relationships & motivates teams, situational leadership) AND HQ (heart quotient – someone whose passion, generosity and sincerity helps win over folks at all levels of the org hierarchy). He was my partner-in-crime at a critical juncture in Freshworks’ scale journey where in-spite of past growth, a key ingredient of our future success rested on our ability to scale our teams, processes and our unique Freshworks culture. We needed to ensure the right levels of collaboration and communication across the org as we doubled & tripled our headcount, plus quickly expanded to new locations. He immediately understood the significance of the ask & leaned fully to scale the most important product of all – our Freshworks' employees! Despite coming from a product and engineering background, he quickly came up to speed by reading up on the HR & culture journeys (both what worked / didn’t) of the best companies in the world from Google to LinkedIn to Amazon. Then he applied first-principles thinking to question status-quo and come up with bold, unconventional solutions (leveraging his expertise in product and tech) to help create a true People Ops solution (vs classic or traditional HR). We were able to rebuild foundations across all aspects from Talent Acquisition & Manager Development to Leadership Alignment & Meritocratic Performance Mgmt and Employee Engagement. In doing so, Senthil was also able to coach others in People Ops on the need for data & metrics, process orientation, and staying focused on results & OKRs. Finally, it showed tremendous grace & humility when, once the foundations were put in place, he willingly helped hire a formal CHRO while returning back to his core strength as an amazing Product Leader. We experimented a lot, achieving both successes & failures. That’s exactly why I believe he was the best choice to lead our new FreshTeam product, which formally productizes these many learnings so companies world-over (who are faced with similar scale challenges) can benefit from our journey. I believe the fact that Senthil brings an unique outside-in perspective to the HR world, combined with his problem-solving prowess & tech mindset, make him uniquely positioned to solve super interesting problems in this space. Thanks Senthil for being a great partner to me & a role-model leader that others should seek to emulate!
LinkedIn User
A serial entrepreneur with a tremendous network.
Nishant Rao
I typically work with large teams so rarely provide recommendations (to avoid any kind of perceived bias). But am proud to do so for Senthil, a one-of-a-kind leader who I worked very closely with and who has created disproportionate impact for us. He role-models a really great mix of IQ (incredibly smart, always curious & an avid reader so is continuously improving himself), EQ (team-player, builds strong relationships & motivates teams, situational leadership) AND HQ (heart quotient – someone whose passion, generosity and sincerity helps win over folks at all levels of the org hierarchy). He was my partner-in-crime at a critical juncture in Freshworks’ scale journey where in-spite of past growth, a key ingredient of our future success rested on our ability to scale our teams, processes and our unique Freshworks culture. We needed to ensure the right levels of collaboration and communication across the org as we doubled & tripled our headcount, plus quickly expanded to new locations. He immediately understood the significance of the ask & leaned fully to scale the most important product of all – our Freshworks' employees! Despite coming from a product and engineering background, he quickly came up to speed by reading up on the HR & culture journeys (both what worked / didn’t) of the best companies in the world from Google to LinkedIn to Amazon. Then he applied first-principles thinking to question status-quo and come up with bold, unconventional solutions (leveraging his expertise in product and tech) to help create a true People Ops solution (vs classic or traditional HR). We were able to rebuild foundations across all aspects from Talent Acquisition & Manager Development to Leadership Alignment & Meritocratic Performance Mgmt and Employee Engagement. In doing so, Senthil was also able to coach others in People Ops on the need for data & metrics, process orientation, and staying focused on results & OKRs. Finally, it showed tremendous grace & humility when, once the foundations were put in place, he willingly helped hire a formal CHRO while returning back to his core strength as an amazing Product Leader. We experimented a lot, achieving both successes & failures. That’s exactly why I believe he was the best choice to lead our new FreshTeam product, which formally productizes these many learnings so companies world-over (who are faced with similar scale challenges) can benefit from our journey. I believe the fact that Senthil brings an unique outside-in perspective to the HR world, combined with his problem-solving prowess & tech mindset, make him uniquely positioned to solve super interesting problems in this space. Thanks Senthil for being a great partner to me & a role-model leader that others should seek to emulate!
LinkedIn User
A serial entrepreneur with a tremendous network.
