Activity
3K followers
-
Dhruv Varma shared thisYelp is hosting an Android meet-up on 9/18! RSVP if you’re keen on the link below...
-
Dhruv Varma liked thisDhruv Varma liked thisThrilled to share that our paper, ‘Structured and Tiered Agentic Response Evaluation’, was accepted and showcased at #SIGIR2026 in Melbourne! Evaluating agentic systems is a complex and evolving challenge, and seeing our team's work recognized on such a prestigious global stage is an incredible milestone. A massive thank you to everyone who supported, challenged, and guided us through this journey—from initial brainstorming to the final presentation. This wouldn't have been possible without this amazing collaborative effort! Proudly representing Team KMS and ebay Bengaluru. Onward to the next milestone! Digvijay Singh Bhadouria , Sanket Thapliyal , AKASH KUMAR SINGH Vikram Singh Vishal Shivhare Read our paper here : https://lnkd.in/ggAz6mxe #ebayBengaluru Mrinal Chatterjee Amit Sharma
-
Dhruv Varma reacted on thisDhruv Varma reacted on thisBharat Bhagya Vidhata. The shaper of India's destiny. Our national anthem has carried these words for over a century. And in every era, India's builders have answered that call, and willed a stronger India into being. Today we stand at the biggest platform shift of our lifetimes. The scoreboard is being reset, and every advantage is up for grabs. The opportunity in front of us has never been bigger; neither has the challenge. We have zero doubt this generation of founders will step up. They always have. And this time, we will not just ride the shift; we will capitalize on it and propel India into a different orbit. With that belief, we are excited to announce Elevation Fund IX - $500 million for audacious founders building an unstoppable India. Sharply focused on Seed and Series A. We will continue to partner early, partner deeply, and partner for the long run. All in on India, as we have been for the last 25 years. Jai Hind 🇮🇳 https://lnkd.in/gjSi2pNK Elevation CapitalElevation Fund IX: For Audacious Founders Building an Unstoppable IndiaElevation Fund IX: For Audacious Founders Building an Unstoppable India
-
Dhruv Varma liked thisDhruv Varma liked thisAfter an incredibly fulfilling journey spanning three decades at McKinsey & Company, it’s time to “graduate” this week! As a new hire, I never anticipated I’d spend what feels like a lifetime here. Nor did I imagine the magnitude of personal growth and global impact that McKinsey would make possible. In my early years co-leading the Financial Institutions practice in Asia, I supported some of the region’s most dynamic entrepreneurs in enabling financial access, credit, and wealth for millions. At the McKinsey Global Institute, I shaped frontier economic research at the intersection of Human Potential and Technology, helping expand productive work, human capital, digital access, and economic empowerment globally. I’ve been privileged to share my insights on global stages and help businesses weave them into their strategies. Along the way, I learnt from brilliant McKinsey teams and partnered with exceptional governments, multilaterals, academics, and business organizations externally. There is so much to be grateful for! To all my McKinsey and MGI colleagues—past and present—I can only say one thing: thank you. For your curiosity, intellectual rigor, and spirit of partnership. Working with you has felt like being in an atelier of master craftsmen. Our job was to stitch together a picture of the evolving world—and that picture was always richer because so many hands helped make it. I leave with a sense of pride in what we created together, along with the lifelong friendships I've built here. McKinsey will always feel like family, and I look forward to cheering this community on as they continue to shape the future. I'll have more to say about my exciting next chapter soon!
-
Dhruv Varma reacted on thisDhruv Varma reacted on thisI had the pleasure of speaking about tokenomics at the AI Engineer World’s Fair this week, alongside Tariq Shaukat, Ali-Reza Adl-Tabatabai and my colleague Prakhar Dixit. It was clear from the discussion that token economics is a top-of-mind topic for many leaders building and scaling AI. Few themes came through strongly: 1. Rising token usage is not automatically a red flag - The real question is whether that usage is translating into meaningful ROI - higher productivity, better customer outcomes, or reduced incremental labor spend. Token spend should be evaluated against value created, not just treated as a cost line to minimize (recognizing it’s not the easiest thing to measure). 2. What starts as an Engineering problem quickly becomes an end-to-end PDLC problem- Teams often begin by optimizing prompts, models, routing, infrastructure, etc. But very quickly, the bottlenecks shift across the product development lifecycle: prioritization, design, testing, governance, adoption, and change management. 3. Most are still experimenting with what optimization really means - Across the AIOps stack - visibility, optimization, and governance, many companies are still figuring out the right balance. Some are building internal AI harnesses to control model usage and performance. Others are putting governance in place through soft approvals, usage thresholds, and value-based guardrails to ensure costs do not outpace business value. 4. The companies that are ahead seemed to have one thing in common - They had a need to control costs from the beginning, while still innovating quickly enough to stay relevant. Some of the most disciplined approaches are emerging from smaller and mid-sized companies - they are forced to build discipline early and that discipline may become a real advantage as AI scales. A big thank you to everyone who joined the discussion and participated in the discussion.
