Siddharth Pachpor

Siddharth Pachpor

Founder of IAC: AI platform helping pre-seed investors evaluate founders (stealth).

Founder of Wallnuss: community for Germany's top 5 management schools (stealth).

MBA @ Frankfurt School · Exchange @ Stanford University, USA · M.Sc. TU Berlin, Germany

AI Product ManagementStrategy ConsultingBusiness Development

Research

Research

2026

“How AI Agents Reshape Product Strategy, Growth and Value Capture in SaaS Businesses”

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management · Stanford University ecosystem, USA · MBA thesis · Paper in preparation

If a vendor charges per user and its AI agent replaces those users, the vendor earns less as the product gets better. I call this the seat trap.

My thesis asks when AI vendors should move away from per-seat pricing, and what has to be true first.

  • Pricing strategy for AI products
  • Stanford ecosystem
  • Product management
  • Product strategy
  • SaaS business models
  • Agentic AI
  • Value capture and monetisation
  • Customer and market research

The seat trap, in one slider

Example: one customer with 10 users at €100 per seat per month.

7 people still pay for a seat · the AI agent does 3 people's work

Vendor revenue from this customer, per month

Charging per seat (€100 × seats left)€700
Charging per job (€110 × jobs the agent does)€330

Seat pricing still earns more, but the vendor has already lost €300 a month in seats.

Illustrative prices to show the idea. Thesis results are shared after publication.

2022

AI Digital Twin

RWTH Aachen University, Germany · PEM · Research · M.Sc. TU Berlin, Germany

Problem: Battery makers only see quality problems once the cell is finished, when the cost of scrap has already been paid.

Value: In a research collaboration between TU Berlin, Germany, and RWTH Aachen University, Germany, I built an AI digital twin that predicts cell quality from production data. It combines a physics-based cell model with a machine-learning model, was validated with an RMSE below 2% and contributed to a 3% quality improvement on the pilot line.

  • 3% quality improvement on the pilot line
  • RMSE below 2%
  • TU Berlin x RWTH Aachen
  • Python
  • MATLAB
  • Machine learning
  • KPI definition
  • Data-driven decisions
Physical cellelectrode process dataAI + physics modelgrey box · machine learningDigital twinpredicted cell quality · KPIsQualityCapacityProcessAI DIGITAL TWIN · ILLUSTRATION

AI digital twin: architecture

Linking how electrodes are made to how cells perform

Physical production
Anode manufacturing
  • · experimental process data
Data layer
Interface variables
  • · process to product parameters
Data integration
  • · several sources
Models
Physics-based model

grey box

  • · electrochemical cell behaviour
Machine-learning model
  • · electrode to cell characteristics
  • · predicts optimised cell quality
Digital twin
Twin architecture
  • · cyber-physical systems design
KPIs
  • · monitor and assess performance
Master's thesis research at RWTH Aachen University, Germany (PEM)
Digital thickness gauge measuring dry electrode film in the labWet film thickness gauge used on the electrode coating line
Measuring dry and wet electrode thickness at the battery lab of RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Projects

Projects

ProcuDeal results page: EUR 2.21M modelled savings, opening cost EUR 17.49M, agreed cost EUR 15.28M, 12.62% lower total cost, 28 of 30 deals
Hackathon · 1st place2026

ProcuDeal: Supplier Negotiation Agent

Industrial Agents Hackathon by UVC Partners x Anthropic · Munich · Gold medal · Team of 2

An AI agent that negotiates with suppliers on its own: it reads their emails and offers, calculates the total cost of every contract, and decides when to counter, accept or walk away.

Built at the Industrial Agents Hackathon by UVC Partners x Anthropic, Munich 2026, where it won first prize (gold medal). I led the strategy and the pitch and worked on the code with my teammate.

  • Product management
  • 12.62% lower total cost
  • 28 of 30 cases closed
  • €2.21M modelled savings
FlowVerify Observation Lab running on a phlebotomy training video, with the WHO order-of-draw rail, tourniquet timer and protocol exceptions
Hackathon · Finalist2026

FlowVerify: Procedure Verification

Google DeepMind hackathon · Stanford University, USA · Finalist · AI-assisted build

Training staff to follow a written procedure is easy. Checking that they actually did is not. FlowVerify takes the WHO order of blood draw and checks a training video against it, frame by frame.

Built at the Google DeepMind hackathon at Stanford University, USA, in 2026, where it reached the final.

  • Product management
  • Model describes, rules decide
  • Cited violations
Im Netzwerk landing page: 'The real ranking begins after graduation', name and profile fields and a Scan mich €2 button
Fun app · Live2026

Im Netzwerk: Are You In?

Side project for Wallnuss · Satirical AI app · DACH

A satirical app for the DACH business crowd. You describe your own LinkedIn or Xing profile, and Claude turns it into an "archive card" that ranks you in ten tongue-in-cheek categories, with a famous match.

Built as a fun side app for the Wallnuss community. Live, with paid unlock.

  • Product management
  • Claude-powered
  • Paid unlock
  • Privacy by design
Frankfurt SchoolEntrepreneurship Centre
Step 1 of 8

The product spec and the planning request come in. The spec is shared with every agent.

