Antonis Podiotis

Antonis Podiotis

Product Manager for data-heavy products in maritime, logistics and marketplaces. 6+ years across a global enterprise, a software company and a marketplace I co-founded.

Open to remote roles, full-time or contract
See case studies Download CV
Live event data Sports timing, 2016–18 Routing data Fleet-planning platform, 2018–19 Logistics & maritime data Multinationals, 2019–23 Marketplace co-founder 2023–now
Antonis Podiotis

About me

Most of my career has been about data: live results at sports events, then location data for a routing platform, then maritime and supply-chain data at a global logistics company. Since 2023 I've been building my own marketplace, which taught me what it means to own every number yourself.

I'm based in Greece and have worked with teams across Europe and the US. Away from the desk, I've been a skipper for more than 10 years, and I captained my university basketball team.

Three kinds of environment

I've built products inside a global enterprise, for a specialist software company, and as a co-founder. Each asks for a different mix of structure and speed.

Global enterprise

One of the world's largest shipping and logistics companies

  • Led 5+ global programs across operations, logistics and IT
  • Owned the backlog for 3 agile teams
  • Managed people directly in both PM roles

Software company

A route-optimisation software company

  • Product management for a vehicle-routing and fleet-planning platform
  • Worked with engineers on routing algorithms and live location data
  • Python, C# and R stack

Co-founder

A B2B yachting marketplace

  • Built the product from zero to €300K+ annual revenue
  • 300+ bookings a year, 60%+ utilization
  • Lead a team of 4

Case studies

Three products, told as the decisions behind them rather than a list of features.

Co-founder, B2B yachting marketplace, 2023–now

Case study: building a B2B yachting marketplace from zero

Problem
A new company with nothing in place: every system and process had to be built from scratch
My role
Co-founder owning pricing and seasonality, the booking platform, API integrations, partnerships and AI automation. I manage a team of 4.
Outcome
€300K+ annual revenue, 300+ bookings a year, 60%+ utilization

The problem

We entered a competitive industry as a brand-new company. There was no platform, no partner network and no booking history, so everything had to be designed and built from the beginning.

What I decided

  • Connected the marketplace to OTAs and channel managers through APIs, so partners could see availability and prices without manual back-and-forth.
  • Made partner sign-up self-serve, with a free trial and a freemium tier, and tracked activation, churn and retention to see where partners dropped off.
  • Built partnerships with travel agents and OTAs, and set pricing and allocation around seasonality and booking data. Utilization now runs above 60%.
  • Deployed an AI assistant that answers customers on WhatsApp and builds a proper customer database as it goes, and used AI to analyse seasonality and occupancy.

What I chose not to do

Handing more of the workflow to AI bots. Many steps still depend on manual input and judgement, so I kept automation to the places where it clearly saves time and kept people on the rest.

How

Business cases with ROI projections, KPI dashboards in Excel and BI, email lifecycle campaigns for partner onboarding, and online payment processing for guest bookings.

What I'd do differently

When you build everything from scratch, everything feels urgent. I'd put distribution first, the channel and OTA integrations, because every other decision depends on bookings coming in.

Product Manager, global shipping and logistics company, 2021–23

Case study: automating supply-chain workflows across three agile teams

Problem
Manual internal tools and processes causing delays and unused capacity
My role
Product Manager owning the backlog and prioritisation for 3 agile teams, with direct reports. Engineering owned the build; operations and IT owned their processes.
Outcome
+10% utilization, 8% fewer delays year on year

The problem

Internal tools and processes behind planning and order workflows depended on manual steps across regions. That caused delays and left capacity unused.

What I decided

  • Prioritised one shared backlog across 3 agile teams against business value, rather than letting each team optimise locally.
  • Tested automation as pilots against a baseline before rolling out, so each change had evidence behind it.
  • When operations wanted speed and IT wanted more time, split delivery into phases: what shipped now and what followed later.

What I chose not to do

Automating many processes at once from the start. We went step by step, one process at a time, so each change was proven before the next and teams weren't overloaded.

How

We worked agile, in sprints across the three teams, with direction set through OKRs and business cases and priorities ranked by business value. Jira and Confluence for backlog, user stories, acceptance criteria, definition of done and release planning. Pilots against a baseline before each rollout. SQL and BI dashboards for KPIs. Root-cause analysis on execution bottlenecks. OKRs and business cases to align stakeholders across operations, logistics and IT.