-
Dhruv Varma liked thisDhruv Varma liked thisAfter 14 years, last Friday was my last day at McKinsey. I joined as an Analyst not knowing how long I’d stay. I’m leaving as an Associate Partner, having worked across four continents and a dozen-plus countries - with relationships and lessons I’ll carry forever. Three things I’m taking with me: → The power of the right question. You don’t always need to have the answer. Often the answer reveals itself if you’re asking the right thing. The best people I worked with didn’t have more knowledge than the rest of us - they had sharper questions. → People define the experience, not the work. It wasn’t the tough problems, the brutal travel, or the late nights that defined my time at the Firm. It was the people I did it with. Always optimize for who you’re working with. → Own the journey. The same situation lands completely differently depending on whether you’re driving it or being driven by it. The shift from “this is happening to me” to “this is something I’m choosing” changes everything. To everyone who shaped my time - partners, colleagues, clients, mentors, and the people I had the chance to mentor in return, across every city, country, and continent - thank you. The Firm gave me a career; you gave me a community. What’s next: I’m joining Palo Alto Networks to continue my AI journey - this time in cybersecurity, an industry I believe will define the next decade. After years of advising, I’m excited to operate. The safety thread continues. From manufacturing floors to digital infrastructure, the mission is the same: protect what matters.
-
Dhruv Varma liked thisDhruv Varma liked thisThrilled that my amazing team and I got to present our Visual Shopping vision directly to the CEO & CTO at eBay AI Week! ✨ So incredibly proud of our hard work and hyped for the future of AI at eBay. 🚀 #eBayAIWeek #Innovation #Teamwork #GenerativeAI
-
Dhruv Varma liked thisEarlier this year Meta gave us a week to just build with AI. Frontier models including several internal ones. I built a prototype: live World Cup moments showing up inside your Messenger group chats as they happen. That week reminded me how fast things can move when you have the right tools. Stuff that would have taken my team weeks, we had working in days. The team ran with the prototype and we launched the day before the World Cup. If you lead an engineering team and haven't carved out time to actually build something with these models yourself, do it. It changes how you see what's possible. Messenger Live Updates is live. Proud of the team that shipped it. PS: First time posting here. This felt worth it.
-
Dhruv Varma liked thisDhruv Varma liked thisOffice life usually revolves around work but sometimes it’s the moments outside that routine that leave the biggest impact. I’m so grateful to eBay Bengaluru for a fantastic "Bring Your Juniours Day”. Seeing my daughter explore workspace and feel truly celebrated was special. From the thoughtful play areas to the awesome kids friendly food and goodies, the effort to create such an environment in office was incredible. My daughter even got her first-ever tattoo…a design she picked herself! Even a week later, she’s still raving about the pasta she ate and the fun she had meeting with my office friends :) Thank you to Cheryl Ghosh and the whole organising team for making us feel valued not just as employees, but as parents. #eBayLife #WorkLifeBalance #KidsAtWork #eBay
-
Dhruv Varma liked thisDhruv Varma liked thisExcited about the “Two first days” First - my daughter started school yesterday. Second - I am beginning a new chapter at eBay as Senior Product Manager as part of the Agentic Search team. After an incredible chapter at Amazon, followed by a period of deep learning, exploration in AI, and cherished time with family, I’m excited to be back building products at scale. Looking forward to building at the intersection of AI, search, and commerce alongside an exceptional team with Amit Sharma Srinivas Bhagavathula Pankaj Chauhan Dhruv Varma
Experience & Education
-
eBay
View Dhruv’s full experience
See their title, tenure and more.
