Makarand Rajapkar
About/My story

I was a user before I became a designer.

Makarand Rajapkar

Hi, I'm Makarand Rajapkar, a product designer in Mumbai. Before design, I spent twelve years in finance: as an officer, a consultant and a business owner. That taught me how real people work, where they get stuck and how products behave in the real world.

Today I'm a Product Designer at MarketsMojo and co-founder of Bunny, an app for financial advisors. I use research, user feedback and data to decide what to build. Then I use AI to turn those decisions into working products and prototypes. I don't just hand over screens. I build what I design.

It started early. At fourteen, I wired an old CD player into a toy car, with no tutorial and nobody to ask. It didn't work the way I imagined, but I had built what I needed. I've been doing a version of that ever since.

Based in
Mumbai, India
Languages
English, हिंदी, मराठी
Certificates
Google UX Design · Google AI Essentials
Tools
Figma, Photoshop, Excel, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini

Résumé (PDF) ↗ Contact →

How I thinkHow I got here
How I think

I connect the dots.

I'm not a hardcore developer, a top-level UI specialist or a heavy graphic designer. My strength is knowing what a problem needs, and bringing together the right people and the right technology to solve it.

Swipe the map →

How I got here

How I got here.

Childhood

First build

I wanted a remote-control car, but we couldn't afford one. So I wired an old CD player into a toy car to make it move. It wasn't perfect, but I was hooked on making things work.

College

Commerce, and design on the side

I studied commerce, then took a Desktop Publishing course out of curiosity. I edited photos for fun, designed banners for college events and ran a quiz competition called Quizzard.

2013

Accounts and finance

My first job paid the bills but wasn't my dream. I spent my free time with the IT team, learning whatever I could.

2013–17

Finance software

I helped roll out and improve SAP and ERP systems. It was my first real look at what users need from software.

2017–19

Wadhwa Group, ERP team

I joined the ERP development team. I worked out how accounting entries flowed into reports and databases, and designed systems that made the finance team's work easier. My first real UX project, before I knew the word.

2019–24

My own consulting business

I left finance to build things. I helped small brands grow online: I designed their websites and apps and worked with developers to build them, along with finance tools and business strategy.

Top 30Amazon shirt category, within 6 months
₹46 lakhTurnover for one offline clothing brand
2020

My first client UI/UX project

A fixed asset module for a customised ERP software. I designed the screens and the database logic behind them, then worked with the developers to build it.

2022

Design, formally

Google UX Design Certificate with three projects, then a mentored bootcamp.

2024

Building with AI

AI closed the gap between what I could design and what I could build. My ideas stopped ending as pictures.

2025

Hackathon, ranked 7th in India

TuteDude UI/UX Hackathon: an e-commerce app, designed as a team against the clock.

7thRank, all over India
200Teams competing
Now

Product Designer, MarketsMojo

I design and build products full time, and co-founded Bunny.