Seeing the product the way the market does
Product marketing inspires me and challenges me more than anything else. It shows me a product the way customers see it, not the way we built it, and makes me answer where it really belongs and for whom.
Hi, I'm Abhiram Aravapalli
Business & Financing at VIRAS Solutions →
Taking AI lab automation to market, when I'm not singing.
I run marketing and finance at VIRAS Solutions, a Berlin startup building AI software that lets robots take over the repetitive work in diagnostic labs. Two roles that constantly disagree, and that's the point. Before that: analytics at ADP, marketing at za:media, and Evolvix, the AI product I built for my MBA thesis.
Berlin, Germany
MBA · IT Management
Electronics Engineering
What drives me
Where marketing meets finance.
Marketing says: grow, launch, make noise.
Finance asks: do we need it, and what does it return?
Most companies keep those two in different rooms. I get to hold both in one head, and it forces a better question than either asks alone: what actually moves the business?
The answer almost always comes back to positioning. The market doesn't buy the best product. It buys the one it understands, that fits its budget and solves a problem it feels.
Knowing what's worth doing
I like working out what's best for the company and what it actually needs. Every euro gets the same question: do we need it, and what does it return? Good numbers turn a strong idea into a company.
Owning it, and learning together
At VIRAS I own real decisions. Our team runs on a simple culture: let's learn together. We complement each other and respect each other's calls for the good of the company. It's what I admire most about us.
Approach
How I take on a hard problem.
Whether it's a funding plan, a go-to-market strategy or a product, I work through the same four steps.
01
AskMapBreak down
Understand it, brick by brick
I start by making sure I understand the real problem, then break it into small pieces I can actually work on.
A big problem is just small ones stacked up.
02
ResearchToolsPrior work
Look at what already exists
Has anyone had this problem before? What did they try? Which of today's tools and technology can already solve part of it?
No need to reinvent what works.
03
MarketTimingFuture
Check that it matters
Is this problem relevant to the market today, and will it still matter in a few years? If not, it's not worth solving yet.
Right problem, right time.
04
UserSimplifyDeliver
Make it simple to use
I think it through from the user's side and turn the complex thing into a simple solution that's easy to use and easy to handle.
Complex inside, simple outside.
Two sides
Serious about the work. Fun off the clock.
Both are me. Start wherever you like.
Experience
How I got here
From electronics to ADP, za:media, an MBA and now a robotics startup. The path, the roles and the tools I picked up.
Read → Case studiesThe work, in numbers
Five stories, from a hackathon ambulance system to a robotics startup, and the numbers behind them.
Read → Off the clockThe rest of me
Singing, cricket, travel and the things I do when I'm not thinking about go-to-market plans.
Read →