Radu Irava, Product Manager in Bucharest, Romania
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Radu Irava

Bio

Radu is a business and product leader with 15 years of experience in the software world. He's worked with over a dozen tech companies, from B2C to B2B, web to mobile, and 1 to 100,000 employees. Passionate about business growth, Radu has contributed to the acquisition of two companies for more than $150 million. He loves Toptal projects as they keep him challenged and excited and allow him to explore various industries, fields, and products.

Project Highlights

Expertise

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Growth Strategy
  • New Product Development
  • Product Growth
  • Product Management
  • Product Strategy
  • Startups
  • User Experience (UX)

Work Experience

Product Manager - Growth, AI, and Data

2016 - PRESENT
Product Devel
  • Helped established businesses ($10+ million a year revenue) and well-funded startups to grow their revenue and profit.
  • Led and managed operations across the org, including product, engineering, customer success, marketing, and sales.
  • Helped businesses grow and innovate. Delivered advanced product reviews.
  • Coached aspiring and junior product managers. Built product departments.
  • Consulted with early-stage startups in the customer discovery phase.

Product Manager, Enterprise - AI, Data, and Personalization

2024 - 2025
Babbel
  • Built a multi-agent AI system for a major language learning company (100+ million users, $100+ million revenue, and 1,000+ employees) that transforms static textbook lessons into personalized conversational learning experiences using specialized AI agents.
  • Built and grew an AI conversational tutor using OpenAI technology.
  • Created a highly personalized user experience using customer and product data (tens of data points).
  • Built an accompanying AI avatar tutor using proprietary technology.

Product Manager, Enterprise - AI and Data

2023 - 2024
Stealth Startup
  • Developed an AI chatbot for two major logistics companies ($100+ million revenue and 1,000+ employees each) that translates natural language queries into SQL commands, eliminating weeks-long delays for data insights and democratizing database access.
  • Developed LangChain, models, prompts, parsers, memory, chains, agents, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), document loaders, document splitting, vector stores, embeddings, and retrieval.
  • Worked on generative AI, prompt engineering, OpenAI API, evaluation, question answering, chatbots, iterative prompt development, summarization, inference, sentiment classification, topic extraction, transformation, and expansion.
  • Contributed to creating LLMs, chat format, tokens, classification, moderation, chain-of-thought reasoning, chaining prompts, and outputs.

Head of Product | General Manager

2019 - 2023
SureSwift Capital
  • Focused on business growth and scaling through pricing optimization and a product-led lens. Reduced churn, improved trial to paid conversion rate, acquisition, and everything else needed.
  • Created and implemented the product development process for the entire portfolio of software companies.
  • Achieved single-digit revenue growth across the portfolio consistently.
  • Delivered double-digit return on investment (ROI) to investors consistently.

Growth Product Manager

2021 - 2022
Scalers
  • Created a business and a product growth strategy.
  • Coached C-level executives on matters of product, growth, and operations.
  • Provided coaching to junior-level product managers, product analysts, and growth specialists.

Product Manager for Internal Tools

2019 - 2019
HungerStation
  • Created internal content management tools to optimize operational processes.
  • Performed user interviews with internal employees.
  • Managed external design and development agency team members.

Product Manager for Programmatic Advertising

2017 - 2018
AdsWizz (acquired by Pandora)
  • Researched customers' needs for three of the company's products. Understood market needs, analyzed competitive solutions, and foresaw market evolution to drive product iteration with execs and engineering.
  • Kept an eye on the capability of competitors' products and strove to differentiate. Worked with product designers to analyze user behavior and better drive UX iteration.
  • Worked with the marketing team to articulate launch timing and produce marketing collateral. Gave a persuasive and fact-backed picture of the roadmap to senior leaders and end-users of the product.
  • Reported directly to the VP of Product. Defined strategy, requirements, and roadmap for three of the company's products.
  • Built and executed product roadmaps. Made sure anyone could answer the "Why are we doing this?" question.
  • Worked with distributed teams which means being autonomous in executing product vision. Ensured product vision is shared across engineering, business, and operations teams.
  • Served as the single point of contact for tech, business, and operation teams for all things product. Instilled confidence in the engineering teams and a sense of what is required from a back-end and UX perspective.

