Ram Sankar joins Columbia Road

Our design team just got ramped up a notch – Ram Sankar joins us from one of the hottest startups in Finland, Smartly.io. He’s a graphic designer by education and a brand god by nature. He’s been classically trained in India, but got inspired by a Bloomberg article about Aalto’s IDBM program and decided to study for his Master’s in Finland. Which is quite fitting for a guy who’s resume reads building apps for legacy Nokia phones.

Ram is one those people who is naturally interested in everything that surrounds him. He’s a magician of a designer, both in graphic and user interface. He’ll take product images, build apps or create animations if need be. Ram boasts a vast experience in building great brands, such as Finnish startup pets Blaast and Epic Foods.

“After working in startups for some time I got interested in how labor heavy services could also be digitalized and how e-commerce can be introduced to big B2B players. I personally buy everything online and wanted to become part of the change that’s now happening in the field. I strongly believe that all items can and will become e-commerce items, supported by showrooms with a curated set of products,“ Ram muses.

“Ram is one the staple design strategist in the startup scene and we wanted to leverage that knowledge of building a brand and constant design development for our customers. It’s crucial our consultants and designers have a deep understanding of the laws of business and Ram certainly delivers in having a strategic view on design. We’re also quite happy that he’s familiar with front-end coding,“ says Sampo Hämäläinen, Founding Partner of Columbia Road.