Soumya Santhanakrishnan
Director of Product at Winnie- Claim this Profile
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Topline Score
Bio
Archie Abrams
Soumya is a truly inspiring product leader. She has this exceptional ability to cut through the noise and distill complex problems right to the core. Soumya played a key role in Udemy's growth journey, leading large cross-functional pods to solve some of our most pressing marketplace issues. She's great at creating tight, collaborative teams that are super motivated. Time and again, I was blown away by her unwavering dedication to achieving success, no matter what obstacles stood in her way. She's a force to be reckoned with, and anyone who has the opportunity to work with her in the future would be lucky!
Michelle-Marie Martir
Soumya is an incredible leader. The energy and tenacity she brought to Winnie was infectious, and yet she never sacrificed thoughtfulness for the product, nor care for her people. On our very first project together, it was like we had already been working together for years: her excellent communication skills and problem-solving made my job so easy as a product designer. Soumya taught me so much about what it means to have integrity and empathy as a leader, and Winnie is only better for having her.
Archie Abrams
Soumya is a truly inspiring product leader. She has this exceptional ability to cut through the noise and distill complex problems right to the core. Soumya played a key role in Udemy's growth journey, leading large cross-functional pods to solve some of our most pressing marketplace issues. She's great at creating tight, collaborative teams that are super motivated. Time and again, I was blown away by her unwavering dedication to achieving success, no matter what obstacles stood in her way. She's a force to be reckoned with, and anyone who has the opportunity to work with her in the future would be lucky!
Michelle-Marie Martir
Soumya is an incredible leader. The energy and tenacity she brought to Winnie was infectious, and yet she never sacrificed thoughtfulness for the product, nor care for her people. On our very first project together, it was like we had already been working together for years: her excellent communication skills and problem-solving made my job so easy as a product designer. Soumya taught me so much about what it means to have integrity and empathy as a leader, and Winnie is only better for having her.
Archie Abrams
Soumya is a truly inspiring product leader. She has this exceptional ability to cut through the noise and distill complex problems right to the core. Soumya played a key role in Udemy's growth journey, leading large cross-functional pods to solve some of our most pressing marketplace issues. She's great at creating tight, collaborative teams that are super motivated. Time and again, I was blown away by her unwavering dedication to achieving success, no matter what obstacles stood in her way. She's a force to be reckoned with, and anyone who has the opportunity to work with her in the future would be lucky!
Michelle-Marie Martir
Soumya is an incredible leader. The energy and tenacity she brought to Winnie was infectious, and yet she never sacrificed thoughtfulness for the product, nor care for her people. On our very first project together, it was like we had already been working together for years: her excellent communication skills and problem-solving made my job so easy as a product designer. Soumya taught me so much about what it means to have integrity and empathy as a leader, and Winnie is only better for having her.
Archie Abrams
Soumya is a truly inspiring product leader. She has this exceptional ability to cut through the noise and distill complex problems right to the core. Soumya played a key role in Udemy's growth journey, leading large cross-functional pods to solve some of our most pressing marketplace issues. She's great at creating tight, collaborative teams that are super motivated. Time and again, I was blown away by her unwavering dedication to achieving success, no matter what obstacles stood in her way. She's a force to be reckoned with, and anyone who has the opportunity to work with her in the future would be lucky!
Michelle-Marie Martir
Soumya is an incredible leader. The energy and tenacity she brought to Winnie was infectious, and yet she never sacrificed thoughtfulness for the product, nor care for her people. On our very first project together, it was like we had already been working together for years: her excellent communication skills and problem-solving made my job so easy as a product designer. Soumya taught me so much about what it means to have integrity and empathy as a leader, and Winnie is only better for having her.
Experience
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Winnie
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United States
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Technology, Information and Internet
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1 - 100 Employee
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Director of Product
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Mar 2022 - Mar 2023
- Led 4 person team responsible for SaaS product. Launched subscription product for childcare providers and grew from 0 to 300 customers in 6 months with 85% MoM retention. - Built improved search experience to increase parent leads to childcare providers by 30%. - Led 4 person team responsible for SaaS product. Launched subscription product for childcare providers and grew from 0 to 300 customers in 6 months with 85% MoM retention. - Built improved search experience to increase parent leads to childcare providers by 30%.
