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Pala Kuppusamy

Pala Kuppusamy

Columbus, OH, United States
Member since March 20, 2018
Pala is an award-winning entrepreneur who has founded three tech companies, growing one to 250+ and leading another to an exit that generated a 16x return. He serves in three boards for startup and growth-stage eCommerce, market research, and analytics companies. Expertise in business strategy, plans, financial models, forecasting, marketing and customer analytics, pitch decks, product and pricing strategies.
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Career Highlights
Education
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Case studies
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Industry Expertise
  • eCommerce
  • Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES)
Other Expertise
  • Angel/Seed Funding
  • Financial Modeling
  • Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
  • Investment Return Scenario Analysis
  • Market Research & Analysis
  • M&A (Sell-side)
Employment
  • Board Advisor
    2018 - PRESENT
    EMI Research
    • Worked with the CEO to review and revise sales compensation structure, optimizing the sales commissions to focus on gross margins ensuring that the sales team delivered profitable growth.
    • Built a five-year financial forecast, analyzing churn and revenue attributable to new and returning customers, to uncover opportunities to drive sustainable 15% revenue growth per annum.
    • Advised the company on a new DIY market research product to expand business amongst price sensitive customers while protecting margins on full service product lines. The new product is expected to contribute about 15% of the total revenues by 2022.
    Focus areas: Profit & Loss (P&L), Strategy Planning, Sales Compensation Structuring, Financial Forecasting, Customer Analysis, Growth Analysis
  • Financial Expert, BI consultant
    2018 - PRESENT
    Toptal / On contract with Clickfunnels
    • Built cohort retention models, analyzing retention across cohorts and linking user activities to identify predictors of churn and revenue leakage.
    • Correlated Net Promoter Score surveys with support activity, determining the correlation of the two with churn and revenue growth. Identified opportunities for churn control and worked with the product team to focus on the specific areas, delivering improved retention among new customers ( < 6 months) which is a crucial period for churn management.
    • Performed revenue analysis and calculated the customer lifetime value, annual revenue per user and average lifetime value by customer tier.
    Focus areas: Revenue Leakage, Revenue Analysis, Business Intelligence (BI), Client Retention, User Research, Metrics, Dashboards, BI Reporting
  • Board Member
    2017 - PRESENT
    Revenue Conduit by Unific
    • Built forecasting models with the founders to project product revenues and expenses that improved visibility and reduced cash burn.
    • Developed financial review mechanisms, tying projections from the forecasting models with actual reports from the Xero accounting platform.
    • Performed quarterly financial reviews and cash burn analysis. Identified opportunities to control burn and ensured the company was financially sound through subsequent funding.
    • Participated in product pricing discussions and built what-if scenario analysis for various price points to identify optimal pricing for the product variants.
    • Involved in the buy-side due diligence process and conducted due diligence interviews aiding in investment decisions.
    Focus areas: Financial Overviews, Forecasting, Fundraising, Profitability Analysis, Due Diligence
  • Advisor and Consultant
    2016 - PRESENT
    Dexterity Business Analysts
    • Created annual budgets and review mechanisms for an offshore development facility based in India. Effectively implemented the financial plan to generate over 40% EBITDA margins.
    • Developed forecasting models for service revenues, workforce costs, overhead and sales expenses. Worked with the senior management team to implement the decisions that were supported by the financial model.
    • Conducted extensive Market Research and Competition Analysis on a periodic basis.
    • Built models and strategies to track and manage critical value drivers for the services business, including average revenue per employee (ARPE) and average cost per employee (ACPE).
    • Developed pricing strategies and converted ad-hoc project engagements to long-term services contracts.
    • Led fundraising discussions with prominent venture capital firms including Battery Ventures, Norwest Partners, Inventus Capital and Sequoia Capital. Negotiated term sheet with Battery Ventures.
    Focus areas: Financial Planning, Budgeting, Cost control
  • Investor
    2013 - PRESENT
    Stone Meadow Enterprises
    • Analyzed and led investments in residential real estate such as apartment blocks and condominiums.
    • Analyzed and led investments in commercial real estates such as retail centers.
    • Analyzed and led investments in recreational properties such as campground resorts.
    • Developed business plan and raised investments for construction of a resort in Hocking Hills, Ohio.
    • Created 3.2X returns on equity on a $2.3M investment property over a period of 4 years.
    Focus areas: Investing, Investment Analysis, Deal Analysis, Value Investing, Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), NPV, IRR, Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)
