Sree has 25 years of experience in product design,
strategy, and development. He has worked with various companies, including Tata Digital,
Accel,
Google, and Flipkart, and has held leadership roles in product design and venture
development.
He has also advised several companies on product strategy, innovative products, and team
building. He holds a Master of Design degree from the Indian Institute of Technology,
Bombay,
and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum. He has
received several awards for his work and holds patents in various
fields.
All through my career, I have been working with very early startups across product strategy and
design as a venture partner or as an independent consultant. In this role, I have advised companies
on a broad spectrum of activities including product strategy, innovative products, evaluation,
growth strategy, product development models, system designs, AI and Machine learning opportunities,
building teams, mentoring and and working closely with the leaders in establishing best practices
and processes for the long term.
Started at IIT Bombay in 1999 as a founding member of RightHalf,
the first campus startup in India.
Acquired by Purple
Yogi, moved to Bangalore to work on the flagship product, Yogi Internet
Discovery System. This was my first exposure to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Working with some of the pioneers of these fields left a lasting impression and passion in the
capabilities and the opportunities of these technologies.
Left Purple Yogi to join Tavant Technologies
in early 2002 to lead and build the user experience team. At Tavant, I conceptualized and designed
an integrated browser-based mortgage system, working with our client partner in the US. The
challenge was to meaningfully integrate about seven proprietary and standalone systems ranging from
lead generation to disbursal and loan servicing on a single modular platform - a very complex
information architecture and system design project.
I also championed a new business line and led a team of designers and developers that
would work as an out-sourced development center for startups. Our first project, SkyGrid was one of
only 10 apps featured on the homepage of iPad when it launched, win the Adobe Max Award and
subsequently be acquired by Facebook.
Joined Google in early 2007 as the first
full-time designer in the Bangalore office. I was assigned to the Map Maker project which was
in its infancy. Over about 4.5 years, built several iterations of the product with improvement in
web technologies contributing to addition of better capabilities and features, while localizing the
product to work in 192 countries.
As part of the larger Maps team, conceptualized the landmark
based driving directions on Google Maps to solve for India and where street names and other
structured data was unavailable.
At Google, had the opportunity to work across several other products including Search
(India) during the initial years and also towards the end of my tenure at Google as the
International Lead for non-English Search. Worked on the design for several products and features
such as Custom
News, Transliteration,
the Emerging Markets initiative such as music (India), shopping, Google Fonts,
among others.
In the role of India Lead, was responsible for hiring and mentoring the design team
and representing Google at conferences and academic institutions.
Left Google in 2015 to join Accel Partners as
a Venture Partner focussing on product design, strategy and growth. Helped several companies
incorporate data-driven decision making practices.
At Accel, was given the opportunity to found an independent venture development
studio, Design Ventures, funded by
Accel, focussing on product strategy through development with an unique opportunity to work with
Accel's seed-funded companies such as CommonFloor, MoneyView, and many others along with offering
full-stack design and development service for established companies within and outside the portfolio
such as PolicyBazaar.
Returned to Accel Partners in 2016 to focus on portfolio companies in the post market-fit or growth
phase such as AgroStar, Blackbuck, BookMyShow, Chargebee, Clevertap, Cogoport, CrownIt, FabHotels,
FactorDaily, Flipkart, Indifi, Moglix, MoneyView, Portea, RentoMojo, Swiggy, UrbanClap and Vedantu.
Briefly, was the interim Head of Design at Flipkart on assignment from Accel working
with the leadership on hiring and mentoring the product design team.
From April 2018, until April 2022 I had been working with startups in the their early growth stages
as a venture partner, usually in the role of interim Head of Product or Design, in the education,
finance,
analytics & e-commerce space on creating new experiences and products. The engagement also included
mentoring and growing the in-house design, hiring an executive lead for design and product
management teams and working with founders to set product strategy and long-term planning.
I joined Tata Digital in April 2022 to help build out their new super-app venture. I led product
design for financial services and technologies as Vice President of Design at Tata Digital. My team delivered a wide range of financial
products, including credit cards, loans, insurance, investments, and more. I have since left Tata
Digital to explore other areas of interest.
Award Winning Projects
Macromedia Award (for ColorsOfIndia.com)
Adobe MAX Award (for InfiGrid)
Google Excellence in Innovation Award (for Google Maps)
