Ash Agarwal
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Chicago, IL, United States
Toptal member since October 21, 2021
Ash has built businesses from scratch and has led product design, development, pricing, and commercialization. He's made and scaled high functioning products and marketing teams that scaled more than $30 million ARR businesses. Ash raised venture funds from several investors in North America and built financial models and pitch decks. Ash is a storyteller and narrative creator, and he's taught public speaking at Stanford University for three years now.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- B2B Sales Pipeline
- Growth Hacking
- Market Entry
- Pitch Decks
- Product Strategy
- Startup Funding
- Startups
- Strategy
Work Experience
Chief Executive Officer
Symboticware
- Managed fundraising, new products, and new market entry, leading to a team growth of 40%.
- Started and scaled the entire mining and manufacturing vertical for the AI-enabled software.
- Led, as the managing director, a cross-functional team of product managers, UI/UX designers, developers, data scientists, sales, and marketing.
Vice President
Uptake
- Founded and scaled a new business vertical by leading a cross-functional product, data science, sales, marketing, UX, and engineering team.
- Trained and mentored the UX, product, and data science team to define, build, and deploy AI-enabled software. We utilized the subject matter experts to translate the business requirements into specific data science algorithms and product features.
- Conducted design thinking sessions across South and North America to capture user needs. The feedback was put into an empathy map, a value proposition canvas, and a business model canvas to determine the feasibility and viability of the business.
- Led go-to-market efforts with sales and marketing professionals to enter new markets by defining and developing aggressive growth hacking strategies.
Founder and CEO
Predicity
- Signed up two pilots with one of the largest companies in the USA and Canada within six months of founding the startup Predicity. It was the semi-finalist in BASES—Stanford's University-wide startup competition.
- Developed a business plan, product roadmap, investment deck, and financial model.
- Pitched to more than a dozen investors and negotiated a deal with Sequoia Capital.
Senior Product Manager and Sales
Metso
- Conceptualized, designed, and launched new products suitable for a price-sensitive market area.
- Started the first pre-sales function in the company by hiring and mentoring pre-sales and product engineers. Helped other countries set up similar functions. The proposal's response rate increased by 75% and the bid success rate went up by 25%.
- Entered two new market areas—cement and specialty industrial minerals—successfully with the same products by redefining product features, establishing new branding, and developing a new pricing strategy.
- Built a market sizing, go-to-market strategy, and overall business plan to secure the new products and market area budget. Delivered greater returns on investments in a shorter time frame.
Associate Production and Projects Manager
Vedanta Resources
- Led a team of 11 engineers to complete three $35 million capital projects within a timeframe, budget, and safety requirements.
- Managed an end-to-end project's lifecycle from conceptualization and budgeting to execution, monitoring, control, and handover. Conducted feasibility study, cost estimation, and budget to get the board's approval on the capital investment.
- Managed 30 full-time employees and 900 contract workers to manage various aspects of projects, including planning, civil and structural construction, equipment installation and commissioning, and operation.
Project History
Go-to-market Strategy for an AI-enabled Software
Led a team of product, data science, UX, sales, and marketing professionals to develop and execute the overall go-to-market strategy for a new AI software product
I led a cross-functional team of sales, marketing, product, UX, and data science functions to define, build, and execute the overall market entry strategy for South America, North America, Australia, and Asia.
Built an AI Software
I built the industry's first AI-enabled predictive analytics software from scratch, utilizing unsupervised and supervised machine learning models.
I led a large team to execute the entire development of the product's lifecycle and finally led the product marketing initiatives to promote and commercialize.
$3 million ARR in three years across South America, North America, and Australia.
Venture Capital Investment
Built an investment deck, financial model, and investors' pipeline across North America to raise first-ever equity investment for a 13-year-old company
Education
Master's Degree in Business Management
Stanford Graduate School of Business - Palo Alto, CA, United States
Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering
National Institute of Technology - Punjab, India
Certifications
Business Administration Certification
Aalto University
Skills
Tools
Figma, Jira
Paradigms
Agile Product Management, B2B2C, Kanban, Requirements Analysis, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Agile, Scrum, B2C, Marketplace Platforms
Platforms
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Industry Expertise
Venture Capital, Marketplaces, Luxury Goods
Other
Product Strategy, New Products, Strategy, Business to Business (B2B), Startup Funding, Product Marketing, Brand Management, Growth Hacking, Market Entry, B2B Sales Pipeline, Lean Startups, General Management, Leadership, Team Leadership, Sales, Fundraising, Pitch Decks, Startups, B2B, Ideation, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), MVP Design, User Interface (UI), Product Planning, UX Design, UI Design, User Experience (UX), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Product Management, Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science Product Manager, Training, Cloud, Lean Manufacturing, Manufacturing Project Management, Product Roadmaps, Go-to-market Plans, Go-to-market Strategy, Product Leadership, Product Strategy Consultant, Manufacturing, Product Owner, Product Ownership, Benchmarking, Lean UX, Customer Journeys, Market Research, Requirements, Minimum Marketable Product (MMP), Requirements & Specifications, User Research, User Personas, Integration, Technical Product Management, Management, Mobile Apps, Fleet Management, Geolocation, Internet of Things (IoT), Mobility, Operations, Growth, Growth Strategy, Lean, User Stories, Process Improvement, SaaS Product Management, Product Design, Product Discovery, Consulting, Discovery Workshops, Early-stage Startups, New Product Development, Product Vision, Recruitment, Startup Consulting, Startup Growth Strategy Development, Technical Recruiting, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software, Technical Consulting, Growth Marketing, Growth Marketing Product Manager, Product Growth, Agile Sprints, Feature Backlog Prioritization, SaaS, B2B Product Management, Backlog Grooming, Business Requirements, Communication, Cross-departmental Collaboration, Cross-functional Collaboration, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Enterprise SaaS, Feature Roadmaps, Feature Planning, Feature Prioritization, Functional Requirements, Planning, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Quality Assurance (QA), Software as a Service (SaaS), Software QA, Sprint Planning, Sprint Retrospectives, Sprints, Stakeholder Interviews, System Requirements, Technical Requirements, User Requirements, Story Mapping, Video Capture, User Retention, Business Coaching, Coaching, Business Proposals, Technical Writing, Sales Presentations, Client Presentations, Presentations, Business Development, Pitch Presentations, Investor Presentations, Market Research & Analysis, Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, Digital Product Management, Proof of Concept (POC), Sales Effectiveness, Customer Analysis, Marketing Strategy, Multi-channel, Business Consulting, Roadmaps, Product Launch, eCommerce, Software Requirements Specifications (SRS), Business to Consumer (B2C), Consumer Applications, Multi-sided Marketplaces, Two-sided Marketplaces, Digital Video, Video Editing, Marketing Technology (MarTech), Software Development, Solution Architecture, Tech Sales, Marketing, B2B Partnerships, Financing, Equity Financing, Business Strategy, Finance, New Products & Services, Product Development, Branding, Data Science, Human Resources (HR), Business Planning, Market Fit, Sales Growth, Project Management, Complex Program Management, Budgeting, Cost Modeling, Mechanical Engineering, Production, Education, Manufacturing Product Manager, Payroll & Benefits, Employee Benefits, SQL, Healthcare IT
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