Piyush Roy Piyush Roy
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Piyush Roy

Piyush Roy is Product Management & GTM expert with over half-a-decade of experience

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DIY Mutual Fund Platform for Corporates: India’s First

DIY Mutual Fund Platform for Corporates: India’s First

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India’s startup and SMB ecosystem has exploded over the past decade—but corporate treasury management has barely kept up. Even as businesses have become more agile and digital-first, managing idle treasury funds remains an archaic, offline and paper-based.

These players focus on enterprise clients, leaving small and mid-sized businesses underserved, despite their growing financial clout.

As a fractional Product Manager at Hyperbola, I led the charge in building this greenfield solution from scratch—India’s first DIY Corporate Treasury Management platform with 100% digital flow. 

Over six months, I coordinated between design and development, led user research, solved technical blockers, and ensured timely delivery.

Here’s a deep dive into how we built it—and why it matters.

The Opportunity: Substituting a legacy set-up with Tech-First approach

Even today, for treasury management, Corporates have to rely on MFDs or RIAs, often through manual paperwork, phone calls, and fragmented processes. 

Due to bigger ticket size, corporates get due attention from relation based channels to help manage their treasure, however a large sum of money is sitting idle in growing numbers of startups.

Problem Statement:

Despite having sizable idle funds, SMBs lacked a self-service platform to invest directly in mutual funds. The entire flow was designed for large enterprises, leaving smaller players to either stay idle, invest in FD/RD only or go through a high-touch, slow process.

Market Opportunity:

The timing couldn’t have been better. As of December 2024, India had over 1.51 lakh startups, and we estimated that at least 24% of them fell into our ideal user profile. These were:

  • Recently funded startups
  • SMBs with ₹10,00,000 or more in idle treasury
  • Companies with ₹5 crores in revenue or 7+ full-time employees

This presented a substantial Total Addressable Market (TAM). If we could capture even a 5% share within three years, it would signal product-market fit and long-term viability.

Success Metrics We Set:

To stay accountable, we defined measurable outcomes:

  • Market Share: 5% of TAM within 3 years
  • User Growth Rate: 8–15% annually
  • Churn Rate: <2% YoY
  • Startup Lifetime Value (LTV): ₹5 lakh invested per year, for 7 years

These targets guided every product decision we made.

Product Development: A digital DIY Corporate MF Investment Platform

With clear goals in mind, we built the platform from the ground up over a 6-month timeline—4 months for development, 2 for testing. 

The vision was ambitious: enable corporates to onboard themselves, verify KYC, and invest in mutual funds with zero manual intervention.

My Role:

As the fractional Product Manager, I was the bridge between vision and execution. My responsibilities included:

  • Conducting interviews with SMB founders to find the right Product-Market Fit (PMF)
  • Designing smooth onboarding journeys with the UX team
  • Answering developer queries, resolving blockers, and defining user stories
  • Aligning with compliance, legal, and finance stakeholders
  • Managing sprints and ensuring we met our delivery deadline

This was a greenfield build with no legacy tech. That gave us the freedom to reimagine the user journey from scratch—and integrate with every critical player in the mutual fund ecosystem.

Full-Stack Integrations: The Infrastructure Behind a Seamless Flow

To truly deliver on the promise of a DIY treasury platform, we had to stitch together multiple pieces of India’s financial infrastructure. This was no small feat.

Key Integrations:

  • KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs): To verify user identity and compliance
  • AMCs (Asset Management Companies): For fund discovery and transactions
  • RTAs (Registrar and Transfer Agents): For data reconciliation and investor records
  • Payment Gateways (PGs): For fast and secure fund transfers

Each integration required extensive backend coordination, testing, and compliance review. But these were essential to achieve our goal: a 100% digital investment flow for Resident Indians, NRIs, and corporates.

User Research & Personas: Understanding the Treasury Pain Points

We didn’t build in a vacuum. Early in the process, we conducted interviews with startup CFOs, founders, and finance heads of SMBs. These conversations revealed a few recurring pain points:

  • “We don’t have time to go through advisors for every investment decision.”
  • “We need a simple dashboard—something that just works.”
  • “Security and compliance are non-negotiable, especially for foreign investors.”

User Personas:

Based on our research, we zeroed in on:

  • Private Limited Companies and Public Limited Companies
  • Sole Proprietorships with idle capital
  • RI and NRI investors interested in diversified, digital-first wealth management

We designed flexible use cases—from direct mutual fund orders to goal-based investing via baskets, with reporting dashboards tailored for finance teams.