Product Manager for Mobile Platforms

2015 - 2017
Fashion Days (acquired by eMag)
  • Drove the ideation, development, and launch of native (iOS, Android) across all major mobile platforms and devices.
  • Produced functional and design specifications, mockups, prototypes, scenarios, and task flows for new features and functions.
  • Collaborated with design and engineering teams daily and in all phases of product development.
  • Maintained a deep, holistic understanding of the mobile user experience, e.g.user behavior, technology, context, and the market landscape to adjust the product path accordingly.
  • Integrated customer feedback, business metrics, research, and opportunities into product requirements to enhance user satisfaction and sales.
  • Established a shared mobile vision and strategy across the company by building consensus on priorities leading to product execution.
  • Understood the technical architecture of complex and highly scalable media products.
  • Maximized efficiency in a constantly evolving environment where the process is fluid and creative solutions are the norm.
  • Consolidated the strategic position by delivering products that adhere to the company's quality standards and raise the bar for competitors.

Software Engineer | Business Analyst

2015 - 2015
PhaseFour
  • Defined the scope, current functionalities, and further development possibilities of Bitcoin mobile payment apps for international customers.
  • Developed use cases, functional designs, and wireframes of Bitcoin mobile payment apps for international customers.
  • Created financial offers and time estimations. Managed the planning of consultancy and development projects on Bitcoin mobile payment apps for international customers.
  • Designed mobile services based on digital currency payments for the Internet of Things.
  • Designed a proximity payment mobile app using Ripple protocol and Beacons with BLE technology.
  • Developed an MVP for a demo with representatives of companies from the financial industry, including the top three banks in the Netherlands, that resulted in leads and prospects.

Software Engineer | Business Analyst

2015 - 2015
Philips
  • Designed platform services based on indoor localization.
  • Developed game-theoretic models to incentivize user participation in location-based services for marketing activities (cross-selling, up-selling) in the retail industry.
  • Developed business models for indoor positioning services based on visible light communication technology in the retail industry.

Software Engineer | Business Analyst

2014 - 2015
ORTEC
  • Provided requirements engineering of an automated tool that replaced the department's hardware and software monitoring practices, stored checks' results in a database, and presented them in real time on a web-based dashboard.
  • Extended and customized an existing open-source monitoring solution written in C#, configuring it with the department policy, testing, and deploying it.
  • Created standardized SQL-based reports using MS Report Builder.

Software Engineer | Business Analyst

2011 - 2014
ORTEC
  • Met with clients to determine their goals and requirements. Planned timescales and the resources needed.
  • Elaborated technical and financial offers depending on customers' requirements. Coordinated a team of 1 developer and 16 data analysts for implementing customer-specific projects.
  • Provided support and training to customers. Delivered presentations and demos of the company's solutions at customers' sites.
  • Participated in internal sales meetings to improve short-term and long-term strategies.
  • Designed, implemented, and tested new functionality, debugged and fixed existing functionality. Optimized and documented source code for re-usability purposes.
  • Developed complex GUI modules in an MVC pattern. Aggregated big data by writing mathematical algorithms and creating charts, graphs, heat maps, and radars.
  • Used Eclipse to create WSDL files and generate class structures. Created and configured SOAP web services.
  • Created customer-specific XML Query-based reports using MS Report Builder.

Data Analyst

2010 - 2011
ORTEC
  • Extracted and analyzed statistical data from football matches. Updated and administered the database.
  • Provided improvement suggestions to the development team. Tested applications and reported bugs.
  • Collaborated with global analysts teams. Communicated information to the technical staff of football teams, specifically Ajax, Feyenoord, etc., and media, like De Telegraaf, NOS, etc.

Project History

The Google Adwords for Audio

https://www.audiogo.com/

Created a new product line in the digital audio advertising industry and grew the web platform.

I created a new product line in the digital audio advertising industry. This focused on product-led growth as opposed to direct sales, and its growth contributed to the company’s 9-figure acquisition.

The Fastest Growing Mobile Apps

https://fashiondays.com/

Exponentially grew the fashion eCommerce brand via its mobile apps, contributing to the company's acquisition.

I exponentially grew the fashion eCommerce brand via its mobile apps, contributing to the company’s acquisition. The company became the biggest online fashion player in Central and Eastern Europe.

Purple Protocol

Organized development and design teams to build landing page and MVP.

Oversaw business case, operational plan, pitch deck, investor meetings, and negotiations. The activities resulted in being offered an investment of 600,000 EUR from a strategic investor with experience in the blockchain industry.

cv30

Managed overall product review.

▪ Oversaw landing pages structure and content.
▪ Handled mechanism design for beta release.

Chat2it

Developed an MVP for a mobile application with a unique communication concept.

▪ Defined the product and refined it based on market opportunities.
▪ Provided requirements engineering for mobile apps and complex back-end systems.
▪ Managed communication with software development partners.
▪ Contributed to sales and marketing strategy.

