About Pooja

Pooja's career has been defined by a relentless focus on building and scaling marketplaces across geographies and business models. She began her career in the UK's financial services sector at Citibank, working in the credit cards division before relocating to Australia to dive into the digital revolution. There, she worked as a Web Solutions Consultant at Melbourne IT and later as a Marketing Analyst at Zoho, where she gained deep expertise in digital marketing and product strategy.

The turning point came around 2010 when Pooja returned to India and founded Dropped Pin, one of India's earliest fashion ecommerce startups. Born from a passion project—the fashion blog "The Lust List"—Dropped Pin pioneered the sourcing of high-street international labels from the US, UK, and Europe for the Indian market. Operating initially on Facebook before launching droppedpin.net, the venture was bootstrapped and gained significant traction, earning features in ET Madras Plus and Express Buzz. This experience taught her the complexities of cross-border ecommerce, customer acquisition, and building brands in emerging markets.

Pooja's next chapter took her into enterprise-scale ecommerce operations. She joined Catch.com.au as Head of Merchandising, where she managed a $200M P&L and drove category strategies with 40%+ margins. She later stepped into one of Australia's most challenging retail transformation roles: at Coles Supermarket, she led the Head of Online Merchandising & Strategic Partnerships function, overseeing a $1.1B P&L across 800+ storefronts. In this role, she commanded a cross-functional team of 20+ professionals spanning product, business analysis, merchandising, range management, and business development—while coordinating with IT, Finance, store operations, and offshore consulting partners. Under her leadership, Coles launched groundbreaking initiatives including the world's first grocery marketplace on eBay and integrated logistics partnerships with UberEats, Airtasker, and Deliveroo, achieving 35% delivery cost reductions.

Her expertise in data standards and platform ecosystems deepened during her tenure at GS1 Australia, where she served as Account Director for eCommerce & Marketplaces, working across Amazon, Google, and Alibaba with a portfolio of 300+ brands. She brought these insights to Lasoo.com.au as Head of Marketplace, where she transformed a catalogue business into a dynamic marketplace on Marketplacer, scaling to 60+ retailers with 120% month-on-month GMV growth and driving 15% revenue uplift through retail media initiatives.

Today, Pooja is the Founder and Head of Product and Growth at PurvX, a circular marketplace focused on sustainable South Asian fashion with operations in San Francisco and Chennai. In just over a year, the platform has achieved 800% user growth and 3.2x seller conversion, validating her vision for responsible, cross-border ecommerce. Throughout her career, Pooja has built a rare ability to thrive at the intersection of technology, commerce, and operations—leading diverse teams, navigating complex stakeholder ecosystems, and delivering transformational results across cultures and continents.