Built for Corporates, But Intuitive as B2C

While our backend was enterprise-grade, the front-end experience was inspired by the simplicity of leading B2C apps. We focused on clarity, speed, and control.

Core Features:

  1. KYC Status Check & Registration: Corporates and individuals can verify and complete their KYC directly through the platform. NRIs could complete all flows except KYC registration (due to regulation).
  2. Onboarding Flow: Designed for self-serve, with minimal documentation and guided assistance. No manual follow-ups.
  3. Orders & Payments: Corporates could invest in funds directly, or use curated goal-based baskets for targeted outcomes.
  4. Goal Tagging: Companies could assign investments to treasury goals like “Payroll Buffer” or “Expansion Reserve”—a unique feature not offered by traditional distributors.
  5. Reporting & Operations: Access to real-time dashboards, investor statements, and reconciliation tools for finance teams.

Out of Scope:

To maintain focus, we excluded:

LLPs, Trusts, Minors, and Partnerships (due for next phase)

This focus allowed us to launch faster and serve a more homogenous segment.

Conclusion

Hyperbola’s DIY treasury platform isn’t just another fintech product—it’s a statement. 

It signals that SMBs in India no longer need to rely on legacy systems or intermediaries to manage their capital. They deserve the same speed, control, and transparency as any large enterprise.

From a product standpoint, this project was a masterclass in:

  • Driving alignment across tech, design, and compliance
  • Balancing B2B robustness with B2C simplicity
  • Shipping a full-stack platform on time, with no major pivots

As a fractional Product Manager, it was incredibly rewarding to take a bold vision, validate it with users, and turn it into a live product with real traction. This case study is not just about building a platform—it’s about building trust, infrastructure, and financial independence for India’s next wave of business leaders.

index funds sahi hai
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First 1000 Organic Visitors – FinTech GTM

index funds sahi hai

First 1000 Organic Visitors – FinTech GTM

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When we started discussing their GTM, IndexFundsSahiHai had a product ready to go—but zero online presence. No blogs. No traffic. No followers. 

This was especially challenging in a market dominated by actively managed funds, where index investing remains a relatively less popular concept—particularly in India. 

Our mission was clear: educate a non-expert audience, drive traffic from scratch, and establish the brand as the go-to platform for index investing.

Over the course of three months, I led the complete content and SEO strategy—from ideation to execution—helping Index Funds Sahi Hai publish 15 SEO-optimized blogs, launch a LinkedIn campaign from the ground up, and attract the first 2,300 organic visitors. 

Here’s how we did it.

Understanding the Brand: Positioning a Niche Investment Platform.

Before diving into content creation, we needed to understand what made Index Funds Sahi Hai different. Unlike most financial advisory platforms, this was India’s only dedicated index investing platform, offering tailored baskets of index mutual funds and PMS products. 

Their USP lay in simplifying index-based investing through proper risk profiling and curated solutions.

As a new company launching its marketing efforts for the first time, they were looking to go from 0 to 1 in content visibility. 

That meant no legacy traffic, no domain authority, and zero brand recall. Our job was to create everything from scratch—and make it stick.

Defining the Audience: Everyday Investors with Limited Time

Our target audience wasn’t made up of finance geeks or investment professionals. We were targeting salaried professionals in their late 20s to 40s—individuals who had disposable income and a willingness to invest but lacked deep knowledge or the time to manage their portfolios.

Some were already investing in actively managed mutual funds but weren’t happy with the high commissions and underwhelming returns. Others were complete beginners. 

This diversity made it essential to create content that was insightful yet simple, actionable yet educational.

Building the Blog Engine: Keyword Research to Content Creation

As the lead content strategist and writer, I followed a deeply research-driven and iterative process for SEO. Here’s how my team and I approached it:

1. User-first Keyword Discovery

We began by interviewing the founders to understand real-world investor concerns, jargon they encountered, and the common questions they faced. These gave us seed keywords that reflected actual user intent.

Using tools like UberSuggest, Google Keyword Planner, and autocomplete, we expanded those seeds into a full topic & keyword structure. 

Each keyword was mapped to a specific user intent—educational, comparative, or transactional—and grouped accordingly.

2. Competitive Research and Topic Planning

Once we had our keyword batches, we conducted competitor analysis to see what was already ranking—and what was missing. 

