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I am a financial services leader with 18+ years of experience building, scaling, and…
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Gaurav Hazrati shared thisI've noticed something odd about what happens after people make financial decisions... I was having coffee with a friend a few days ago. Earlier that week, he'd invested in an investment plan. The decision had been quick. He'd done his research, chosen a manager and invested. But the conversation didn't end there. He'd already asked for feedback about it in our alumni WhatsApp group. He'd discussed it with our close circle of friends. Now, over coffee, he wanted my opinion too. The investment was already made. There was nothing left to decide. Yet he was still looking for one more opinion. Before we make a financial decision, we're looking for information. After we make one, we're looking for reassurance. I don't think this is unique to money. Buy a new phone and you'll find yourself watching videos about the phone you already own. Buy a car and you'll keep reading reviews long after it's reached your home. The purchase is over. The search isn't. The difference is that financial decisions stay with us much longer. A disappointing phone is an inconvenience. A disappointing investment, insurance policy or financial decision can quietly shape years of your life. Maybe that's why we keep seeking one more opinion. Not because we're still deciding. Because we're trying to make peace with the decision we've already made. Have you ever caught yourself doing that?
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Gaurav Hazrati shared thisWhy do I have 891 screenshots? My wife asked me to share a few vacation photos with her last week. I opened my gallery to find them. Ten minutes later, I was still scrolling. Still no vacation photos. What I found instead was a screenshot of a hotel booking I'd already received on email. A discount code that expired months ago. A WhatsApp message where a friend had agreed to something. A price I was quoted for a sofa I never bought. By the time I found the photos, my wife had given up and moved on to dinner plans. I hadn't. My gallery has 7,054 photos. 891 of them are screenshots. That made me pause. Every one of those screenshots was already saved somewhere else. An app. An email. A chat thread. So why did I need another copy? Maybe screenshots aren't about storage. Maybe they're about having our own copy. The information was already available. It just didn't feel like mine. An app gives me access. A screenshot gives me my own version. One that's frozen exactly as I saw it. And screenshots aren't unique. We download PDFs that are always available online. We forward emails to ourselves. We export data that's already sitting in the cloud. As product builders, we spend a lot of time making information available. Maybe that's only half the job. Because available isn't always the same as owned. What's the last thing you screenshotted, even though you knew it was already saved somewhere else?
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Gaurav Hazrati shared thisPaytm just solved a problem I didn't know I had! My bank app was down, so I opened Paytm. I needed to transfer money. The account number and IFSC were sitting in a WhatsApp message. The usual drill: switch apps, read the account number, switch back, type it, go back, check the IFSC, type that. Then Paytm asked me something unexpected: "Do you have bank details copied from WhatsApp?" I pasted the entire message. And Viola! The account number and IFSC filled themselves in! The friction was never in the payment. It was in the ten seconds before it. Someone at Paytm noticed a simple truth: in India, bank details don't travel through banking apps. They travel through WhatsApp. They built for that moment instead of expecting users to change their behaviour. That's the difference between building products around the customer instead of expecting the customer to adapt to the product. Have you come across a feature that solved a problem you didn't know you had?
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Gaurav Hazrati reposted thisGaurav Hazrati reposted thisSeeking some guidance from my network. A close family member (51 years) has been diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and is currently undergoing evaluation and treatment at PGI Chandigarh. We are exploring all available options and would greatly value any insights from those who may have had experience with CKD treatment, particularly at PGI Chandigarh. Additionally, if anyone has experience with treatment at HIMMS (Hospital for Integrated Medicine & Modern Sciences), Chandigarh, I would be grateful to hear about the quality of care, clinical outcomes, and overall patient experience. If you have personal experience with a highly regarded nephrologist or kidney care centre, I would be grateful for your recommendation. Please feel free to DM me with any referrals, experiences, or suggestions that may help us make an informed decision. Thank you in advance for your guidance and support.
