Akshay Kulkarni

I have always been driven by a deep passion for problem-solving. From my early days as an engineering student to my current role as a product leader, I have continuously sought to develop data-driven solutions and build world-class, customer-centric products. With a decade of experience spanning technology, business, and engineering, I thrive in ambiguous and high-stakes environments, leading strategic, outcome-oriented initiatives. My expertise lies in combining analytical rigor with creative problem-solving to drive innovation. Having successfully led cross-functional teams across diverse industries, I excel at bridging technical complexity with business impact. My passion for technology and innovation took shape when I developed and patented a hydrogen gas sensor for under $5 in 2015. During my MBA, I honed my product leadership skills at Shamaym, a high-growth AI/ML startup, where I drove a 25% improvement in client performance. At Tata Group’s CTO office, I spearheaded the 0-1 strategy, scale-up, and launch of a $200M+ global-first energy and EV business, impacting over 100 million lives worldwide-an achievement that earned me the “Best Employee of the Year” award in 2017. My experience also includes a stint in Private Equity, where I conducted due diligence, financial analysis, and structured deals in the $10-15M range. At Mapbox, I led the product vision, strategy, roadmap, execution, and P&L (~$5M ARR) for the MTS (Mapbox Tiling Service) business, serving 700M+ MAUs. Currently, at ZoomInfo, I am responsible for building and launching world-class MDM solutions and leading org-wide infrastructure and monetization initiatives that impact 35K+ customers and drive over $180M in ARR. I also oversee the end-to-end product management and delivery of all-things Company Data across various GTM SaaS/DaaS use cases, including managing technical platform products across Search/Match, APIs, and ETL/Data pipelines. Specialties - Product & Program Management, Market & Customer Research, Competitive & SWOT Analysis, Product Roadmapping, Prioritisation & Planning, Product Design & Launch, Pricing & Budgeting, Forecasting, Cross-Functional Team Leadership, Business Development & Strategy, Risk Management, Strategic Consulting, Business Valuation, FP&A, Energy Skills - Product & Project Management Tools: Productboard, JIRA, Confluence, Visio, Figma, Project, Slack, SmartSheets, MS Office Programming Languages: SQL, Python (Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib) Business Intelligence Tools: Amplitude, Looker, Google Analytics, Salesforce, Tableau, Pitchbook, Snowflake, Mode