Balagopal K.V.
I start with the constraints and build the system that will work for the people who have to use it.

Product manager across AI, B2B SaaS and education

I've spent 10+ years building products and the operating systems behind them: a government-launched AI assistant for frontline workers, enterprise features for global B2B platforms, and a network of rural learning centres I co-founded. Currently at Rocket Learning in Bengaluru.

Selected work

Four problems I owned end to end, from the first question to the people using what we shipped.

An AI assistant for frontline workers

Rocket Learning, Product Manager
2025 to now

25K+Anganwadi Workers using Shiksha Saathi

The problem

Anganwadi Workers run India's early-childhood centres with little support and patchy connectivity. They already live on WhatsApp, so that is where help had to be.

What I did

Defined what to build and built parts of it myself, including the WhatsApp flows on Glific and the LLM evals, in partnership with OpenAI. Built personas and behavioural segments from survey and usage data across 220K users, and ran behavioural interventions with Stanford for 5K+ workers.

What changed

Shiksha Saathi was launched by three state governments, including by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra at AI Summit 2026.

Setting up how a product team ships

Revlitix, Product Manager
2023

15+integrations shipped, each with a full spec

The problem

A marketing analytics platform with a capable engineering and design team, but no product manager and no shared rhythm for delivery.

What I did

Took charge of the roadmap and set up sprints and design-to-engineering handoffs for 20+ people. Wrote a spec for every integration covering APIs, costs, data to pull, reports and sample queries, so engineers could start without research.

What changed

Shipped SSO, role-based access control, audit logs, funnel reporting and workflow automation alongside the integrations. The team kept the delivery practices after I left.

From employee #3 to enterprise access controls

Airmeet, Growth Lead then Product Manager
2020 to 2023

3 → 500+people, as Airmeet grew around virtual events

The problem

Virtual events before COVID were a market that had to be created, and later, enterprise customers needed to control who could access sensitive event data.

What I did

Built growth from the first customers to a 50+ member team handling hundreds of leads daily, with a voice-of-customer system feeding product and engineering. Then moved into product, leading a 12-person cross-functional team that owned enterprise role-based access controls and SSO.

What changed

Enterprise customers could manage sensitive account access themselves, and customer insight reached the teams building the product instead of getting lost in sales and support.

Keeping quality consistent across rural centres

Krishworks, Co-Founder
2017 to 2019

2,000+children across 15+ centres in rural West Bengal

The problem

Our tech-enabled English learning centres were spread across rural West Bengal. A technology-heavy monitoring system would have burdened centre managers and still missed what happened in class.

What I did

Built a human operating system instead: regular conversations with centre managers, required submissions and worksheet reviews, combined with app usage data. Drove three pivots through user research, including from maths to English and to a teacher-centric model.

What changed

It became the team's main view into how centres were doing. Krishworks was backed by IIM Calcutta and Zinnov.

What I'm good at

Patterns that show up across these stories.

Delivering under real constraints

I lead delivery across technical, operational and human constraints, and keep the product grounded in field conditions.

Seen at Rocket Learning and Krishworks

Owning products end to end

I take products from an ambiguous need through cross-functional delivery and adoption, making the hard calls between user needs, constraints and release priorities.

Seen at Airmeet and Rocket Learning

Giving teams a way to ship

I give product teams a clear delivery rhythm, especially when roles and ways of working are still forming.

Seen at Revlitix and Airmeet

Path so far

Education, events, health, real estate and B2B software, each chosen because the problem was interesting.

  1. 2025 to now
    Product Manager, Rocket LearningAI for early-childhood education
  2. 2024 to 2025
    Entrepreneur in Residence, build3 and Product Consultant, TrustInRan an accelerator for 20+ impact startups; built a POSH compliance chatbot
  3. 2023
    Product Manager, RevlitixB2B marketing analytics SaaS
  4. 2020 to 2023
    Growth Lead, then Product Manager, AirmeetVirtual events SaaS
  5. 2017 to 2019
    Co-Founder, KrishworksTech-enabled English learning in rural West Bengal
  6. 2016 to 2017
    Product Manager, Tricog HealthOperations, automation and dashboards for $500K of inventory
  7. 2015 to 2016
    Digital Marketer, ZenifyGrew leads 400%+ across 15+ channels
  8. Education
    Indian School of BusinessExecutive Certificate in Product Management, 2023NIT Karnataka, SurathkalB.Tech, Chemical Engineering, 2015

What energises me

  • Owning a product from the first question through adoption
  • Learning enough of the technical landscape to make the call
  • Building what works for the people and setting in front of me

Looking for a product manager who builds?

I'm exploring product roles in AI and B2B, and always happy to learn from people running established product organisations.