September 16, 2018

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Ms Karen Lee
L.E.K. Consulting

Subject: Application for the position of Consultant at L.E.K. Consulting

Dear Ma’am,
I am a technology enthusiast with a heart of an artist. Since my engineering undergraduate days, I have been a strong believer
in technology’s ability to disrupt industries irreversibly. During my education at IIT Kanpur, I got the opportunity to not only
develop strong analytical abilities by owning and solving technical problems during my internships, thesis, and academic
projects, but also enhance my creativity and leadership skills while leading the annual cultural festival, Antaragni, and the IITK
Fine Arts Club. I believe my creativity and problem-solving skills have helped me to become an innovator and achieve success
in my professional endeavours.

During my stint at UrbanClap, I worked and became friends with a lot of folks from the consulting world. Interacting with them,
I got to know that consulting offers an opportunity to work with the smartest and brightest people across the globe on a wide
variety of challenging projects and business problems across industries. The idea of my intellectual limits being consistently
pushed and new business challenges every few weeks immediately made me interested in consulting. Also, I love meeting new
people, travelling to different places, and exploring new cultures; a consulting life seems to offer just that.

Working with Indian e-commerce pioneers and innovators, Flipkart and UrbanClap, I have enjoyed engaging with this dynamic
industry. My career journey from Flipkart to UrbanClap has been about delving into the unknown and getting as many diverse
experiences as possible. From business development to supply chain to marketing and product, I’ve been a part of multiple
teams, understood their working styles, and tried to develop a holistic view of the e-commerce industry. As the second
member of the UrbanClap’s growth team, I have been instrumental in driving customer growth from 300 to 10,000 orders/day.
With a tremendous emphasis on making data-driven decisions, I designed and implemented the marketing attribution system
and trained the entire marketing team on how to use data (via SQL training sessions) to allocate marketing dollars. We
achieved the above-mentioned growth without spending a single extra penny in marketing over 3 years, reducing our
customer acquisition cost from $14 to $6.

One year into existence, our customer base wasn’t growing despite significant spends. We were under tremendous pressure
from our investors to scale revenue. In a mobile-app obsessed company, I convinced the founders to let me establish and lead
the first web-focused growth team at UrbanClap. I led a team of eight, including engineers and designers. Since most of the
team didn’t report to me, I collaborated with them by collectively building a customized Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
strategy and a product roadmap. I worked alongside each of the 26 business managers to design and structure our core
content, explaining to them how SEO could generate a sustainable demand for their categories. My team of 8 and I
championed and launched the web product, which now contributes to 20% of the revenue ($1.6 million annually) and 2.2
million users per month at minimal marketing spends. This achievement by my team also helped UrbanClap recently secure a
Series-C funding.

I believe my analytical abilities, combined with my intellectual curiosity and collaborative leadership skills, set me up for
success in the consulting world and make me a great fit for L.E.K. Consulting.

L.E.K. seems to be the perfect fit for me because of its small size and global nature. I prefer being part of small close-knit
workplaces that offer more responsibility, provide a steeper learning curve, and accentuate my individuality. Primarily for
these reasons, I joined UrbanClap. As part of the L.E.K. team, I will get a chance to drive the strategy of some of the biggest and
most impactful companies, and I can’t imagine a better company that is rewarding in all three aspects – career development,
financial rewards, and professional network. Hearing Jitin and Chinmay during the campus presentation strengthened my
beliefs about L.E.K.’s outstanding quality of people with whom I can not only push my intellectual boundaries but also develop
a long-lasting camaraderie. The congenial culture and friendly employees perfectly fit with my personality and preferences
toward work attitudes. Last but not the least is the global experience that L.E.K. offers. Opportunities to work across different
cultures and manage diverse teams will be instrumental in both my professional and personal development.

I believe I will be able to add significant value to L.E.K. via my professional experiences and strengths, and I am extremely
confidently that L.E.K. offers the same for my career as well.

Sincerely,
---
--- CGPA: 3.77/4

EDUCATION
INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS (PGP in Management, Intended Majors in Strategy & Leadership and Marketing) April 2018 – Present
• National Finalists (Top 8/450+) in IIM A’s Red Brick Summit: PM Live – on-going product management national case competition
- Designed an integrated feature suite of Practo’s products with IOT based wearable health monitoring system for pregnant women
• Product Management - Business & Technology Club
- Took P2P sessions with 100+ footfalls on Product Management; coordinated with L&D to assist 30+ groups with case preparation
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, KANPUR (B.Tech.-M.Tech. Integrated Dual Degree, Mechanical Engineering) July 2009 – July 2014
• CGPA: B.Tech. – 8.0/10.0, M.Tech. – 8.0/10.0; (Department Rank: 9/110 students); All India Rank 800 in IIT-JEE 2009
• Internship: Whirlpool Global Technology Engineering Center; Only student (1/230) from IITK to be offered internship at Whirlpool
- Achieved 12% reduction in energy consumption and 21% reduction in drying time in a 6-kg washing machine condensation dyer
• Winner of Designathalon (1/150+): An automobile design competition conducted by Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE)
- Designed a parachute-assisted unmanned aerial vehicle, adaptable to different configurations, with potential surveilling applications

