# Rutu Samai > Product Manager at Proxymity | ex-Microsoft | AI, Fintech & Enterprise SaaS | Focused on Strategy, Execution & Customer Impact Location: New York, New York, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/rutusamai I’m Rutu (pronounced “Ruth-oo”), a Product Manager based in NYC with 5+ years of experience leading the development of end-to-end products across AI/ML, enterprise SaaS, and fintech companies. I thrive in fast-paced, collaborative environments where I hit the ground running to drive product strategy rooted in human-centered design thinking and leverage technical depth to solve real problems for real customers at scale. At Microsoft, I worked on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), search ranking, and external data integrations (such as Salesforce, SQL) for Microsoft Copilot. I shipped AI-powered productivity features adopted by 130M+ users for Outlook, Teams, and Bing; improved LLM accuracy; optimized user experience across web, mobile, and desktop; and led a customer adoption campaign tracking over 1,800 customers. I also built business metrics dashboards that doubled our data visibility and surfaced usage insights that guided feature prioritization and ecosystem growth among system integrators and developers. At Proxymity, a now Series C fintech startup, I launched a digital investor communication platform from 0→1 , powering $600K in ARR by building proxy voting APIs for banks such as J.P. Morgan and State Street. I defined the U.S. product roadmap, OKRs, and KPIs alongside the COO, and collaborated cross-functionally with the CPO, CTO, sales, design, and operations teams. I led an agile pod of 6 developers and 2 testers, owned and prioritized the Jira backlog, and doubled our average sprint velocity. I’m passionate about building products that combine creative strategic vision, technical rigor, forward-looking innovation, and thoughtful user research. I excel at bridging technical and business requirements and aligning internal and external stakeholders to deliver scalable solutions that drive meaningful impact. Outside of work, I volunteer with Girls Who Code, where I focus on mentorship and championing creativity, diversity, and access in tech. I’m active in musical theater, fashion design, golf, and I’m a sommelier in training. Looking forward to connecting. ## Work Experience ### Product Manager @ Proxymity Jan 2022 – Present | New York, New York, United States - Launched an investor communications platform in the US at a Series B startup spun out of Citibank’s D10XSM accelerator program - Architected an end to end robust tech stack with AWS which empowers seamless API integration for financial institutions such as JP Morgan, State Street - Worked with an Agile coach to transitioned the company to an SDLC. Managed a team of 6 developers and owned Jira backlog of user stories for 2 week sprints, performing program management responsibilities such as leading sprint planning, generating sprint reports, retrospectives - Developed and iterated on long term product roadmaps and defined/optimized OKRs and KPIs aligned with company goals. Collaborated with COO/CPO to strategize on partnership deals and customer segmentation and pitching - Wrote comprehensive test, deployment and customer onboarding plans ensuring rigorous security and compliance standards from entities like SEC, GDPR ### Product Manager @ Microsoft Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 M365 - Copilot, Graph Connectors - Launched external (ex. Salesforce, ServiceNow) content in search suggestions and Microsoft Copilot -AI generated message predictions. Increased kept rate from 44% to 95%, allowing 130M+ MAUs to find search results 2x faster and reduce context switching across Outlook, Teams, etc - Set up business metrics/telemetry dashboard views which unlocked visibility to 49% of data - Ran adoption and retention program by personally maintaining 14 customer relationships to convert to our paid model. Set up a CRM to scale up and track 1800+ customers and their blockers - Outlined scope, negotiated cost, and drove implementation for a new product page with a vendor - Emceed Microsoft Graph internal conference for two years (24K+ total hits) ### Product Manager Intern @ Microsoft Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 Azure Software-Defined Networking - Created a product spec with compete analysis, API design, Azure Portal UX flow mockups for a new feature that enables Fortune 500 customers like LinkedIn, AT&T, Mercedes, PwC to seamlessly share resources across subscriptions, improve management, and efficiently use IP address space ### Product Manager & CoFounder @ popshop Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 - Spearhead brand development in an e-commerce platform that empowers users to curate custom shopping collections from data feeds - Partnered with 95+ sororities nationwide - Created a Pattern Library, built product roadmap and strategies - Launched a custom database with AWS ### Lead Director @ Camp PolyHacks Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | San Luis Obispo, California Area - Led a 15 person diverse team of business, engineering, and design students in a non-profit - Connected industry leaders, company partners, community members, and students to solve civic-based issues - Inclusivity, Education, Sustainability - in a 24 hour hackathon setting - Increased diversity to include 60% females, 55% first time hackers, and 56% non Computer Science majors - Raised $30,000+ for 200 participants with 12+ corporate sponsors ### Director of Mentorship @ Camp PolyHacks Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 - Established mentorship program to connect 150+ students with industry leaders in technology, business, and design, including workshops - Built strategic partnerships with companies through sponsorship arrangements ### Explorer Intern @ Microsoft Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Greater Seattle Area - Enabled users to create Azure Container Registries, deploy, push/pull to Azure Cloud Instance, and built a UI in Typescript to initiate and view build tasks/logs - Pushed code to the Visual Studio Code extension with 8.9 million downloads - Program Manager rotation - conducted and documented user personas, stories, interviews, designed prototypes, and wrote a spec ### CoFounder & Director of Technology @ SLO Hacks Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 - Oversaw 5 executive officers to manage all software infrastructure for Cal Poly’s first official Major League Hacking hackathon, with 200+ attendees and 15 corporate partners - Managed an agile design and development team in creating brand guidelines, user communication portals, and 3 event websites with a custom application system with an expected usage of 600 unique visitors during the month of the event ### Software Engineering Intern @ Lockitron Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Mountain View, CA - Worked on iOS app for Y Combinator company with a focus on Sense, a Bluetooth feature that automatically triggers a smart door lock by proximity - Tested Bluetooth background communication by creating debug modes to simulate Geofence triggers and monitor RSSI (received signal strength indicator) - Synced the encrypted pipe to update processes i.e. new users/pin codes, switching locks ### Android Development Intern @ AGS Transact Technologies Ltd Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 -Developed Fleet Plus, an Android app for digitilizaing the enrollment of drivers and Essar Group fleet and fuel customers -Front-end Engineer ### Coder at eBay Summer Immersion Program @ Girls Who Code Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 -Created Plantae, a website that assists users in maintaining their home gardens by accessing our plant database and receiving care notifications ## Education ### Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo ### Fashion Design Parsons School of Design - The New School Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 ### Amador Valley High School Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 ### Intro to Sewing; Alterations The New York Sewing Center Jan 2021 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rutusamai - Website: https://www.rutu.me/ --- Source: https://flows.cv/rutusamai JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/rutusamai/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-29