Nishant Rao
I typically work with large teams so rarely provide recommendations (to avoid any kind of perceived bias). But am proud to do so for Senthil, a one-of-a-kind leader who I worked very closely with and who has created disproportionate impact for us. He role-models a really great mix of IQ (incredibly smart, always curious & an avid reader so is continuously improving himself), EQ (team-player, builds strong relationships & motivates teams, situational leadership) AND HQ (heart quotient – someone whose passion, generosity and sincerity helps win over folks at all levels of the org hierarchy). He was my partner-in-crime at a critical juncture in Freshworks’ scale journey where in-spite of past growth, a key ingredient of our future success rested on our ability to scale our teams, processes and our unique Freshworks culture. We needed to ensure the right levels of collaboration and communication across the org as we doubled & tripled our headcount, plus quickly expanded to new locations. He immediately understood the significance of the ask & leaned fully to scale the most important product of all – our Freshworks' employees! Despite coming from a product and engineering background, he quickly came up to speed by reading up on the HR & culture journeys (both what worked / didn’t) of the best companies in the world from Google to LinkedIn to Amazon. Then he applied first-principles thinking to question status-quo and come up with bold, unconventional solutions (leveraging his expertise in product and tech) to help create a true People Ops solution (vs classic or traditional HR). We were able to rebuild foundations across all aspects from Talent Acquisition & Manager Development to Leadership Alignment & Meritocratic Performance Mgmt and Employee Engagement. In doing so, Senthil was also able to coach others in People Ops on the need for data & metrics, process orientation, and staying focused on results & OKRs. Finally, it showed tremendous grace & humility when, once the foundations were put in place, he willingly helped hire a formal CHRO while returning back to his core strength as an amazing Product Leader. We experimented a lot, achieving both successes & failures. That’s exactly why I believe he was the best choice to lead our new FreshTeam product, which formally productizes these many learnings so companies world-over (who are faced with similar scale challenges) can benefit from our journey. I believe the fact that Senthil brings an unique outside-in perspective to the HR world, combined with his problem-solving prowess & tech mindset, make him uniquely positioned to solve super interesting problems in this space. Thanks Senthil for being a great partner to me & a role-model leader that others should seek to emulate!
Credentials
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Graduate of Microsoft Ventures
MicrosoftJun, 2015- Nov, 2024
Experience
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Quidient
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United States
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Software Development
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1 - 100 Employee
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Angel Investor
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Apr 2022 - Present
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Zluri
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United States
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IT Services and IT Consulting
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100 - 200 Employee
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Investor & Advisor
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Apr 2022 - Present
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Growfin.ai
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United States
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Software Development
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1 - 100 Employee
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Investor & Advisor
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Mar 2022 - Present
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Buzz Solutions
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United States
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Utilities
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1 - 100 Employee
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Angel Investor
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Feb 2022 - Present
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Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs
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United States
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Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
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1 - 100 Employee
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Angel Investor
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Jan 2022 - Present
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Freshworks
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United States
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Software Development
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700 & Above Employee
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Head of Business Unit & Product Management
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Jan 2018 - Present
- Shaping a key product & business unit of Freshworks- Responsible for driving the revenue and product growth. Leading the engineering, go-to-market, product management, marketing and design teams to drive revenue and key business outcomes.
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Director of Product Management
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Aug 2015 - Jan 2018
-- Integrated the team at Frilp into the company, post Frilp's acquisition by Freshworks.-- Worked on multiple web and mobile-based products -- Built an entire team from scratch and ran it like a startup inside Freshworks
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General Management Leader(CXO's Office) & Interim CHRO
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Aug 2015 - Dec 2017
Helped the CEO & COO move the needle on some strategic programs to manage the hyper-growth phase of Freshwroks. In my added responsibility as a general management leader, I helped the COO by,-- Acting as the Strategic Thought Partner on the different scale-up programs-- Helped the COO to identify and prioritize the problems to solve; Built data-driven framing/plans to align the leadership team on the programs.-- Acted as co-partner in owning and helped make important decisions that would directly result in the strategic directions we took.-- Handled high-impact projects that do not naturally fit the job descriptions of one of the leadership team members, but would fall under the CEO / COO to solve for those.-- Built and managed a cross-functional team of engineers, designers, functional experts, analysts, and PMs to move the needle and drive results in the strategic programs.
