Alohaa

Here is what I am interested in & and execute @ Alohaa.ai

Goals: See that, we have profitable acquisition & scale. 

1) To find the right audience, in really really large numbers (right channels).
2) See that we understand the pain points well, and use them as messaging (our customers should feel - this is exactly what's causing me pain while using traditional phone systems for their business, let me sign with Alohaa.ai and get free from it)
3) Once they are in our funnel, I would love minimal drop-offs(that's what we strive for)
4) From here on, our Sales, Support, and product teams play the post-acquisition picture and they do it great, so my job mostly here is to just have peace of mind knowing all the customers are being handled by the right people & teams.
5)Well, you may notice that I have PM experience(and also kept it here). 

Initially year, I worked both on Product and marketing, now that we are more confident about the product, and our team has great people who understand (and build for customer pain points/feedback), 
I completely moved into marketing to distribute our product to a much larger audience.

One last thing, If you want to talk about any of your - Business Telephony needs(VMNs, IVR, Cloud Call Centers, Voice broadcasting, WhatsApp messaging, etc.) and see how alohaa.ai can help you or want to talk about SaaS marketing/product/unit economics. You can simply DM me. I am available 24*7 to respond(kidding I am not, I will respond as soon as my work & life allow, but we will talk)

Head of Growth

Reforge

Member

Reverie Language Technologies

India has 600Mn Internet users while 500Mn of them cannot read English. We help D2C, E-Comm, Fintech and other verticle markets to go local in 12 Indian Languages. Currently we are the only company to provide end-to-end solutions for any brand (Text, Speech, Bot automation etc,.). 

This will help you 5X your market size, get profitable faster and become a Unicorn in lesser time(if that's your goal). I am currently working on D2C, Fin-Tech & Transliteration services.

Product Manager

Travelling

After quitting my job at the previous company(Way2online). I wanted to take a 10-12 week travel and exploration break. I am currently exploration places back to back which is expanding my world view and how much each geography, person, and even food changes in an overnight journey.

10-12 weeks is a very short time for a full-time exploration of the world(for now few parts of India). But I am understanding the rules of a long journey. While I attach more memories to my heart & soul. I am finding myself and evolving as a person and I can really feel it.

Travel Break

Way2Online

I head the growth team.
Increased the funnel convention by 25% (landing page to code integration)
Grew the total website traffic from 2 Lakh to 5 Lakh (source: Similar web)
Grew the registrations by 10,000 with in 10 months
Doubled the organic traffic.
Helped launch WordPress and Shopify plugins. 
Came up with pricing strategy and become operationally profitable.
All above at zero marketing costs, same team size.

Co-Creator & Growth Head @ Truepush.com

Drew the Initial wireframes for the product on pen and paper, rolled out the product within 5 weeks of ideation. Managed new features and roadmaps for the product based on the feedback from the customers. managed the tech/design team until the push notifications reached 45 Bn Push notifications/month.

We have won multiple G2 and other Saas Awards for the product and ease of use. Have a great sense for good UX and really love not including things that are needed in the first place. I wrote the product copy. Have the product releases happen on time through sprints. Responsible to the growth/sales team and manage expectations while signing up with high-volume customers.

Our G2 Reviews - https://www.g2.com/products/truepush/reviews

Co-Creator & Product Head @ Truepush.com

10X - Business Short News 
Entrepreneurs, CXO's and Investors often have busy schedules and it will be impossible for anyone to be updated on all business news.  We at 10X are covering 7 major industry news, general business and politics/sports. We believe this is the only app you will need to cover all the news. Our content team works really hard to curate business news with quality and deliveries in time. You can download Android version here - http://bit.ly/a10xapp , IOS Version - http://bit.ly/i10xapp

Product Head - 10X - Business Short News

Startup Talks

Startup Talks is a Community for Early Stage Entrepreneurs where they can Learn, Network & Collaborate on different verticals of a Startup. We are currently have 25000 + members in our community.
If you are an early stage entrepreneur you can attend one of our monthly meetup at one of these cities - Hyderabad(www.meetup.com/startuptalks) , Bangalore (www.meetup.com/startuptalksbanglore) , Mumbai (meetup.com/startuptalksmumbai )

Founder & Organizer

[self-employed]

I am exploring a couple of niche spaces.
- Movie Franchising to brands 
- Helping Authors to Increase their PR, establish credibility to and increase book sales

Freelance Marketeer 

Zenty

Zenty helps Brands to connect with powerful Influncers handpicked by us to execute offline campaigns which helps them generate word of mouth, get consumer insights, generate content for their marketing channels and many more. Our platform will help Brands learn more insights and use the data and content generated to use in their other marketing activities which can increase their over all ROI on marketing and branding spent.  You can reach me at Manoj@zenty.co for more details.