or
Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
Publications
-
The digital edge: New opportunities in financial services
McKinsey & Company
Languages
-
English
Native or bilingual proficiency
-
Hindi
Native or bilingual proficiency
-
German
Elementary proficiency
-
Spanish
Elementary proficiency
Recommendations received
6 people have recommended Dhruv
Join now to viewOther similar profiles
Explore more posts
-
Jitin Nagpal
𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗘𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗬𝗲𝘁 SCENE: Two seasoned product leaders, Meera and Rajiv, sit at a quiet corner of a conference hall after a long day of panels. Coffee in hand, jackets slightly undone, they begin an unscripted debate. RAJIV (half-smiling): I heard someone say today - “Creativity in PM leads to gains beyond the incremental.” Sounds nice enough for applause. But in practice? It feels like a poster, not a roadmap. MEERA (raising an eyebrow): You really believe that? That creativity doesn’t move the needle? That PM is just execution, discipline, and distribution? RAJIV (shrugging): Not exactly. Creativity matters. But it’s overrated. In twenty years, I’ve seen more disasters from “creative leaps” than successes. Creativity eats cash and morale far quicker than it produces outcomes. MEERA (leaning forward): And in my twenty years, I’ve seen the opposite. Execution gives you survival. Creativity - when fused with execution - bends markets. Without creativity, PMs are traffic cops. With it, they create leaps. RAJIV (chuckling): Markets don’t bend that easily. For every Slack, there’s a HipChat. For every Tesla, a Fisker. Creativity is high variance. The rare hits look like genius. The common misses look like hubris. MEERA: Variance, yes. But that’s the point. Slack, Notion, Tesla - they weren’t just creative products. They reframed the problem. They created new lenses. That kind of creativity doesn’t give you 1% gains. It gives you 10x. RAJIV (serious now): But most “creative” ideas? They fail because the market isn’t ready. Google Glass was creative. Dead in two years. MEERA: Or maybe Glass failed because the go-to-market wasn’t creative. Creativity isn’t just product. It’s also in how you test, ship, narrate. Execution without reframing will keep you alive. Reframing with discipline creates leaps. RAJIV (pausing): So maybe it’s not creativity versus execution. It’s creativity to expand the option space. Execution to narrow it. Both are necessary. The art lies in knowing when to let each lead. MEERA (pointing her finger, almost playfully): And that’s where I’ll disagree. Because discipline alone creates survivability. Creativity - when wielded with discipline - creates category leadership. The best PMs don’t just optimize funnels. They imagine funnels that don’t exist yet. RAJIV (after a long pause, sighing with a grin): Fine, let’s call it: creativity without discipline is chaos. Discipline without creativity is stagnation. The multiplier is in the fusion. MEERA (raising her cup): Exactly. Incremental gains are survival. Creative leaps - if disciplined - are how you bend markets. RAJIV (clinking his cup to hers, smirking): Fine. You win the philosophy. But in hiring? I’ll still test for execution first. Creativity is only valuable if it rides on rigor. MEERA (grinning): And I’ll still test for imagination first. Execution can be taught. Vision rarely can.
1 Comment -
Adith Podhar
Whenever a new industry takes shape and scale, ancillary/supporting companies also get set up. We call such companies as ‘Enablers’, the ‘Picks and Shovels’, to the large and growing industries. For eg: Contract manufacturers for FMCG/Pharma/Electronics/Mobiles, auto-ancillaries for OEMs, bottling plants for Coke. These are supply side businesses. There are demand side businesses also. For eg. Franchisees of QSR/retail brands, Cloud kitchen business on Food Delivery apps, Fleet operators on Ride hailing apps. When E-Commerce started scaling in India, we saw players like Delhivery, Shadowfax and Shiprocket emerge. So, we asked this question to ourselves, "Which enabling business will emerge when Quick Commerce starts seeing unprecedented scale?" We found our answer in Inamo. Do chk them out. C Sumit Anand and Rupesh Thakare are building a fundamentally solid company and we at Gemba Capital are happy to be a part of the journey.
4 Comments -
Nils Erik Mattisson
I was delighted to welcome Siddhi Mittal as my latest guest on the Minute by Minut podcast. The co-founder and co-CEO of yhangry, Siddhi shared the surprising realization that customers are looking for experiences before they book a rental, rather than purchasing from upsells her experience of launching in America how she sees AI reshaping guest communication the opportunity that yhangry creates for private chefs and her craziest story from working in the hospitality industry The episode is available now on all podcast platforms, and YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eA4q2sPq
3 Comments -
Arjun Malhotra
India has abundant expertise across every domain - logistics operators, subject matter experts, local service providers, etc. What's scarce isn't capability. It's the systems that coordinate this capability at scale. Most companies see this fragmentation and default to vertical integration: build everything in-house, own all capabilities, control every aspect of delivery. This works if you have unlimited capital and time. Most companies have neither. But there's an alternative approach that we've noticed two of our portcos execute remarkably well, in completely different industries - 1. When Meesho looked at India's logistics, and they saw thousands of fragmented local operators. Instead of building warehouses and delivery fleets, they built Valmo - an orchestration platform coordinating existing partners. Individual pilots with smartphones earn sustainable incomes, small hub operators build viable businesses, and Meesho gets coverage across 15,000+ pin codes at 12% lower cost than traditional third-party-logistics. 2. Entri saw similar fragmentation in education. India has abundant teaching expertise already running offline/online programs. Entri partners with them for content while owning demand generation, platform infra, quality monitoring, and placements. This allows them to launch new categories in weeks and scale across languages without the capital intensity of building in-house teams for every vertical. If I had to pull a common thread, it's that in fragmented markets like India, the orchestration layer often matters more than asset ownership. Coordinate what exists rather than rebuilding from scratch.
1 Comment
Explore top content on LinkedIn
Find curated posts and insights for relevant topics all in one place.
View top content