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Gaurav Hazrati shared thisAt a recent family function, the usual questions made their rounds. "So, any plans? When are you settling down?" My younger cousins didn't flinch. Instead, they started labelling everyone at the table. "Rahul and Priya? They're DINKs." Okay, I knew that one. Dual Income, No Kids. "Ankit bhaiya? He's a SITAR." A what? "Single Income, Two Aging Relatives. He's handling everything alone." Before I could process that, the next one came. "Meera di is full JOMO. Doesn't want anything to do with marriage. Joy Of Missing Out, she says." "And Rohan and Neha? DINKWADs. Dual Income, No Kids, With A Dog. Their golden retriever has an Instagram page." "Sonia didi and jiju? KANGOs. Kids And No Going Out. Every plan ends with 'bacche hain, nahi ho payega.'" Some of these are real acronyms. Some my cousins made up on the spot. I honestly couldn't tell which was which! Because Rahul, Ankit, Meera, Rohan, and Sonia are all roughly the same age. Similar education. On paper, the same demographic. But a DINKWAD couple in Pune spends on travel and pet care. A SITAR in Lucknow is stretching one salary across three generations. A KANGO household hasn't been to a restaurant in months. We've segmented consumers by age for decades because it was easy. 25-34, 35-44 are Neat brackets but age is becoming a weak signal. Family structure is quietly becoming one of the strongest predictors of how Indians spend, save, travel, eat, invest, and insure themselves. Yet most products, brands, and financial services still don't explicitly design for these cohorts. The ones that figure this out won't just segment better. They'll discover that what looks like one market is actually five different markets hiding in plain sight. Which acronym fits you or someone you know? And what's a product or brand that seems built specifically for that cohort? (Names changed to protect family WhatsApp group harmony.) 😊
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Gaurav Hazrati shared this"𝗜'𝗺 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲." That's what a garment worker in India said after finding out what the camera on his head was actually being used for. He thought it was shift monitoring. It wasn't. A US company had deployed head-mounted cameras across Indian textile factories. Every stitch, every fold, every hand movement was captured and used to train AI robotics firms. The workers were never told. India was chosen for a reason. The same cost advantage that made it attractive to global manufacturers for decades is now being used to build the machines that replace them. AI replacing repetitive labour was always inevitable. But there is something uncomfortable about who was asked to fund it, without ever knowing they were. I understand that the same playbook is running in other countries as well where the low wages and high volume are a perfect training ground. In the AI economy, coders are training bots to write better code and workers are training bots to do their manual work. The disruption is not coming. We know, It is already here. Which jobs in India do you think get displaced first?
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Gaurav Hazrati shared thisThe wrong Parle hit the upper circuit. The right Parle went out of stock on Blinkit. By now you already know why. PM Modi gifted Melody to Italian PM Meloni. The internet did the rest. Retail investors searched “Parle” on their trading apps and bought Parle Industries. A company with no candy, no biscuits, no Melody. Just the same first name. The actual Melody maker, Parle Products, is private and unlisted. It couldn’t be bought on any exchange. Only on Blinkit and bigbasket, where I understand, it sold out. 😊 One word. Two very different companies. A very human mistake. That’s not an investing lesson. That’s just how names work. What other names create this kind of instant, automatic mix-up?
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Gaurav Hazrati shared thisA food decision got made in seconds. No discussion. We were working late last week. A few folks on my team were deciding what to order. I wasn't part of the conversation, just close enough to overhear. "Bro, it's already 9. I'm hungry." Another jumped in: "Let's order in." And, of course, someone added: "Let's do something healthy. High protein." Someone opened Zomato. Switched on Health Mode. "Filter near and fast." Scrolled for maybe 10 seconds. Saw a restaurant. The app said: "4.6 stars. 13k+ reviews. Loved by friends." Clicked on it. A list of names appeared. Some of those people were sitting right there in the room. Me included. "Okay done. What do you want from there?" The food debate ended before it even started. No one asked if the place was good. No one checked reviews. No one called someone for a recommendation. Zomato had already shown them what they needed to see. Trust signals first. Menu after. Most apps show you what to buy and then hope you trust it. Zomato shows you who trusts it. People you actually know. Sometimes sitting right next to you. That's not a small design call. That's understanding how decisions actually get made. Hats off to the team at Zomato for getting this so right. Have you noticed this feature on Zomato yet? Curious what you think of it.