Founder

Startup Leadership Program

The Startup Leadership Program (SLP) is a highly selective 6-month world-class training program and lifetime network for outstanding founders and innovators. SLP Fellows have founded over 1000 companies that have raised $450 million, and include breakthrough and award-winning startups like Runkeeper, Sensobi, Shareaholic, Solar Junction, Voicetap and Ubersense. The program began in Boston in 2006 with seven Fellows (participants). It has grown to 26 cities in 12 countries.

Fellows spend six months in a rigorous cross-disciplinary entrepreneurial-CEO training program that combines

* Mentoring from successful entrepreneurs
* Extensive participation in active VC, corporate, and entrepreneur network
* Coaching and professional development
* Fireside chats with entrepreneurs and VCs and
* Focused skill-building workshops

Fellow

IIIT-H Foundation

As part of its mandate to encourage entrepreneurship both inside and outside the IIIT-H community, the IIIT-H Foundation (aka Banyan Intellectual Initiatives) runs the incubator known as the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) on the IIIT-H campus. CIE provides an environment and an ecosystem that supports start-ups in building technology-differentiated products and in taking them to market.

Manager

I advice on Product Management | Growing your customer base | Career Growth

Ex-Founder | Growth | Ultra Runner | Writer

From failed startups to scaling Truepush to 100B+ notifications monthly and 4,500+ customers worldwide, I've learned what it takes to build products people need and grow them relentlessly.

I built Truepush from paper wireframes to becoming a top 10 global player in our category. At Alohaa.ai, I doubled sales within just 3 months and drove consistent month-over-month revenue growth.
Beyond business, I push limits personally. 

I recently completed an 82.4km ultra run during a 12-hour stadium event. Mountains, travel, and nature are where I find liberation through both excitement and boredom.

Learning obsessively fuels everything I do. I've devoured 336+ books, and continuously invest in courses (Mindvalley, MasterClass, Matt Gray, Justin Welsh, Reforge and more).

When knowledge compounds with consistent execution, results follow:

- Built a 25,000-person startup community across 3 cities
- Published 250+ LinkedIn posts in 2024 alone
- Recognized among the top 1% of mentors on Topmate.io
- Created Solopreneur OS to help others identify market gaps and build growth systems

All while maintaining 7 hours of sleep nightly, seeing friends regularly, and maintaining my unusual preference for vegetables over chocolate (though I love both).

Want to build something great? Let's connect.

Manoj Surya

A lot of my initial understanding of product building product came from books written by Jason Fried and DHH (creator Ruby on Rails)  , co-founders of 37signals. 

They probably have no idea how much they impacted me. I was able to get our(prev) teams to build products quickly minus the BS, due to the frameworks and thinking from those books. 

These people call out the BS happening outside and love their philosophy of building a product, running a team, having a life, all my certain mental models.

I saw their Fizzy demo on Twitter and loved how much they simplified kanban boards (aka trello like to give a context. 

$20 for unlimited cards , unlimited users is the price, all features (only one pricing for all)
open source

In the world of over doing and everyone wanting an enterprise level pricing. This feels rebellious(like they always have been).

2X Founder | Head of Growth | Ultra Runner | I write on Growth for B2B and Personal Learnings

graphical user interface, text, application

I met a person who was Forbes 30 under 30 
This was 10 years ago

I still remember the conversation

Me: Congratulations bro for Forbes 30 under 30

Him: <looked side ways so no one is near by and said> bro I am happy I got it, but it's good for PR and marketing, noting else,  
Noting changed in terms of doing customer acquisition or building our product/company

Looking back, I see his conviction to see the difference between publicity and doing great product & distribution

I saw his posts and activity recently, he seems to be doing still great than most people I know

PS: Having said that, I won't mind a Forbes 40 under 40 for marketing. Well why not? (Forbes are you listening?)

In Singapore, there are desserts called Kachang and Chendol. 

They are super popular to locals, but for me, it’s one of the weirdest food (and it’s all Veg).