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Soufflé Club
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United States
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Technology, Information and Internet
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Co-founder, Head of Product (YC S-19)
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Jan 2020 - Jan 2022
-Co-founder of YC funded company. Seed funded by YC, Form Capital and South Park Commons. - Built professional networking product to help early stage operators find job opportunities. - Grew community from 0 to 10K users with 3X signup rate of comparable products and 90% MoM retention. Ranked as #1 product of the day on Product Hunt. -Co-founder of YC funded company. Seed funded by YC, Form Capital and South Park Commons. - Built professional networking product to help early stage operators find job opportunities. - Grew community from 0 to 10K users with 3X signup rate of comparable products and 90% MoM retention. Ranked as #1 product of the day on Product Hunt.
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Udemy
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United States
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E-Learning Providers
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700 & Above Employee
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Senior Product Manager, Matching
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Apr 2017 - Jun 2019
Owned all matching algorithms to increase student satisfaction with courses. - Achieved 25% increase in high quality course enrollments by building feedback loops into algorithms that took student learning goals, course feedback into account. - Built ML based spam review filter to achieve 3X improvement in spam detection. - Led 9 person pod to revamp course purchase experience. Achieved 15% lift in revenue. - Received Best Employee award for achieving major business outcomes in 2017.
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Senior Product Manager, Instructor Products
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Apr 2016 - Apr 2017
- Led 10 person product and operations team to own all instructor course creation products. - Achieved 2X increase in high quality courses by building course creation tools and programs for instructors e.g., test video tool to check A/V quality, learning science tools to design course curriculum, early access program to get feedback from students.
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Head, Trust and Safety
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Apr 2015 - Apr 2016
- Launched first trust and safety team at Udemy. Led 5 person team responsible for enforcing policies and incentivizing instructors to engage in healthy, positive behavior on platform. - Built instructor verification product to verify 500+ instructors per month, strike system to enforce marketplace policies.
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Strategic Operations Manager
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Jul 2014 - Apr 2015
Managed several strategic projects within company e.g., identifying new course categories to invest in, course creation for celebrity instructors like Guy Kawasaki.
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McKinsey & Company
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Business Consulting and Services
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700 & Above Employee
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Senior Business Analyst
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Sep 2012 - Jul 2014
Consulted on 8+ projects with a focus on high-tech and healthcare e.g., a competitive assessment of a potential $10B target M&A opportunity for a Fortune 500 Telecom Company. Consulted on 8+ projects with a focus on high-tech and healthcare e.g., a competitive assessment of a potential $10B target M&A opportunity for a Fortune 500 Telecom Company.
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StartX.
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United States
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Non-profit Organizations
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1 - 100 Employee
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Principal
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Oct 2011 - Jun 2012
Early team (~10) at Stanford’s first startup incubator. Launched and grew mentorship program to support yearly batch of 30+ startups with top VC advisors e.g., Patreon, Lark Early team (~10) at Stanford’s first startup incubator. Launched and grew mentorship program to support yearly batch of 30+ startups with top VC advisors e.g., Patreon, Lark
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Stanford University Graduate School of Business
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United States
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Higher Education
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700 & Above Employee
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Teaching Assistant, International Economy: Policies and Theory
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Jan 2012 - Mar 2012
Class of 30 MBA students on international trade policy and implications for business leaders Conducted a dynamic trade policy game over 8 weeks utilizing concepts of game theory and trade policy tools. Graded homework assignments based on international trade case studies Class of 30 MBA students on international trade policy and implications for business leaders Conducted a dynamic trade policy game over 8 weeks utilizing concepts of game theory and trade policy tools. Graded homework assignments based on international trade case studies
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Deloitte
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Business Consulting and Services
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700 & Above Employee
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Business Technology Analyst - Summer Scholar
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Jun 2011 - Aug 2011
Worked on a financial and supply chain transformation for a major Health Maintenance Organization. Responsibilities included enterprise cost mapping, quantifying and tracking benefits provided by system, and mapping benefits to shareholder value. Worked on a financial and supply chain transformation for a major Health Maintenance Organization. Responsibilities included enterprise cost mapping, quantifying and tracking benefits provided by system, and mapping benefits to shareholder value.
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Research Assistant
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Mar 2011 - Jun 2011
Performed research on capital movements in China, with a focus on analyzing data and defining trends in order to provide alternatives to current Chinese economic policy Performed research on capital movements in China, with a focus on analyzing data and defining trends in order to provide alternatives to current Chinese economic policy
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Education
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General Assembly
Data Science Immersive -
Stanford University
Master's degree, Management Science and Engineering -
SSN College of Engineering, Anna University
Bachelor of Engineering (BE), Electronics and Communication Engineering