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Gaurav Hazrati shared thisI’ve started tipping "before" booking Uber rides now. Not after the ride. Before starting it. A friend told me: “Add a tip before requesting and you’ll get one faster.” I tried it, it worked, and it felt slightly odd. Then I came across this comment from Dr.Rama Moondra on my last post about UPI and “default generosity”: “...And that generosity for Uber, Ola and Rapido is compulsion. They won't accept the ride until you are topping it up.” I don’t know if that’s universally true, but I had noticed it too. Rides were taking longer to get accepted. The tip feature was actually smart product design. When demand spikes, riders could pay a little extra to get a quicker ride, while drivers earned a bit more too. But over time, drivers figured out the other side of that equation. During peak hours, tipped rides naturally become more attractive. Waiting becomes the rational choice. Hard to really blame anyone for that. The platform built a nudge and the market rewrote the rules around it. What started as a reward has quietly become an entry fee. Funny how quickly an optional feature can stop feeling optional. Do you tip before booking now, or still wait till the ride ends?
Gaurav Hazrati replied to a comment
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Ruchir Srivastava totally agree. We choose our sounding boards to get affirmation.
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Parul Turki "Rehearsal for peace of mind" is a great way to put it and the sequence to that is what's telling: From the one who will always say yes to the most skeptic one!
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Mukul Saxena The "cheapest therapist" line is spot on. But here's the funny part. We already know who in the group will say "great call" before we even post. We're not really asking. We're choosing our jury. 😀
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Gaurav Hazrati liked thisGaurav Hazrati liked thisIf you know a #womanentrepreneur in a small town or village who has been building something real without the backing to match it, applications for Bansidhar & Ila Panda Foundation IMFA Sakhi Seed in partnership with CNBC TV18 close on July 31. Please share this with her, or apply directly. The link is in the comments. #FinancialInclusion #RuralIndia #SakhiSeed #InclusiveFinance
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Gaurav Hazrati liked thisGaurav Hazrati liked this"We will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence." - Vince Lombardi Past 2 weeks have truly been the one of most emotional and gratifying in our lives as parents(Neha Kalia) to see Agastyaa Vishvanath graduate from University of St Andrews. We ruminated, letting this feeling sink in the past weeks....but even now feel unable to fully articulate what we feel. Our minds drift back to Agastyaa as a cute toddler curiously watching quantum physics documentaries on YouTube with me, to animated discussions on particle physics, and to an 11-year-old Agastyaa posting his own videos explaining the "Standard Model" and " types of subatomic particles". That child is now a graduate of the 613-year-old University of St Andrews at just 19 yrs with a double major in Physics & Math, the winner of the Miller Prize for top science graduate among 1,000 peers, alongside ten other prizes, medals and scholarships earned. This achievement is entirely Agastyaa's, we merely bask in its reflected glow, grateful beyond words for his happiness, his humility, and the thoughtful, caring adult the university has helped shape Agastyaa into. He now begins his dream.. Masters in Physics at Cambridge in October 2026. Plus in the interim having also earned a fully-funded theoretical physics research internship (only 14 offerred gloablly) at KEK, Japan...which alongside CERN and Fermilab are the worlds top 3 foremost theoretical physics research labs. A place where he is privileged to be doing research & interacting with Nobel Laureates. Its just a surreal, humbling, and deeply proud moment for us as parents. We are so grateful for the family and friends who travelled from the world over & made his graduation an even more special moment! As we reflected over past 2 weeks, only deep endless thanks surfaced....to a 4yr old Agastyaa's Hudson Montessori school teachers in Jersey City that laid the foundations of curiosity and work ethic early....his teachers & friends over 12 yrs in Lancers International School India....his guides & mentors in Athena Education in grade 11&12, his family and freinds for their blessings, support & encouragement in the face of failures & disappointments. And finally off late every professor, mentor and friend along the way in the University of St Andrews and beyond who helped shape this journey and provided a safe place of warmth for a young 16 yr old. Our heartfelt thanks also goes out to our close family in UK & Scotland who made him feel as if he was home and that allowed him to thrive the way he did. We raise our glasses to AGASTYAA.. for him to go forth from here.. fearlessly but with purpose, passion, kindness, humility and above all a desire to make a difference, however small. AGASTYAA in the words of Guru Rabindranath Tagore may you. "Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal."