We then created a content calendar of say 15 blog topics, based on keyword difficulty, search volume, and content gaps.

Topics included:

  • Common Myths About Index Funds: The Reality Behind Them
  • The History of Gold Investing – Why It’s a Must-Have for Your Portfolio
  • Understanding NAV and Unit Allotment in Mutual Funds
  • How to Invest in Index Funds – A Guide for Beginners, etc…

3. Structured Content Writing with Human-AI Collaboration

For writing, we combined our years of experience with the power of AI. Using ChatGPT with a proprietary prompt refined over years, we created the first draft of each blog. This not only reduced our time-to-first-draft but also helped us achieve minimal human error.

Then, I personally reviewed and edited each piece, ensuring it had a natural flow, accurate financial insights, and a human touch.

Final on-page SEO implementation included meta descriptions, alt tags, internal/external linking, and schema-friendly formatting.

Results from Blogging: From Zero to 2,300 Organic Users

Within 90 days, our blog section went from zero content to 15 rich, SEO-optimized articles. The results speak for themselves:

  • 2,300+ new users, all organic, in just 3 months.
  • 26% average click-through rate (CTR) across all blogs.
  • Bounce rate under 18%, indicating strong engagement.
  • Average time on page: 3 minutes and 42 seconds.

The traffic wasn’t just coming in—it was staying, reading, and converting into brand awareness.

Social Media Launch: Establishing a Strong LinkedIn Presence.

Parallel to our blog strategy, we led the ideation and execution of a LinkedIn campaign titled “Know Your Index Fund.” 

This was built from scratch—no posts, no followers, no previous brand activity.

The Campaign Strategy

Our goal was to demystify index funds and educate a wide, aspirational class. We decided on a carousel-based format to maximize clarity and engagement. 

Each post offered a bite-sized, stat-backed look into the world of index investing, drawing heavily from SPIVA and NiftyIndices reports.

Execution & Design

Over 90 days, my team and I published 25 carousel posts, each designed in collaboration with an in-house designer. Every slide was optimized for visual readability and educational value.

Campaign Outcomes

  • 16,913 impressions across LinkedIn posts
  • 2.6% average engagement rate—solid for organic financial content
  • Brand recall achieved: Months after the campaign ended, the client reported being recognized by name during an AMC office visit, with multiple stakeholders referencing our carousel posts—recalling themes, topics, and even the tone.

This feedback alone validated the power of consistent, meaningful social media storytelling.

Tools used in the project

A successful content campaign doesn’t just rely on creativity—it’s also about using the right tools. Here are the platforms we used:

  • Research & SEO: Ubersuggest, Google Keyword Planner, AnswerThePublic, Google Trends
  • Writing & Editing: ChatGPT, Grammarly
  • Design: Canva (for visuals and carousels)
  • Tracking: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, LinkedIn Analytics

Each tool was selected and used purposefully to minimize guesswork and maximize performance.

Challenges Faced: Educating a Market Still Learning the Product

One of the biggest challenges in this project was audience education. Index funds, while growing in popularity, are still niche in India. 

Convincing people to move from high-commission, actively managed funds to passive, low-cost index funds required changing deep-seated beliefs.

This meant our content had to serve multiple KPIs:

  • Build trust
  • Educate without overwhelming
  • Position the brand as an expert without being technical

Walking this tightrope—while maintaining searchability and shareability—was the most challenging part of it.

Key Takeaways: What This Case Study Proves.

  1. SEO + Education Can Build a Brand from Scratch
    Even with zero prior presence, quality content with solid SEO can attract a meaningful audience in a short time.
  2. You Don’t Need to Go Viral to Get Recognized
    Consistent messaging, visual branding, and educational content can generate powerful offline brand recall.
  3. Audience Insight is More Valuable Than Tools
    The foundation of this campaign wasn’t a fancy tool—it was a deep understanding of what the audience needed to hear, in the way they wanted to hear it.

Conclusion:

In just three months, our content-led approach gave Index Funds Sahi Hai a solid digital foundation—one built on SEO-backed blogging, consistent LinkedIn storytelling, and audience-first messaging. 

What began as a brand with no visibility quickly grew into a recognisable voice in the index investing space.

By aligning market education with measurable content outcomes, we didn’t just drive traffic—we built awareness, recall, and trust. 

This case underscores how structured content strategy and execution, when driven by insight and intent, can create lasting digital traction—even in a complex financial niche.

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