They put some jellies and shaved ice, and add some colors,

Until here it’s fine, a little extra to our Ice Gola here in India. 

Now they add corn and Rajma on top.

How grains can come on a dessert is beyond my understanding of food

But I did understand one thing

The thinking, habits, and reality we experience are very normal because that’s how we always knew

It's the same with them

Food, culture, thinking, world views can be so different depending on which home, town, country you live in, and that reality is only personal to you

Travel helps me be humbled by how much there is to know and experience 

You can read all about the color blue, but if you don’t see it, you won’t know it, same with experiences 

I just hope you, me, all of us change to a culture where giving and spending time with ourselves and in experiences/places is a frequent thing (at least yearly if not less)

No alternative text description for this image

Why don't people speak about delayed gratification?

Naval Ravikanth is famous,
But not many people read the books he suggests

We lost our appetite for films like we used to have before
But we can binge-watch series or even reels alike

We want AI to do everything
And losing the ability to think deeply,
heck, we are not even reading the whole thing that AI is generating.

We want quick dopamine hits so we feel better about ourselves
But what truly makes meaning is something built over time and with depth.

Use AI for sure, but use it to brainstorm or let it follow your direction
Not the other way around, where you believe it by default

The same goes for any content, skill, work, etc.

The easiest way to build this is to have a 1-year goal for a hobby and stick to it

1) It makes you a better person because you show commitment
2) You will get better at one more skill and will have depth

What do you think? What other ways would you suggest?

Don’t go to Starbucks when you are on a deadline. You may be latte.

A Visual representation of me falling for my own procrastination voice of - "Okay, let me do this tomorrow"  😂

One year to this madness.
some milestones are special.

Adobe bought SEMRush for $1.9Bn

While I am slightly baffled by how a Design company buying a marketing tool company would help them,

The deal seems sweet,
SEM Rush had  $376.8 million as its most recent revenue(and highly profitable) 

So it's a 5X multiple. Feels like a good win on both sides, 
Now to see how their design + marketing integrations would benefit one another's tool 

(If noting, being like a standalone business unit itself seems like a good deal)

Person A: My strategy is to make Viral videos

Me(Marketer): how do you plan to make it go viral? 

Person A: We make videos using AI and will ask it to give viral videos

(Internally started to die) 

Me: doesn’t work like that

Person A: With AI, anything can be done. Also will make making Zomato like branding todi branding 

Me: You are a SaaS company and branding isn’t sending notifications 

Person A: I keep high bar, we will do this for brand recall

(Me started to walk to my grave)

Me: First you need need a good product, then
acquire customers, then see if you getting retention. Then look at which channels are working, after speaking to few and looking at what’s working you can refine your messaging, marketing etc an then decide what you want to do from above (after nailing distribution)

Person A: I want to do branding from day 1

(Me giving up and walking away with my pockets in hand, don’t know where)
——-

PS: The conversations are real but with different people. It’s not their fault thinking that way as they aren’t from marketing. However it would be nice if they learnt some themselves how it works for Startups (rather than brands with budgets). And even learnt the sequence of doing things (or take advice from someone who been in that path).

How to lie without lying. Startups 101 - 

1) We have 100% growth on social media from last week
Aka -> went from 1 subscriber to 2 (and it’s my dog)

2) We are building awareness, not focused on customers yet 
Aka -> We are doing all kinds of marketing but not getting conversations 

3) We are AI first company internally
Aka -> We signup for all AI tools and see why works, but we don’t know yet what we want

4) Our customers don’t have time, hence the slow sales 
Aka -> We still haven’t figured a pain point our customers would love to give time and money for 

5) We are doing great 
Aka-> half the time we put out fires but it’s something you can’t help, so let me answer you politely

What else would you add?

I remember one of my friends father was so upset that,
his office is paying people to teach him excel and brought a computer in the office

He is like - what’s wrong with accounting books? At this age why should we learn computer and excel sheet?

I was flabbergasted by how much blind he have become to see the changes 

He has the accounting knowledge
He works hard 
He had experience 
But excel is just a tool - that became a key component in their work now(non negotiable)

Likewise, AI is just a tool that became a key component.

You have the skill
You can work hard
You have the experience 
and where it’s needed, work with AI tools, invest time in learning (and even your own money and consider it as learning fee,

because your company won’t pay for new tools just for learning)

AI Wrappers and Prompt Engineering are fine, 
as long as there is a method for how it's been done.

