Tan Kameswaran
MBA Mock Interviews & Strategy | Dual HBS + GSB Admit
Studied at Harvard Business School
Works at Kickstarter
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Tan's Offerings
Custom hourly · $60/hr
Get help with Application Strategy, General Exploration, and .
Tan’s MBA Qualifications
I recently navigated the full admissions cycle, securing dual acceptances to both Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB. Because I just finished going through the comprehensive interview loops for both programs, the experience is incredibly fresh. I know exactly how these specific admissions committees evaluate candidates right now, and I’m here to give you real-time insight into what to expect. My background spans elite consumer product management, startup leadership, and interview training. I've scaled features for billions of users at Meta and Walmart eCommerce, built cross-functional teams as Head of Mobile at Kickstarter, and launched early-stage ventures. Having designed interview guides and evaluated hundreds of candidates from both sides of the hiring table, I specialize in teaching applicants how to command an interview room and package their impact effectively. 🚀 The Tech Leader Trying to Standardize Massive Impact You build incredible software, scale features, or manage engineering pipelines but you aren't sure how to translate complex technical metrics into the high-signal leadership narratives that business school adcoms actually prioritize. I help you pull out the human story behind the code. 🎒 The Non-Traditional Candidate with a Winding Path Whether your transcript has a few bumps, you took an unconventional route to finish college, or your career hasn't been a straight corporate line, you're likely worried your background is a liability. It isn't. We will reframe your unique trajectory to make it your absolute biggest competitive asset. 💼 The Leader Who Forgets to Highlight Their Scale You’ve driven massive corporate metrics, stepped into rapid promotions, or launched early-stage projects, but you describe your wins like anyone else could have done them. I’m here to help you own your achievements, pinpoint your specific leverage, and communicate it with absolute confidence. My Approach: Think of our sessions as a mix of rigorous, real-time mock interviews and strategic narrative positioning. I am fully invested in your success, which means you can expect direct, constructive feedback, zero boilerplate advice, and a collaborative framework built around the exact strategies that unlocked admissions to the top two business schools on earth.
Tan can help with:
Application Strategy
General Exploration
Interviews
Recommendations
Resume
School Selection
About Tan
I am an incoming HBS MBA and a dual admit to both Harvard and Stanford GSB. Because I just went through the entire application and interview cycle firsthand, I know exactly what it takes to stand out to these committees right now. 🎓 I graduated from UC Davis, summa cum laude with the highest GPA in my major, completely reshaping my academic trajectory after a non-traditional start. 💼 I’ve built products that scale to billions of global users as a product manager at Meta, Kickstarter, and Walmart eCommerce. At Meta, I led creation quality on the team that grew Reels to 1 billion users. At Kickstarter, I earned a rapid promotion to Head of Mobile in under a year, becoming the company’s youngest functional lead and managing a team of 12 engineers without having a technical background myself. ❤️ I am the former college dropout who learned how to navigate elite admissions. My educational journey wasn't a straight line, and I never expected to find myself choosing between HBS and GSB. That exact background is why I love helping applicants find, own, and elevate the unconventional parts of their own stories. --- I specialize in supporting: HBS & GSB Hopefuls: Applicants targeting the world's most selective business schools who want current, firsthand prep for the unique interview styles and essay nuances of Harvard and Stanford. Tech & Product Professionals: Product managers, engineers, and tech operators who need to translate complex technical shipping cycles into leadership metrics that admissions committees care about. Nontraditional Frameworks: Career switchers, non-target grads, or applicants with non-linear paths who need to pitch their unconventional background as a core competitive advantage. International Candidates: Applicants looking to master U.S. application styles, narrative expectations, and positioning standards. 🤝 My Approach: I provide deep strategic clarity, direct and constructive feedback, and insights from the most recent admissions cycle to help you build an application that is human and genuinely unforgettable. My coaching is high-touch, hyper-focused, and data-driven. When we work together, you get direct access to the exact framework and storytelling strategies that secured admission to the top two business schools in the world.
Why do I coach?
