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Nandini Shah

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Head of Growth @ Lumen Workflow · PLG, lifecycle, retention. Building the growth org from 2 to 14.
Top Voice · Growth Open to Mentoring Creator mode
Mumbai, India · Contact info · nandini.co
5,847 followers · 500+ connections · See all
MGRVAK
Manish Gupta, Rohan Verma, and 28 other mutual connections
Lumen Workflow
Head of Growth
Indian School of Business
Education
Open to: Mentoring · Advisory · Speaking — 2 mentee slots open, payback-period discussions preferred. Advisory for seed-Series A PLG companies. Limited public speaking Q2 2026. · Show details
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1,847 profile viewsPast 90 days · viewers from Series B/C SaaS
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About

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Head of Growth at Lumen Workflow — a Series C B2B SaaS running the growth and lifecycle org. Previously Director of Product Growth at Freshworks, Senior PM at Razorpay, and APM at Zomato. I care about unit economics, cohort curves, and the difference between a vanity metric and a value one. Built the Swiggy One subscription team from zero to 4M members in a past life. Currently running a 14-person growth chapter at Lumen — took ARR from $18M to $72M over 22 months. I mentor four early-career PMs through ADPList and write a biweekly Substack ("The CAC:LTV Math", 28K subscribers) on growth math for Indian SaaS. Speaker at Reforge, SaaStr India, and Growth Summit.

Currently
Head of Growth · Lumen Workflow
Previously
Freshworks · Razorpay · Zomato
Writes
"The CAC:LTV Math" on Substack
Speaks at
Reforge · SaaStr India · Growth Summit
ARR GrowthPLGLifecycle MarketingRetention & ChurnSaaS MetricsProduct StrategyPricingTeam LeadershipCohort AnalysisSQLMixpanelSegment
5,847 followers
PostsCommentsImagesArticles
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Nandini Shah · Head of Growth @ Lumen Workflow · 2d · ⊙
Nandini Shah posted this
Most Indian SaaS companies I advise have a CAC problem they think is an acquisition problem.

If your #PLG funnel leaks between signup and first value, no amount of paid traffic will save you. Fix activation first. Then talk about channels.

Three things I check before I'll even look at a CAC dashboard: Time-to-first-value Day-7 activation rate Aha-moment event rate. That's it.
The CAC:LTV Math · Issue #47 — "Before you touch your ad spend"
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12,340 · 847 comments · 612 reposts
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Nandini Shah · Head of Growth @ Lumen Workflow · 1w · ⊙
Nandini Shah commented on a post
The problem with subscription pricing isn't the price — it's the anchoring. Nobody pays ₹999/mo after seeing "₹99 first month free." The second number is the real price. And you just set it to ninety-nine.

Fix: stop putting "first month free" at the top of the pricing page. Put it in a retention email. Different job.
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4,128 · 312 comments · 186 reposts
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Nandini Shah · Head of Growth @ Lumen Workflow · 3w · ⊙
Nandini Shah spoke at Reforge · Growth Summit India 2025
Slides up from my Reforge panel last week on "PLG motions that actually work in India." Spoiler: WhatsApp-first onboarding + a real freemium tier beats everything else we tested. #Reforge #PLG
Reforge Growth Summit 2025 — Panel playback
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2,846 · 214 comments · 98 reposts
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See all 1,284 posts →

Featured

Show all 4 →
Pinned by Nandini Shah
Article The CAC:LTV Math
Why your payback period is lying to you Three-part Substack series on how Indian SaaS gets unit-economics math wrong. The most-shared growth writing out of India in 2024.
12,340 impressions847 reactions
Talk · Reforge PLG in Bharat
Panel — Growth Summit India 2025 40-minute talk on building PLG motions for price-sensitive markets. Slides and video on speakerdeck.com/nandinishah.
8,120 views612 reactions
Repo cohort-curves.py
Open-source cohort-retention plotter Plug-and-play Python library for growth teams. 1.2K stars on GitHub, used by 40+ growth orgs including two unicorns.
3,240 views184 reactions
Interview The Ken profile
Feature — "The operator behind Razorpay Subscriptions" 7-minute feature on building the Razorpay Subscriptions team from zero. Archive link on theken.com, 2024.
24,680 views1,402 reactions