Generating 100 ads with 1 prompt isn't prompt engineering.
If your prompt can generate ads that does research and then convert
people into paying customers, then we are on to something.

My strategy for the day -

Wake up
Have breakfast
Work
Lunch
Nap
Nap
Work
Scroll Scroll Scroll
Eat
Walk
Sleep late

This has a flaw, what is it? .... Thinking???
I gave my day plan and not a strategy

Likewise, I see many teams giving out a plan and 
calling it a strategy
Some who fancy(read BS) themselves, 
even call it blue ocean strategy for no reason

Strategy is - 
How you win ->
Why people buy, only from you
Why only you can produce this (for a specific audience)
and Why it's hard for someone to compete(at least in short term)

Eg: I will make you a curry isn't a business plan,
I make a curry that has a ingredient, only I know that grows in the soil that is available only in my backyard and it hits you like spice but stays for few hours

Makes sense?

PS: What's your plan for the day?

I have a feeling that vibe coding tools will start building vibe coding components in their tools.

Reason?

I see so many case studies where with simple misplaced code, the founder got a $5000 a month (from free users, not even paid).

Or the password started being visible to everyone.

Building components pre-hand in vibe coding tools may reduce that issues by a lot. Especially while choosing payments, authentications, taking personal data.
Still it would be vibe coding but with all security checks and basics in place.

If you can gamify something to give limited access or status, you can make money, like LinkedIn premium does.

Same read by Zomato is giving Zomato gold for Rs.30, or charged extra for priority access in airports (or even at religious places)

Our primal instincts match to the level of money we can spend.

The podcast that most people are anticipating is now to be released.

I definitely am curious about this.

3 things to make us better at work

1) Focus on KPIs, follow up with action, measure/repeat
2) Revise and work on fundamentals from different perspectives (usually books/case studies)
3) See where the processes in above can be automated(tools/AI/ sometimes by people) VS you are needed, then build them

This way, your results will come in faster times.

This is something I never expected I would see

I just love how people at YCombinator talks about value first then scale 

Going full stack, probably is harder because the scale is harder. But it provides better value than providing just the tool

Its crazy how YC asks you to Dog food your own AI Tool and build more revenue and value

Like if you have a AI marketing tool, you hold you be willing to go all in, build full stack agents /AI (ofcourse wrappers) and fast forward the process for your clients?

PS: What do you think of this approach?

graphical user interface, text, application, email

Marketing and Fiction , the common thread -

Agatha Christie books are still sold widely and even made into adaptations like this one on Audible.

How come a fiction book is relevant after decades and different generations?

Simple - She plays on suspense and emotions, and they are timeliness

Likewise, in marketing, if you understand that customers buy how they feel first and then figure out if it’s useful for them -

then you will start getting better at it

Good marketers understand their customers needs and emotions and usage level and human level

and then build campaigns on top of it

Also why marketing is misunderstood 

People looking at it think it can be done using Claude to write a copy

But AI is only as good as the expertise of the user using it 

If you want to get better at marketing, understand your user needs and motivations, read fiction (may be) and then figure out best loops/funnels and then frameworks / tool’s to integrate, run , test, learn, repeat 

Easy peasy :D

I’m going to give a talk on Digital channels in a couple of days.

Need help - if you were to learn something new from a talk like this,

what are the pointers you feel must be covered to benefit you the most?

Starkhorn

Directing large-scale PE backed IT integration projects across multiple countries, standardising operations, streamlining processes, and managing complex IT infrastructures to achieve significant cost savings and efficiency gains.

Collaborated with C-suite executives on IT due diligence, post-merger integration, and the creation of scalable operating models, delivering measurable synergies and enhanced portfolio value.

Developed and executed bespoke IT strategies for private equity clients, ensuring alignment with business goals, operational scalability, and long-term growth through innovative technology solutions.

Offering consultancy, fractional support, and expertise in M&A, Divestments, Outsourcing and Private Equity.

Age UK

Non Executive IT Director - Digital and Technology

Jardine Motors Group trading as Lancaster

Spearheaded IT due diligence for a £300m transaction, enabling the seamless sale of Jardine Motors to Lithia & Driveway.

Supported the £400m acquisition of Pendragon PLC, integrating IT systems to establish Lithia UK, driving operational synergies.

Achieved £1m+ annual savings by centralising telephony systems, enhancing customer service.

Designed and executed a cybersecurity framework, achieving a NIST CSF maturity score of 29.