AVA360

Built a prototype for a web-based visual management tool using 3D spherical camera technology.

Built a prototype for a web-based visual management tool using 3D spherical camera technology. The software was helping users in the marine shipping and transportation industry with inventory management.

Multi-AI Agents for Language Learning

The project represented a sophisticated evolution in personalized language education for a major language learning business (eight figures in users, nine figures in revenue, and four figures employee count). I developed a multi-agent AI architecture using the CrewAI framework to transform the traditional textbook-like learning experience into something more dynamic and conversational.

The system ingeniously integrated multiple data sources, including user onboarding forms, self-assessments, lesson analytics, and performance data, to create a highly personalized chatbot that could handle real-world learning scenarios. The architecture featured specialized agents with distinct roles, including motivational agents and task-specific agents, all orchestrated by a main agent that would parse user queries and delegate different components to appropriate sub-agents. During the initial rollout, the team implemented human-in-the-loop validation to ensure accuracy and reliability, ultimately creating a learning experience that felt more like having a knowledgeable conversation partner rather than working through static educational content.

Built a multi-agent AI system for a major language learning company (100+ million users, $100+ million revenue, and 1,000+ employees) that transforms static textbook lessons into personalized conversational learning experiences using specialized AI agents.

AI Chat-with-database Enterprise Solution

The project emerged from a collaboration between two general managers from major logistics companies and me (9-figure revenue each and 4-figure employee count each). The GMs and their senior executives faced a critical operational bottleneck. Business teams requiring data insights were experiencing weeks-long delays as all requests had to be routed through technical teams for database queries and analysis.

To solve this problem, I developed a sophisticated chatbot solution using LangChain and OpenAI. It could accept natural language queries from business users and automatically translate them into SQL commands, execute them against the company’s ERP database, and return results in an easily digestible format. The roll out started with setting up pilots and and resulted in full implementations at both logistics companies, demonstrating the significant value and impact of democratizing data access across non-technical business functions.

Developed an AI chatbot for two major logistics companies ($100+ million revenue and 1,000+ employees each) that translates natural language queries into SQL commands, eliminating weeks-long delays for data insights and democratizing database access.

Education

2013 - 2015

Master of Science Degree in Management of Technology

Delft University of Technology - Delft, Netherlands

2009 - 2013

Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Information Technology

University of Bucharest - Bucharest, Romania

Certifications

JULY 2023 - PRESENT

Multi AI Agent Systems with crewAI

DeepLearning.AI

JULY 2023 - PRESENT

LangChain for LLM Application Development

DeepLearning.AI

JULY 2023 - PRESENT

LangChain Chat with Your Data

DeepLearning.AI

JULY 2023 - PRESENT

Building Systems with the ChatGPT API

DeepLearning.AI

MARCH 2021 - PRESENT

Effective Listening

LinkedIn

DECEMBER 2018 - PRESENT

Building Resilience

LinkedIn

DECEMBER 2018 - PRESENT

Persuasive Selling

LinkedIn

NOVEMBER 2018 - PRESENT

Startup School

YCombinator

NOVEMBER 2018 - PRESENT

Humor in the Workplace

LinkedIn

NOVEMBER 2018 - PRESENT

Developing Political Savvy

LinkedIn

NOVEMBER 2018 - PRESENT

Communication for Product Manager

LinkedIn

Skills

Tools

Trello, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Analytics, Jira, Confluence, Slack, Zoom, Claude, Zapier, Asana, Firebase Analytics, Tableau, Crashlytics, n8n

Paradigms

Agile, Kanban, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Key Performance Metrics, Agile Product Management, Agile Workflow, Design Thinking, Mobile App Design, Rapid Prototyping, Marketplace Platforms, Scrum, Quantitative Research, Change Management, Human-centered Design (HCD), B2C, Gamification

Industry Expertise

Consumer Finance, Consumer Products, Education Technology (Edtech), Premium Content Subscriptions, Banking & Finance, Insurance, Sports, Product Ideation, Telecommunications, Venture Capital, Renewable Energy, Agriculture, Sustainability, Financial Services

