Exploring and Creating New Frontiers in Technology
I had the pleasure of interviewing Radha Amalraj. Radha has over 16 years of experience at large Tech organizations such as Meta, Google, Amazon, and Twitter as well as scaling up some Tech startups, and worked on setting up her own startup. She was managing Global Business Partnerships at Meta and is now Vice President of Sales at Immutable, a leading Web3 Gaming Technology company. She is based out of New York.
Fun Fact — Radha loves yoga and meditation and is an amateur hypnotist.
Radha has experimented across diverse functional areas such as general management, business development, sales, marketing, corporate development, and international expansion. She has also worked in global and regional roles in India, Singapore, Dubai, and the USA. Through her exploration, she has built her core expertise around setting up & scaling Internet businesses, specifically in E-commerce, Social Media and Digital Advertising. She has considerable experience in launching businesses as well as managing million-dollar businesses by bringing together cross-cultural, diverse teams and stakeholders.
Some of her notable stints have been managing the Ads business for Twitter across JAPAC for SMBs, managing E-commerce advertising for Google in the Middle East, North Africa, and India, and being a part of the core launch team of Amazon India.
Radha has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode and graduated in Electronics Engineering from Anna University.
How did you break into a career in tech?
Back in 2008 when I stepped into my first corporate job in an Education company, I had an opportunity to get exposed to an e-learning startup being incubated within and that got me fascinated by the world of internet and Technology. There has been no looking back since, and has resulted in my spending the past 15 years in the sector.
I continue to choose the Tech sector everyday since it offers a goldmine of possibilities and opportunities to our society and has brought about paradigm shifts in how humans live and operate. What this means for a career is a constantly evolving business landscape which requires blue sky thinking and truly innovative problem solving.
What has been your biggest challenge in your career?
The biggest challenge I faced was my stint at Entrepreneurship when I worked on setting up a short video technology platform in 2019. While I had worked in various technology scale-ups and had good exposure to tech startups, it was a completely different ball game setting up my own company. It just required a very different level of conviction and persistence to be able to focus on building while waking up everyday with more questions and doubts, than answers. While I didn’t pursue it for long, it has helped me develop a deep appreciation and understanding of entrepreneurship and what it takes to build a business from scratch.
What is it that most excites you about management?
Being an Engineer (and a University Topper in the largest Technical University in the world) by training, I chose Management given the real world problem solving possibilities it offers. I love the process of building something by bringing together people and creating the energy to win in the wake of many uncertainties!
If you had to share, “words of wisdom,” with a new management trainee who’s about to start their career, what would they be?
You can make an impact from Day 1! In today’s age of innovation, your fresh thinking is a huge advantage, hence think more about what you know and can do with that, than about what you don’t know.
Learn to play to your strengths and you will be playing to win!
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Linkedin would be the best channel for that. Here’s my profile — https://www.linkedin.com/in/radhaamalraj/
This was very insightful. Thank you so much for joining us!
