AI-Native GM & Product Operator
Gaurav Hardikar
That belief has shaped my career. I’ve built products from 0→1, scaled businesses into the tens of millions, and operated platforms responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue — often through periods of significant change, including acquisitions, market downturns, and rising interest rates.
I’m Head of Re-Engagement & New Products at Ethos (NASDAQ: LIFE). I own consumer experience for Returning Users, Wills & Trust (Estate Planning), Indexed Universal Life (IUL), and the unified re-engagement journey across Sales Outbound and Lifecycle. I operate as GM and P&L owner for Wills & Trust and IUL.
As VP of Product & Growth at HomeLight, I led the shift from human-heavy sales and operations to AI-native systems. That work included building and scaling AI SDR (voice and text) and AI coaching platforms supporting millions of consumers and tens of thousands of agents, while materially improving unit economics during a historic housing market contraction.
Earlier roles include senior product leadership at Trulia / Zillow Group, Shopkick, and Brilliant Smart Home, where I built and scaled marketplace and consumer platforms through growth, acquisition, and market transitions.
I co-founded Insider Growth Group , where I work selectively with founders, leadership teams, and investors on AI-native product and growth systems. We publish practical frameworks for building product and scaling growth.
Own consumer experience for Returning Users, Wills & Trust (Estate Planning), Indexed Universal Life (IUL), and the unified re-engagement journey across Sales Outbound and Lifecycle. Operate as GM and P&L owner for Wills & Trust and IUL.
Senior Leadership Team · GM with P&L accountability
Led the shift from human-heavy sales and operations to AI-native qualification, conversion, and agent performance systems at national scale.
First product hire · Exec Team · Series B
Built and scaled Brilliant's hardware–software platform from concept through Series B — prototype to $15M+ revenue and hundreds of thousands of units shipped.
Acquired by SK Telecom
Returned Shopkick to profitable growth by rebuilding the economic foundation of the ads business.
Acquired by Zillow · ~50M monthly users
Owned Trulia Rentals through the Zillow acquisition with end-to-end responsibility for conversion, monetization, and renter experience.
May 2026
When your AI dashboard says "working" but customers say otherwise — the deployment problem is usually an eval problem, not an AI quality problem.
Read on Insider Growth →Feb 2026
Specialization is for scaling; generalists are for starting. How high-agency operators own the loop from idea → live → data — and why I restructured HomeLight around Product Builders.
Read on Insider Growth →Jan 2026
In high-trust, high-ticket categories, loyalty isn't points — it's certainty for your whales. Lessons from eBay's Top Star program on re-engagement that actually retains LTV.
Read on Insider Growth →Operator-led advisory on AI-native product and growth systems — monetization, lifecycle, and distribution in complex or regulated environments.
Contribute via Reforge Collective and Expert Partner Network.
Invite-only peer community for high-growth product leaders.
Advise founders on product strategy, growth systems, and AI-native operating models. Past: Vezzit, Lutra.ai, Alchemist Accelerator portfolio companies.
I believe the next wave of product leadership is the Product Builder — high-agency operators who own idea → live → data, not coordinators who optimize process tax. Read the full philosophy or explore essays on AI evals, loyalty, and growth systems .