Platforms

Mixpanel, Docker

Other

Strategy, SaaS, Dashboards, Data Analysis, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Product Growth, Android, iOS, eCommerce, Functional Requirements, Technology Trends, Requirements, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Business Cases, Annual Budgets, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Customer Interviews, User Journeys, Market Research & Analysis, Pricing Models, New Product Development, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Customer Research, Critical Thinking, Lean Startups, Analysis, Requirements & Specifications, IT Strategy, Process Optimization, Customer Development, User Experience (UX), Remote Work, Documentation, Business Requirements, Design, Process Improvement, Startups, Early-stage Startups, Startup Growth Strategy Development, Innovation, Customer Experience, Digital Strategy, User Requirements, Project Management, Distributed Team Management, IT Project Management, Business Models, Growth Strategy, Team Management, Product Strategy, Product Management, Data Analytics, Management, Use Cases, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Teamwork, Windows, Microsoft Excel, Analytics, Apps, Mobile Apps, Business Analysis, Product Roadmaps, Go-to-market Plans, User Research, Product Design, Product Frameworks, Product Ownership, Product Discovery, Product Delivery, Travel Product Manager, Fashion & Beauty, Google Sheets, Product Owner, Web Applications, User Onboarding, Journey Mapping, Software as a Service (SaaS), Best Practices, Business Strategy, Business, Chief Product Officer (CPO), Digital Experience Design, Platforms, Global Product Management, Product Planning, Product Vision, Digital Product Management, Creative Thinking, Conceptualization, Ideation, Feature Prioritization, Planning, Mentorship & Coaching, Agile Leadership, Product Development, Pricing, Pricing Strategy, Product Positioning, Technical Product Management, Mobile App Development, Monetization Models, Mobile Applications, Business to Business (B2B), Customer Insights, Corporate Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), B2B Product Management, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), App Development, Product Leadership, Operating Models, Dynamic Pricing, Project Consultancy, Product Consultant, Financial Modeling, Feature Roadmaps, Web & Mobile Applications, Data Reporting, Cross-departmental Collaboration, Iteration Management, Language Learning, Global Operations, Operational Risk, Digital Production, Artificial Intelligence (AI), SaaS Product Management, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Business Transformation Project Management, Client Management, Program Management, Software Development, General Management, Cross-functional Collaboration, AI Agents, API Integration, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Agile Program Management, Data Collection, Data Products, Data Science Product Manager, Data Strategy, Digital Product Development, Personalization, User Interface (UI), Coaching, Operational Efficiency Improvement, AI Product Management, Scrum Master, User Stories, Web Product Management, Technical Strategy, Custom Automation, Emerging Tech Evaluation, Product Innovation, R&D, Solution Architecture, Tech Research & Evaluation, Technology Advising, Mobile, Executive Consulting, Backlog Management, Data Management, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure, Large-scale Systems, System Design, Technical Architecture, Technical Consulting, Vendor Management, Chatbots, Cloud, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), MVP Design, Two-sided Marketplaces, Conversational AI, NotebookLM, Legal Technology (Legaltech), Web Platforms, User Workflows, AI Automation, User Experience Design, Architecture, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Design, Process Analysis, Workflow Diagrams, Business Process Re-engineering, Knowledge Management, Computer Science, Data Extraction, Data Processing, SQL, Agile Project Management, Delivery Management, Advertising Technology (Adtech), Internet of Things (IoT), Digital Project Management, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), People Management, Negotiation, Marketing, Communication, Presentations, Leadership, Writing & Editing, Product Launch, Market Research, Market Fit, Growth Marketing, Amplitude, Product Marketing, Management Consulting, Service Blueprints, Customer Acquisition, Funnel Analysis, Funnel Optimization, Digital Marketing, Funnel Marketing, Fintech, User Interviews, Product Mapping, User Feedback, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategies, Stakeholder Management, Agile Coaching, Go-to-market Optimization, Market Entry, Minimum Marketable Product (MMP), Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, Positioning, Business Transformation, Target Operating Models, TOM, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Quality Assurance (QA), Business to Consumer (B2C), Continuous Discovery, Discovery, Content Strategy, Multi-sided Marketplaces, Machine Learning, Large Language Models (LLMs), Product Research, Security Software Development, Community, Social Media, AI Tool Assessment, Brand Development, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), Machine Learning, AI Integration, HTML, Code Review, Revenue Strategy, Revenue Management, Revenue Optimization, Revenue & Expense Projections, Profit & Loss (P&L), Growth, Growth Hacking, Dashboard Design, Data Visualization, Data-driven Decision-making, Strategic Planning & Execution, Education, Education Product Manager, Cryptocurrency Wallets, Enterprise SaaS, A/B Testing, Onboarding, Market Segmentation, Web, Production Management, Teams, Excel 2013, Sales, Politics, Solar, Kubernetes, Natural Language Processing (NLP), PyTorch, Retrieval-augmented Generation (RAG), TensorFlow, Enterprise, Edge Computing

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