Experience

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Head of Growth
Lumen Workflow (Series C · B2B SaaS) · Full-time
Mar 2023 – Present · 3 yrs 1 mo · Mumbai, India · Hybrid
Owner of the growth org across acquisition, activation, lifecycle, and retention. Direct report to the CEO. Built the team from 2 to 14 (4 PMs, 3 growth engineers, 4 lifecycle, 2 data, 1 ops). Took ARR from $18M → $72M and expanded from 3 to 11 self-serve SKUs.
  • ARR 4× from $18M to $72M over 22 months — grew paid users from 9.4K to 41K.
  • Shipped PLG motion v1: freemium → paid conversion 3.8% → 11.4% via in-product activation triggers.
  • Cut CAC by 38% by moving paid-search spend into lifecycle + content. Payback dropped 14 mo → 9 mo.
  • Built the Lifecycle Marketing sub-function — 42 campaigns/qtr, 28% lift in month-3 retention.
  • Promoted two PMs to Senior in 2024 — both my direct reports.
ARR GrowthPLGLifecycleRetentionHiringPricingActivation
Endorsed for this role by 47 people · including Manish Gupta (CEO) · Rohan Verma
Director of Product Growth
Freshworks · Full-time
Jul 2020 – Feb 2023 · 2 yrs 8 mo · Chennai, India
Led the product-growth pod for Freshdesk self-serve — 7 direct reports across growth PM, engineering, and lifecycle. Owned trial-to-paid conversion, onboarding, and the freemium motion.
  • Redesigned the 14-day trial into a 7-step activation flow — trial-to-paid up 62%.
  • Launched Freshdesk Freemium tier — added 240K free accounts in 9 months, 4.8% converted to paid.
  • Co-led IPO-readiness product-metrics review with the finance team — referenced in the S-1.
  • Mentored 3 APMs, 2 promoted to Senior during my tenure.
Trial conversionFreemiumOnboardingSaaS metricsIPO readiness
Endorsed for this role by 31 people · including Girish Mathrubootham · Smita Prakash
Senior Product Manager
Razorpay · Full-time
Aug 2017 – Jun 2020 · 2 yrs 11 mo · Bangalore, India
PM on the Razorpay Payments core stack and then founding PM on Razorpay Subscriptions. Took the Subscriptions product from zero to 18K merchants and $140M ARR processed on the platform.
  • Founded Razorpay Subscriptions — 0 → 18K merchants, $140M ARR processed.
  • Shipped the "smart recovery" dunning system — 22% fewer involuntary churns across the platform.
  • Promoted from PM to Senior PM in 18 months (youngest SPM at the time).
  • Razorpay FinTech awards 2019 — internal "Founder's Choice" honour.
PaymentsSubscriptionsDunningZero-to-one
Endorsed for this role by 38 people · including Harshil Mathur · Shashank Kumar
Associate Product Manager
Zomato · Full-time
Jun 2015 – Jul 2017 · 2 yrs 2 mo · Gurgaon, India
APM on the Gold / Pro loyalty product. Part of the founding Gold team. Owned pricing, merchant negotiation, and the first iteration of the consumer app for loyalty.
  • Part of the founding Zomato Gold team — launched in 5 cities, 420K members in Y1.
  • Built the merchant-onboarding funnel — 1,200 partner restaurants live in 8 months.
  • Grad of the Zomato APM Program — top quartile of 2015 cohort.
LoyaltyPricingSupply onboardingZero-to-one
Endorsed for this role by 22 people · including Deepinder Goyal · Mohit Gupta

Projects & publications

Show all →
Selected work · 24 shipped since 2017
Lumen Workflow PLG Motion (v1 → v3)
Product-led growth · Activation · Segment · Mixpanel
◎ 2023 – 2025 · 22 months4 PMs · 3 eng✓ Conv 3× · CAC −38%
Designed and shipped three generations of the PLG motion at Lumen. Moved from marketing-led trials to in-product, self-serve freemium with activation nudges. Conversion 3.8% → 11.4%.
MGRVAK
Collaborators · 11 people
View project
The CAC:LTV Math (Substack series)
Writing · Substack · Distribution
◎ Since Jun 2022 · 48 issuesSolo · weekly✓ 28K subscribers
Biweekly newsletter on growth math for Indian SaaS. 28K subscribers, referenced on Lenny Rachitsky's list twice, and cited in three Reforge modules. Most-shared growth writing out of India in 2024.
NEdG
Collaborators · 3 people
View project
Razorpay Subscriptions — Smart Recovery
Dunning · ML · Payments
◎ 2019 · 8 months6 eng · 2 PM✓ −22% churn · +$18M MRR saved
Retry-ladder dunning product across Razorpay Subscriptions. ML-scored retry windows, merchant-visible recovery dashboards. 22% fewer involuntary churns across 18K merchants.
HSN
Collaborators · 9 people
View project
Freshworks Freemium Launch
Freemium · Onboarding · Rails + React
◎ 2021 – 2022 · 15 months7 PM + eng✓ 240K free · 4.8% paid conv
Converted the Freshdesk paid-only trial into a perpetual-free tier with a metered conversion path. 240K free accounts in 9 months, 4.8% paid conversion, referenced in IPO S-1.
GSPAV
Collaborators · 14 people
View project