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Gaurav Hazrati liked thisGaurav Hazrati liked thisWhen does trust become solid? Most people think trust is built through time. But what if it's built through something much simpler: the freedom to be vulnerable without fear? In this conversation, Rahul (Co-Founder, Athena Education) sits down with Ankur Sardana to explore why trust isn't just a workplace buzzword—it's the foundation of great teams, meaningful learning, and authentic leadership. A conversation about vulnerability, psychological safety, and what it really takes to create spaces where people can thrive. (Ankur has been regularly conducting improv workshops at Athena for the last few years.)
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Gaurav Hazrati liked thisGaurav Hazrati liked thisIndia hasn't moved from lower to upper-middle income in the last 20 years. We entered the lower middle income club way back in 2007. Vietnam joined after us, in 2009 and has already graduated to the next tier. China did it in just 13 years, 1997 to 2010. It's like that proverbial small-town family. Beta is running dad's shop. Income is comfortable and growing but nothing exciting. Why change anything? Large population, young population, customers will keep coming, that's manifest destiny na. Customer is happy with a handwritten parchi, so who's asking about AI. Sleep in the afternoon, business chalta hai. Sure, we may not ascend to great heights quickly. But look at the Philippines, they spent 38 years as lower-middle income. Compared to that, what is 20 years? Beta is still running dad's shop. Same parchi, same afternoon nap. Just a bigger shop now.
Experience & Education
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Tata Digital
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Licenses & Certifications
Honors & Awards
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Adobe Digi100: Top 100 Digital Marketing professionals in India
Adobe and Paul Writer
Adobe Digi100 List powered by Paul Writer is a recognition list of top 100 Digital Marketers in India. It is guided by five key factors: creativity, innovation, measurable excellence, impact, and efficiency.
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50 Most Influential Digital Marketing Leaders 2017
World Marketing Congress
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Excellence in Service Innovation for Video Branch
Retail Banker International Asia Trailblazer Awards
The programme is a tribute to the best-of-breed players in retail banking in Asia Pacific. Above all, it is designed to be a fair and objective benchmark for the industry. The awards have been created to identify best practice initiatives that are setting new standards for the retail banking industry in Asia and around the world.
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Best Branchless Banking Award for Video Branch
BFSI Leadership Award
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Finalist - Economic Times Young Leaders 2012
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One of the 78 finalists in the ET Young Leaders 2012 programme.
The ET Young Leaders programme is a platform for recognizing and rewarding India's most promising young managers in the age group of 26 to 32 years. This initiative is meant to encourage, identify and nurture promising future business leaders of India Inc.
The ET Young Leaders 2012 challenge involved 17,000 individual and corporate nominations, of which only 78 participants (less than 0.5%) reached the final round…One of the 78 finalists in the ET Young Leaders 2012 programme.
The ET Young Leaders programme is a platform for recognizing and rewarding India's most promising young managers in the age group of 26 to 32 years. This initiative is meant to encourage, identify and nurture promising future business leaders of India Inc.
The ET Young Leaders 2012 challenge involved 17,000 individual and corporate nominations, of which only 78 participants (less than 0.5%) reached the final round. The final round involved a 1-on-1 interview with one of 9 top CEOs of India Inc. -
Outstanding Omnichannel Integration-Highly Acclaimed
The Digital Banker- Global Retail Banking Innovation Awards 2018
The Global Retail Banking Innovation Awards identify and commemorate the 'best in-class' Retail Banking & Individuals for their annual accomplishments in areas such as Customer Centricity, Service & Product Innovation, Marketing, Leadership and Strategy.
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English
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Hindi
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French
Elementary proficiency
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