  • Founder and CEO
    2014 - 2016
    Shoply Labs
    • Created the bootstrap budget for early-stage product development and market validation. Successfully developed the minimum viable product (MVP) on time and on budget.
    • Developed the financial model and investor presentations for external fundraising. Led the fundraising discussions with two private investors and three venture capital firms; successfully secured private angel funding.
    • Developed revenue models and identified several monetization channels to generate revenue via clicks, insights, and partners.
    • Performed customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value analysis (LTV) for mobile users. Actively monitored daily and monthly average user metrics to assess growth and engagement.
    • Built user analytics and shopper insights reports for prospective clients tracking mobile-influenced shopping trends.
    Focus areas: Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Fundraising, Startup Funding
  • Business Head
    2012 - 2014
    e-Rewards
    • As an emerging player in the Market Research Industry, leverage the growth of smartphones in its early stages to expand into Fortune 500 accounts.
    • Prioritized projects and product development, balancing group and divisional objectives. Negotiated with peer corporate leaders to ensure that the mobile research division achieved maximum growth by leveraging shared resources including corporate sales teams and by cross-selling to other divisional clients.
    • Reviewed monthly geographic and product P&Ls, and implemented cost control mechanisms including reducing member acquisition costs.
    • Managed a $2.0 million expense budget and $1.5 million capital budget for the division, achieving profit margins of 15%.
    • Built and managed business against key performance indicators including user acquisition costs, lifetime value, and retention. Prepared monthly reports for the President and the Board of Directors.
    • Handled vendors, worked with group sales teams, and participated in proposals for prestigious clients such as Facebook, Google, and Nielsen.
    Focus areas: Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Budgeting, Sales Expense Forecasting, Operational Finance, Profit & Loss (P&L)
  • Founder and CEO
    2010 - 2012
    iPinion
    • Pioneered a mobile survey platform in the early stages of the smartphone era and acquired prestigious clients including P&G, General Mills, Philips, 3M, Best Buy, Bass Pro Shops, and Sanofi.
    • Built the company to $100,000 in revenues within 12 months of product launch and was on track for over $800,000 in revenue in the second year of operations.
    • Negotiated with two industry leaders and successfully led the sale of iPinion to e-Rewards, achieving a 16x return for investors in two years.
    • Led sell-side due diligence, including negotiating contracts and deal terms; developing earnout models; and creating the finance, product, legal, human resource, and sales documents requested by the buyer.
    • Developed business plans based on extensive market research, competition analysis and early-stage budget for product development, validation, launch, and marketing.
    • Prepared investor presentations and led fundraising discussions with multiple angel investors and venture capitalists; negotiated term sheet with TechColumbus.
    Focus areas: Fundraising, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Finance Strategy, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Due Diligence
  • Founder and CEO
    1999 - 2009
    Dexterity Business Analysts
    • Established Indian-based IT services delivery operations and scaled to 250+ person team in nine years, servicing clients in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Built delivery teams across IT, analytics and market research, helping to expand the number of opportunities within the existing client base.
    • Built the organization, establishing the reporting structure as well as recruitment and training processes to support growth that ranged from 56% to 130% per annum for several years. Received Hewitt's Best Employer Award in 2006.
    • Led the company in the attainment of process and quality certifications including ISO 9001, ISO 27001, CMM Level 4, all of which assisted with client acquisition.
    • Grew revenue to $5 million in IT and analytics services, putting the company among the fastest growing technology companies in India and Asia.
    • Established subsidiaries in Germany, Sweden, and the United States to support global client growth and client servicing.
    • Oversaw profitability and growth, and developed mechanisms to review and manage key profitability drivers including average revenue and cost per resource.
    Focus areas: Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Budgeting, Fundraising, Profit & Loss (P&L), Forecasting
Other Experience
Education
  • Post Graduate Diploma in General Management and Financial Management
    2004 - 2006
    Indian Institute of Management - Indore, India
  • Bachelor's degree in Engineering
    1992 - 1996
    Government College of Technology - Coimbatore, India
Certifications
  • Data Science and Big Data Analytics: Making Data-Driven Decisions
    MARCH 2018 - PRESENT
    MIT xPro
  • Machine Learning
    OCTOBER 2016 - PRESENT
    Stanford Online
  • The Data Scientist's Toolbox
    JULY 2016 - PRESENT
    Johns Hopkins University

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