Skills

Show all 32 →
Top endorsed · ranked by peers
ARR GrowthTop skill
Top 1% in your network · endorsed this month
MRA
Endorsed by Manish Gupta (CEO, Lumen) and 184 others
184
endorse
Product-Led Growth (PLG)Top skill
Expert · Reforge Certified
MRA
Endorsed by Rohan Verma (VP Product, Swiggy) and 142 others
142
endorse
Lifecycle MarketingTop skill
Braze, CleverTap, Iterable · 42 campaigns/qtr
MRA
Endorsed by Smita Prakash (GM, Freshworks) and 126 others
126
endorse
Retention & Churn
Cohort modeling · dunning · reactivation
MRA
Endorsed by Harshil Mathur (Razorpay) and 118 others
118
endorse
SaaS Metrics
ARR, NDR, CAC:LTV, quick ratio
MRA
Endorsed by Girish Mathrubootham and 94 others
94
endorse
Team Leadership
Teams of 7-14 · promoted 4 ICs to senior
MRA
Endorsed by Aisha Mehta (Cult.fit) and 108 others
108
endorse
Cohort Analysis
BigQuery, Looker, Hex, Amplitude
MRA
Endorsed by Sahil Kini (Aspada Investments) and 86 others
86
endorse
SQL & Data Literacy
BigQuery, Snowflake — write my own dashboards
MRA
Endorsed by Rahul Mathur (Postman) and 72 others
72
endorse

Licenses & certifications

Show all 5 →
R
Product-Led Growth Certificate
Reforge
ID: RFG-PLG-2024-8821 · Issued Jun 2024
M
Certified Growth Expert
Meta Blueprint
ID: META-CGX-44128 · Issued Mar 2023
Y
YC Startup School — Growth Track
Y Combinator
ID: YCSS-2022-3402 · Issued Aug 2022
A
Mixpanel Product Analytics
Mixpanel Academy
ID: MXP-PA-7714 · Issued Nov 2022
S
Segment CDP Specialist
Twilio Segment
ID: SEG-CDP-2023-220 · Issued Feb 2023

Recommendations

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Received (14)Given (9)
MG
Manish Gupta
CEO & Co-founder, Lumen Workflow
Manish managed Nandini directly · Mar 2023 – Present
Nandini is the rare operator who can go from a cohort heatmap to a board slide in the same meeting and make both sharper. She rebuilt the way Lumen thinks about growth — we were flying blind on CAC, now we have a weekly review that the whole exec reads. ARR went 4× during her tenure. If she becomes available, take the meeting.
Written March 14, 2025
RV
Rohan Verma
VP Product, Swiggy · ex-Razorpay
Worked with Nandini on the same team at Razorpay · 2017 – 2020
I've worked with ~30 PMs over the last decade. Nandini is in the top 3. She shipped Razorpay Subscriptions from zero to 18K merchants while being the most junior SPM on the floor. She asks the question everyone was avoiding, writes the doc nobody wanted to write, and then ships the thing. Hire her, advisory or full-time. You will not regret it.
Written November 2, 2024

Volunteer experience

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Mentor & Programming Committee
TiE Mumbai — Early-Stage Founders Program
Jan 2022 – Present · 4 yrs · Economic Empowerment
Mentoring 4 early-stage SaaS founders per cohort on GTM, pricing, and first-10 hires. Also on the programming committee curating the annual TiE Con Mumbai growth track.
India Mentor
500 Startups / 500 Global
Aug 2021 – Present · 4 yrs 8 mo · Science & Technology
Office hours and sprint reviews for 500 Global's India-based cohort companies. Focus on SaaS activation, freemium design, and pricing sprints.

Languages

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English
Native or bilingual
Hindi
Native or bilingual
Marathi
Professional working
Spanish
Limited working

Education

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Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad
PGDM — Marketing & Finance
2013 – 2015 · Hyderabad, IN
Grade: CGPA 3.71 / 4.0 · Dean's List (top 8%) · Gold Medal, Marketing
Activities & societies: Founder, E-Cell ISB · Editor, Campus Magazine "The Aleph" · TEDx ISB speaker, 2014
St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
B.Sc. Economics (Honours)
2010 – 2013 · Mumbai, IN
Grade: 85.2% · First class with distinction · University Gold Medal, Economics
Activities & societies: President, Economics Association · Debate Team Captain · Rotaract community lead

Contact info

✎ Edit
Emailnandini@lumenwf.com
Phone+91 98200 41007 · Mobile
LinkedInhttps://linkedin.com/in/nandini-shah
Websitehttps://nandini.co · Portfolio
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© Nandini Shah · Rendered as a portfolio, not a pitch.
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Saved for later
How Spotify thinks about cohortsMedium · 12 min read
The end of growth-at-all-costsStratechery · Feb 2026
Open to Mentoring Nandini Shah is #OpenToMentoring — book a 20-min intro → Book intro