Who I am
About.
I'm Harsha Kotthapalli. I've built product marketing functions from zero three times, across fintech, SaaS and marketplaces.
I started as an engineer. Four years at Nexen in Calgary running multi-million-dollar operational portfolios in a heavily regulated environment, where a decision without a written rationale wasn't a decision. That's where the systems habit comes from, and it's why I care more about what survives my departure than what I ship while I'm there.
An MBA at HEC Paris moved me into product marketing. Globcoin first, as founding product marketer for a blockchain financial product across five international markets. Then Acting CMO at Linagora in Paris, positioning open-source collaboration software as Europe's alternative to American and Chinese platforms.
Then a global maritime data business: MarineTraffic, and Kpler after the acquisition. I built the function from nothing, led four product marketers across four product lines, and took it through three acquisitions. Technical products, technical buyers: analysts, engineers, operations leads. The kind of product where the differentiation is real but hard to say out loud.
In 2024 I went through Antler in Dubai and co-founded WealthKarma, a retirement platform for GCC expats, with someone I'd met during the MBA. That year is why I take the "can your team actually run this" question seriously. On the other side of the table, a strategy you can't execute is worse than no strategy. It costs the same three weeks and leaves you with a document instead of a decision.
Since then: Payhaps, building the marketing function from zero for a UAE payments startup, and FoodVessel, taking a B2B marketplace into Saudi Arabia.
Based between Dubai and Barcelona, working across the EU and GCC.
I joined after you'd already set most of it up, and it was clear there was real thinking behind it. There was a shared way to talk about the products, defined segments, and actual playbooks to work from, which made onboarding into the role much easier. Not everything stayed perfect as things evolved, but the foundation held. The biggest difference for me was not having to figure things out from scratch and having a consistent way to approach launches and messaging across the team.
Sofia Tsekoura · Product Marketing Manager, MarineTraffic
How I work.
Systems, not assets. You keep the PMM Operating System. If your team can't run it after I leave, it isn't finished.
Judgment is the product. AI can research, draft and recommend. It can't own a trade-off.
Evidence over assertion. Every claim carries a source, or it's marked unproven.
Say who it's not for. Positioning that appeals to everyone appeals to nobody.
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