I know firsthand how much mentors matter, because I wouldn't be where I am without them. I'm a college dropout who started over from scratch, eventually moved to the US, and built a career in tech with no traditional script to follow. Along the way, the moments that changed everything weren't really about strategy as much as they were about someone believing in me before I believed in myself, whether that was a stranger I waited tables for who handed me my first internship, or a manager who championed my voice when I didn't yet trust it. I've spent my career since then trying to be that person for someone else, and it's shown up in concrete ways. Mentoring career-changers at RitaXYZ, a venture studio I helped lead that builds products for minority small business owners. Helping a hesitant engineer on my team find the confidence to lead a $30M feature. Sitting with a small business owner in her pottery studio and realizing the real gap wasn't her talent, it was access to the right tools and support. Every one of those moments taught me the same thing: most people aren't missing ability, they're missing someone who believes in them early enough for it to matter. That's what I want this to be. Whether we're working through interview prep, your resume, or your overall strategy, I'm not just trying to help you check a box — I want to help you see your own story as clearly as I eventually learned to see mine, so you walk in knowing you belong there.
Work Experience
Head of Mobile (Product & Engineering)
Kickstarter
October 2024 - Present
• Championed a mobile-first strategy when leadership favored web; secured $4M in C-suite funding by leading research, competitive analysis, and technical prototyping that validated a 40% faster tech stack. • Drove $10M in revenue (+18% conversion) by architecting a cross-functional growth strategy across Brand, Insights, and Comms that redesigned the backer acquisition funnel to reduce friction. • Led and scaled a 12-person engineering team (from 6), owning iOS and Android product strategy to deliver a superior backer experience and exceed annual growth and engagement targets by 15% and 10%, respectively.
Senior Product Manager (Mobile)
Kickstarter
July 2023 - October 2024
Hiring Manager
• Led a cross-functional roadmap delivering 26 features in 15 months (vs. 18-24 typical), fueling 35% YoY mobile growth. • Built a product excellence framework adopted company-wide, prioritizing accessibility-first design and experimentation.
Senior Product Manager, Hotels Marketplace
Hopper
January 2023 - May 2023
• Led the 0→1 development of a video-based social feed for the hotels marketplace, creating a new, creator-driven approach to travel discovery. • Partnered with a cross-functional team of 6 to design and launch the MVP, introducing a rewards model for both video creators and consumers.
Product Manager (Reels)
Meta
January 2022 - January 2023
Admissions Committee
• Owned Reels creator experience strategy for 150 countries (~1B users), leading a 25-person team across Engineering, Design, Data Science, and International Operations to shape global product quality. • Pioneered a net-new task-tracking system that improved bug-fix efficiency by 25% for 350+ users, streamlining workflows and enhancing cross-functional collaboration across Customer Support, Operations, and Engineering. • Co-founded Meta’s first Accessibility Hackathon, mobilizing 200+ employees to launch 14 new accessibility features that embedded inclusive design into Meta’s company-wide product culture.
Product Strategy & Operations Lead
Meta
December 2020 - January 2022
Admissions Committee
• Drove product quality and new feature launches for Messenger and Instagram, elevating AR and in-call shared experiences with enhancements to Filters, Watch Together, and Screen Sharing.
Product Analyst
Walmart eCommerce
August 2019 - January 2021
Interviewer
• Owned P&L for a $58M e-commerce category; advocated for emerging brand partnerships initially dismissed, personally negotiating 15+ deals that drove 82% YoY growth and repositioned Walmart's premium offerings.
Tan was also given offers to work at
Pinterest
Google
Upside
TikTok
Education
Harvard Business School
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
2026 - 2028
Incoming MBA Candidate, Class of 2028 at Harvard Business School
University of California, Davis
Bachelor of Arts - BA, Double Major - Psychology and Communications
Grade: Summa Cum Laude Activities and societies: President of The Spokes (UC Davis' Premier All-Female A Cappella Group), Prytanean Women's Honor Society, Davis Women in Business, Golden Key International Honors Society, National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), Gender and Communications: Study Abroad UK
Tan was also personally admitted to
Stanford Graduate School of Business