With PhD in Quantitative Finance and a background in international banking and trade, Dr Ramin Takin isn’t your ‘typical’ entrepreneur. However by combining his learning from his time at the Business School and his corporate experience, he spotted a gap in the market to launch his own start-up. Parkway Logic Ltd was established in 2015 and launched exabler.com an online tool to streamline international sales, finance and operations. “With the aim of eliminating frictions of cross-border commerce and make it accessible to companies of all sizes to simplify international trade, this online tool offers a one-stop-shop to plan, cost, finance and deliver international orders,” Ramin explains.
Ramin started his career with Citigroup London in international banking before moving to the Dubai IFC, then an oil services firm. There he had a key role in cross-border deals, leading export financing, logistics and interfacing with small and large supply chain teams. This gave him first hand-experienced of the challenges that businesses face such as contract delivery deadlines, managing supply chain relationships and navigating the burdens of bureaucracy. With this experience and a PhD under his belt, he felt ready to take on his own start-up.
“After working in the UK and abroad for a few years, dealing with large and small organisations in many different commercial settings, I saw that international trade can be simplified – especially to make it accessible for smaller organisations,” says Ramin.
"I had my business idea, then it was all about finding the product-market fit, which is the greatest challenge of starting a new business. Translating your initial ideas and personal experiences to a product that speaks to a wider audience is the key to commercial success – so you have to get it right!"
Discussing the key learning points during the process Ramin explains that: “Launching was the usual roller-coaster that people talk about, but mostly it was a satisfying experience to engage with people with a new product that I could speak passionately about. I’ve learned that the customer is king! People in the industries we deal with all have serving their customer as their top priority, so it has to be ours too.”
“Plus you also need to get a good team together who complement your skills – be they your co-founders or external mentors and advisors.”
Reflecting on his time at the Business School Ramin said it taught him not to be afraid to take on big scale projects. “I did a PhD in Quantitative Finance, which taught me not to be afraid to take on multi-year projects or tackle new technologies being used in the ‘tech’ industry. My time at the Business School also opened doors to a career path that has allowed me to gain a broad range of experiences.”
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