What I'd do differently

Automation succeeds or fails on adoption more than on technology. I'd bring the people who use the internal tools into the pilots even earlier, so the rollout feels like theirs.

Route-optimisation software company, 2018–19

Case study: a routing platform built on live location data

Problem
Turning live location data into routes fleet operators could rely on
My role
Product manager for the platform: requirements and priorities. Engineers owned the algorithms and code.
Outcome
Client needs turned into requirements engineers could build and test against, and a working grounding in location data I've used in every data product since

The problem

Enterprise fleet operators needed plans that held up in the real world, not just on paper. That meant the platform had to handle live location and geospatial data reliably, not only produce a mathematically optimal route.

What I did

  • Turned client needs into technical requirements the engineers could build against.
  • Validated what shipped against those requirements, working through routing algorithms and datasets with the engineers.

How

Worked directly with engineers on routing algorithms and geospatial datasets, translating operational needs into technical requirements, on a Python, C# and R stack.

What I'd do differently

I'd spend time with the people who use the routes day to day even earlier. Most of what makes a route usable only shows up there.

Company names, fuller context and the numbers behind these cases are available in a walkthrough call.

Request a walkthrough

Other projects

Live timing data for large events

Ran 40+ event programs a year with 95%+ on-time execution, for events of up to 20,000 participants, on live timing and results data.

Supply-chain KPIs at a multinational

Monitored OTIF and inventory KPIs in SAP and BI tools, and worked with 3PL partners on root causes of delays.

Research on autonomous shipping

MSc thesis on autonomous shipping, port and intermodal innovation, with a ferry operator and an EU research project. Graded 12/12.

This website

Written as a product: content first, then design. Built with Claude and deployed on Vercel from GitHub.

How I work

Prioritising

I score work on value against effort, usually with RICE or MoSCoW, and make the trade-offs visible so teams can argue with the reasoning rather than the result.

With engineers

I don't write production code, but I understand the dependencies. I bring the problem and the constraints, and leave room for engineers to shape the solution.

With data

I check decisions against numbers: SQL for the question, dashboards for the trend, and a pilot against a baseline when the answer isn't obvious.

With AI

I use Claude, Claude Code and Cursor to research, prototype and draft specs faster. I also deployed an AI chatbot in production, and hold IBM's AI Product Management certification.

Remotely

Based in Greece (EET, UTC+2), I've worked with teams across Europe and the US. I write things down, keep decisions traceable, and overlap with both European and US working hours.

With people

I've managed people directly in enterprise and startup settings. I care most about clear ownership and about teams knowing why their work matters.

Skills

Each skill links to where it shows up in my work.

Hard skills

Product strategy and roadmaps
Business cases, OKRs, go-to-market. Marketplace, enterprise
Agile delivery
Backlog ownership, user stories, release planning in Jira and Confluence. Enterprise
Data and analytics
SQL, Excel, Power BI, SAP, pilot-versus-baseline tests. Enterprise
Integrations and platforms
OTA and channel-manager APIs, routing and geospatial data. Marketplace, routing
Pricing and growth
Data-driven pricing, activation and retention funnels. Marketplace
AI tools
Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, chatbot deployment. How I work

Soft skills

Stakeholder alignment
Operations, logistics and IT across regions. Enterprise
People management
Direct reports in enterprise and as a co-founder. About Experience
Working in ambiguity
Building a company from zero. Marketplace
Communicating across disciplines
Translating operational needs into technical requirements. Routing
Calm under pressure
Live events for up to 20,000 people. Other projects
Languages
Greek (native), English (fluent), German (beginner)

Voyage log

The full history. Company names are in my CV and on LinkedIn.

  1. 2023–nowCo-founder & Product ManagerB2B yachting marketplace
  2. 2021–2023Product ManagerGlobal shipping and logistics company, Copenhagen
  3. 2019–2021Logistics CoordinatorMultinational consumer-goods group, Copenhagen
  4. 2018–2019Product management, routing platformRoute-optimisation software company, Copenhagen
  5. 2016–2018Technical Program ManagerSports timing and events company, Athens
  6. 2014–2016International Sales AssistantPharmaceutical company, Thessaloniki
  7. 2013–2014Logistics CoordinatorNational defence, NATO environment
MSc Transport and Logistics
Technical University of Denmark
MSc Management
International Hellenic University
BSc Economics
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Certifications: AI Product Management (IBM), Agile and product training, PMP in progress.