Chief Information Officer

Mothercare

As Head of IT Service Delivery & Infrastructure, I led seamless IT service delivery across 150 UK stores, franchises, head office, e-commerce, and warehouses. Aligning IT with business objectives, I enhanced efficiency and drove innovation.

Head of IT Service Delivery & Infrastructure

IT Service Delivery Manager

IT Technical Services Manager

IT Technical Support Manager

VisitBritain

Technical Support/Infrastructure Analyst

2nd Line Engineer at VisitBritain

Fractional CIO | IT Strategy for High-Stakes M&A | Faster M&A, Smoother Exits | De-risking IT & unlocking value | Author

If IT isn’t creating enterprise value, it’s destroying it. Most firms still treat IT as a cost centre. Growth-focused companies can’t afford that mistake. I help CEOs, CFOs, boards, and investors turn IT into a value-creation engine — accelerating deals, de-risking operations, and boosting EBITDA.

Proven Results

✓ £1.6m in savings within 18 months across 10+ countries
✓ Seamless IT integrations in £300m+ and £400m+ transactions
✓ 40% fewer outages across 150+ retail locations
✓ Cybersecurity resilience with NIST maturity scores above industry benchmarks

Why Clients Choose Me

✓ Fractional CIO flexibility — strategic leadership without full-time overhead
✓ Interim CIO firepower — execution in high-stakes transformations
✓ Board-level insight — translating IT complexity into clear business impact

Whether you’re scaling a mid-sized firm or leading a multi-country enterprise, IT should fuel growth, protect assets, and support scale. If it isn’t, it’s silently eroding value.

I am currently accepting 2 more clients in 2025 (Fractional, Interim, or Advisory).
DM me or book a call to explore how IT can become your competitive edge.

Daniel J. Jacobs

Why PE Firms Don’t Actually Want Digital Transformation
(And What They're Really Hiring You For)

Private equity partners aren’t losing sleep over your cloud strategy.

They lose sleep over EBITDA compression. Market share erosion. Exit multiples that don’t hold up in investor discussions.

When they bring in an interim CIO, the conversation doesn’t begin with:
“How do we modernise our tech stack?”

It starts with a sharper question:
“How fast can you identify and unlock value?”

Most IT leaders walk in thinking they’re there to lead transformation. But transformation is just the vehicle.
The destination is always the same: a cleaner P&L that supports a stronger multiple at exit.
Everything else is secondary.

In one recent engagement, the business looked stable on the surface.

➜ Systems were up
➜ Teams were productive
➜ No obvious fires to fight

But beneath the surface, it was a masterclass in value erosion.

➜ Vendor contracts hadn’t been reviewed since 2021
➜ Three CRM platforms were duplicating functionality
➜ Backup systems were backing up other backup systems
➜ Manual inventory processes were consuming 60+ hours weekly
➜ SaaS subscriptions were auto-renewing for long-departed employees

We didn’t deliver a roadmap. We delivered financial surgery.

➜ £180K saved through licence cancellation
➜ £410K recovered through vendor renegotiation
➜ £320K in efficiency gains via CRM consolidation
➜ £240K in labour optimisation through workflow automation

That’s a £1.15M annual EBITDA improvement in under two months.
Valuation uplift at a 10x multiple: £11.5M.
Margin improved by 3.3 points.
Return: 135x.

This is what separates interim and permanent CIOs.

Permanent CIOs ask:
➜ “How do we improve system performance?”

Interim CIOs ask:
➜ “How do we increase enterprise value before exit?”

One optimises for operations.
The other for outcomes.

Both have their place. But only one gets the call when the exit clock is ticking.

Here’s the truth: most portfolio companies are sitting on untapped value. Not in product or market strategy — in IT operations.

➜ Redundant systems quietly erode shareholder value
➜ Manual processes compress margins
➜ Vendor bloat drains profit

The question isn’t whether the value is there.
It’s whether it will be uncovered before the opportunity is lost.

Because in private equity, only one technology metric really matters:

How much more valuable is this business when the work is done?

Follow Daniel J. Jacobs for more on turning IT complexity into a competitive advantage.
→ If this hit home, share it with someone still talking about “digital journeys.”

#PrivateEquity #InterimCIO #ITLeadership #ValueCreation #EBITDA #ExitStrategy

I’ll cut £250K from costs in 6 months and prepare you for exit

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