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Product School
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United States
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Professional Training and Coaching
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700 & Above Employee
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Featured Speaker
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2018 - Present
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Frilp (Acquired by Freshworks)
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Technology, Information and Internet
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1 - 100 Employee
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COO & Co-Founder / Product + Growth & Strategy
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Oct 2012 - Aug 2015
On Leadership: - Built and lead a team of strong team consisting of engineers, product managers and designers from ground up and worked with the team to deliver key results during crucial phases of the company's growth. - Initiated and managed key partnerships for frilp. - Managed all external relations, communications and won key recognitions for frilp. - Rose the investment for frilp along with one of my co-founders and managed the investor relationships. Product Owner & Head - Growth: - Strategy & planning of Frilp's overall growth and the product features/roadmap to drive it. - Spend allocation across multiple channels to drive effective RoI, customer acquisitions. - Planned out and built the team of campaign managers, content managers and designers to execute Facebook advertising, SEO/SEM, Email, Partnerships Web Analytics and sms marketing. - Also, Owned & Managed the marketing / PR plans for frilp. On User Acquisition: -Drive customer acquisitions by analysing, identifying & activating levers that drive customer acquisitions. -Regular analysis of user behaviour on site, behavior patterns (product mix, cities etc.) and digital marketing channels (targeting efficacy, position in funnel, conversion assists etc.) -Using this understanding to effect onsite changes and campaign changes(to digital campaigns) to improve acquisitions. On Mobile: -Developing the strategy and execution plan for Frilp's mobile growth and corresponding product roadmap to drive growth (both mobile app and site). -Broad activities include mobile marketing, PR, analytics and reporting.
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CEG Tech Forum
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India
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Education
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1 - 100 Employee
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Mentor
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May 2008 - 2015
Founding member of the CEG Tech Forum and Kurukshetra - The Intl. tech fest of Anna University. As one of the Core Members, lead the guest lecture series , industry relations and strategic relations for the Tech Fest along few members of my core team. Currently, as the President of Alumni Board at CEG Tech Forum, I lead key policy decisions and work with academic officials and other alumni on various aspects and plans of the forum. Also, I mentor current core team closely along with other members of the CTF alumni board.
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Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
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India
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Education Administration Programs
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700 & Above Employee
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Inclubated @ CIIE, IIM Ahemadabad
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2013 - 2013
Was part of the 5 companies cohort that was incubated by CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad. Only founder+company to invited and selected for the Stanford Rajiv Motwani Fellowship from IIM A. Was part of the 5 companies cohort that was incubated by CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad. Only founder+company to invited and selected for the Stanford Rajiv Motwani Fellowship from IIM A.
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Harland Clarke Customer Engagement Solutions
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United States
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Financial Services
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700 & Above Employee
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Product / Program Manager
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May 2010 - 2013
· Plan, Manage and completely deliver products/ product features through out the lifetime of a product · Collaborate and Manage feature sets and priorities with teams from a partner company on a joint product development initiative. · Do competitor and requirements analysis, based on which generate Product Requirement Documents and generate inputs for FSDs and product roadmap. · Define product functional specifications for consumer features/road map items for GlobalScholar, including writing Functional Specification Documents (FSDs) · Work with the product development team and UI team to bring key features live to the site · Manage and resolve conflicts, communicate effectively, influence and engage external clients, cross-functional engineering units, sales and implementation teams to deliver consumer oriented products to meet customer needs
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Associate Product Manager
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Jun 2008 - May 2010
· Define product functional specifications for consumer features/road map items for GlobalScholar, including writing Functional Specification Documents (FSDs) · Work with the product development team and UI team to bring key features live to the site · Own and Manage product features through the lifetime of a product · Manage and resolve conflicts, communicate effectively, influence and engage cross-functional units to deliver consumer oriented products to meet customer needs
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Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
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India
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Higher Education
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700 & Above Employee
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Research Fellow
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Jul 2007 - Jun 2008
Research Fellow at the RTBI division of TENET Lab, working on an open educational delivery platform serving the rural parts of India. Research Fellow at the RTBI division of TENET Lab, working on an open educational delivery platform serving the rural parts of India.
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Freelance Web Programmer
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Chennai Area, India
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Web Programmer and Designer
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May 2004 - May 2008
During the time @ College, had a start up with few friends and as part of which, - Have designed and developed many websites for small and medium business enterprises, schools and TV channels from scratch. - Worked closely with Managing Directors and General Managers of many small and medium sized companies to identify the right features and solutions for the their website. During the time @ College, had a start up with few friends and as part of which, - Have designed and developed many websites for small and medium business enterprises, schools and TV channels from scratch. - Worked closely with Managing Directors and General Managers of many small and medium sized companies to identify the right features and solutions for the their website.
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Education
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2003 - 2008
College of Engineering, Guindy
Integrated Masters, First Class with Distinction -
2013 -
Stanford University
Rajeev Motwani Young Entrepreneur Fellowship, Startup & Entreprenurship
Community