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
URBANCLAP TECHNOLOGIES INDIA PVT. LTD. – Gurgaon, India June 2015 – April 2018
Senior Product Manager – Growth Strategy | Product Management
Led growth strategy at UrbanClap via digital marketing and product development; part of the initial 40+ UrbanClap team
Growth Strategy
• Contributed to 20% of revenue – $1.6mn annually – with a customer acquisition cost $0.5 (baseline: $6) via Search Engine Optimization
• Scaled no. of orders from 300 to 10,000 per/day (33x in 3 years) with a constant budget by spearheading the digital acquisition strategy
- Managed a $0.3mn/month portfolio of all digital marketing channels: Facebook, Search Engine Marketing, Emails, SMS, Affiliates
• Reduced customer acquisition cost (CAC) by 60% ($14 to current baseline: $6) by optimizing the allocation of marketing spends
- Designed and automated marketing analytics and attribution solutions in-house to measure return on advertising at a campaign level
Product Management
• Increased web traffic from 50k to 2.2mn users/month by conceptualizing and leading product development of UrbanClap’s web
• Increased revenues by 15% ($0.4mn annually) in the Weddings & Homes Business by capturing users in the dream and plan stage
- Initiated & developed a content-portal hosting India’s biggest collection of Wedding & Home Design photos with consumer idea books
• Improved profile quality of 50,000+ partners and increased matchmaking (i.e. partner-customer connects) by 14% (63% to 72%)
- Coordinated efforts among engineering, design, and business teams across 100+ categories to revamp partner onboarding product
- Reduced the on-boarding time of partners by 40% by automating data-collection dashboards used by 120 internal business executives
• Improved web conversion from 6% to 13.5% by designing an A/B testing framework, enabling rapid experimentation on landing pages
Leadership and Team Development
• Established and led the first growth team of 8 at UrbanClap comprising 5 engineers, 2 product designers, and an analyst
• Hired and managed 3 content managers and 50+ contractual interns across 100+ categories to lead content marketing efforts
Award: Awarded ‘Hacker of The Year’ (1/400+) for consistently thinking and implementing new and innovative growth strategies
FLIPKART INTERNET PVT. LTD. – Bangalore, India June 2014 – May 2015
Part of the graduate trainee program; led packaging adoption and process design as part of Flipkart’s marketplace and supply-chain teams
Supply Chain Analyst – Procurement Logistics | WS Retail Supplier Return-Flow Process Design
• Decreased TAT by 37% (8 to 5 days) by designing the supplier-return flow of WS Retail inventory and integrating it with the ERP system
• Saved Flipkart $60,000/ month in transit losses by developing consignment tracking and performance reports of hubs across 25 facilities
Business Analyst – Strategic Marketplace Alliances | Adoption of Flipkart’s Branded Packaging
• Launched Flipkart’s packaging program, procuring vendor supply, planning inventory, and pricing SKUs; managed a P&L of $1.5mn
• Led to a ~15% drop in product-damage returns by successfully driving Flipkart’s packaging adoption among 25% sellers (25,000+ sellers)
Award: The only Graduate Trainee (1/100+) to win special recognition at The Big Billion Day for inventory and order management

EXTRA-CURRICULAR AND LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES

UrbanClap – Brand Initiatives June 2015 – April 2018
• Conceptualized and produced a short film (‘Capture Your Love’) in a team of 4 by partnering with Ufaan to support the LGBT Community
in India; got publications in 5+ leading media outlets including Mashable, The Quint, Business Standard
• Partnering with Uber & Snapdeal, arranged 30+ party planners for Christmas celebration of 3000+ kids of 25 NGOs (Business Standard)
• Led a team of 5 to conduct 10+ social events (ex: Pot-Hole Filling Mumbai, Cleaning Drive in Delhi) as part of 6 city launches
IIT Kanpur – Head of Marketing, Inter-Collegiate Cultural Festival: Antaragni March 2012 – March 2013
• Led a 3-tier team of 50 core members and 1000+ volunteers to organize the 2 biggest cultural festival in India; budget: $200k
nd

• Garnered the highest ever corporate sponsorship of $160k till 2013, securing the highest ever title sponsor worth $30k
• Hosted 15+ artists of international acclaim in fields of music, drama, and arts by formulating deals with 5 foreign embassies
IIT Kanpur – General Secretary, Association of Mechanical Engineers February 2011 – March 2012
• Led an 8-member team to organize 6 workshops, 5 seminars, 2 industrial trips; increased student-faculty interactions via social mixers