Consulting project2026

Agentic AI Workflow Transformation

Pre-seed startup · TU Capital · MBA workshop · FS Entrepreneurship Centre

A pre-seed startup wanted to move product planning from manual handoffs to an agentic AI workflow. Program managers were spending hours turning product ideas into stories and tasks; the brief was a reusable workflow, not a chatbot.

A planner splits the goal into steps, a router sends each step to the right specialist agent, and every output is checked before it moves on.

  • Product management
  • Planner, router, 3 specialists
  • Evaluator on every step
Slackslack-case · retention dashboardcase data

~49%

retention plateau, week 8

96% → 73%

biggest drop after week 0

6.4% → 5.4%

monthly churn

$1.1k → $5.9k

LTV per monthly cohort

Retention: % of users active

Monthly churn and LTV

Case-scenario data from the workshop workbook, not Slack's actual metrics.

Consulting workshop2026

Growth Product Management Consulting

FS/Stanford MBA Case Consulting Workshop · Grade: S · Slack case

How do you keep users once they have signed up? In a Slack case I mapped the activation moments, then followed weekly user cohorts to see where retention breaks and what churn does to customer value.

On the case data, about half of users were still active after eight weeks, the biggest drop came right after the first week, and monthly churn fell while lifetime value per cohort rose.

  • Product management
  • Retention plateau ~49% by week 8
  • LTV per cohort $1.1k to $5.9k
InheritIQ
₿1PlanDraft the will in the app2RegisterEvery asset in one secure place3BridgeBridge loan for the heirsNotaries make it legally valid
Concept · Top 3 finalist2026

InheritIQ: Estate Planning Platform

MBA FS Fintech Pitch Competition · Top 3 finalist · Individual

Settling an estate in Germany can take one to two years and cost several percent of its value. Wealth managers' minimums leave most families out.

InheritIQ combines guided document creation, a digital register of assets and short-term loans against inherited assets, with notaries as partners for legal validity.

  • Product management
  • Business Model Canvas
  • Market sizing
  • Financial modelling
  • EU regulatory analysis
Value per Tiffany share ($)
Standalone DCF93.80EV/EBITDA, peer median93.03EV/EBIT, peer median101.69EV/Sales, peer median110.27Fair price, 70/30 synergy split145.21DCF, cost synergies only157.76DCF with all synergies168.20Market $91.58Deal $135
Tiffany on its ownWith synergies

From the original analysis. Independent case study, not prepared for or endorsed by the companies named. Not investment advice.

Case study

LVMH and Tiffany: M&A Valuation

M&A valuation · Team of 6

On its own, Tiffany was worth about what the market paid: $93.80 per share by DCF against a $91.58 share price, and $93 to $102 on peer multiples.

The case for the deal sits in synergies, about $9.0bn, of which about $7.8bn are cost and working-capital synergies that do not depend on selling more. Sharing 70% with Tiffany's shareholders gives a fair price of $145.21. At $135, LVMH keeps about $10 per share.

  • Standalone DCF $93.80
  • Fair price $145.21 vs $135
Return vs risk, 2016 to 2026
Stock and bond mixesCapital allocation line
Return
7.78%
Risk
7.79%
Sharpe
0.52

From the original analysis. Correlation +0.57, risk-free rate 3.7%. Public FRED data.

Analysis2026

Stock and Bond Efficient Frontier

Portfolio analysis · Individual · Public FRED data

From 2016 to 2026, US stocks and corporate bonds moved together more than textbooks assume (correlation +0.57). That shrinks the benefit of mixing them.

On this data the best risk-adjusted portfolio was 100% stocks. Bonds alone earned less than cash.

  • Correlation +0.57
  • Max Sharpe 0.74 at 100% stocks
Project Vir in VR: a 3D COVID-19 virus up close, and a bilingual Hindi and English safety-measures menu with sanitizer, face mask and safety gloves
VR app · Social impact2020

Project Vir: VR Safety Training

Personal project · Unity · Google Cardboard · India

Daily-wage workers in India's villages had little access to clear COVID-19 safety guidance. I built Project Vir, a virtual reality app for low-cost Google Cardboard headsets, to teach it hands-on.

Users see the virus up close, then pick a mask, gloves and sanitiser from a Hindi and English menu and place them in the room themselves. The Embassy of India in Berlin forwarded the app for review in 2020.

  • Product management
  • Unity
  • Android VR
  • User-centred design
  • Bilingual UI
OFCOFC Supplies GmbH · profit and returns review

What drives returns

Change in odds of a return vs Central, standard shipping, consumers

  • West vs Central+333%
  • Same-day shipping+122%
  • First-class shipping+57%
  • Home-office buyers−23%

Try a discount

20%

Can still make money

Model fit (R²)

  • Profit model33%
  • Profitability model82%
Consulting project2025

OFC Supplies: Profit and Returns Drivers

OFC Supplies GmbH · MBA analytics consulting case · Team

An office-supplies company was giving away margin on discounts and seeing too many products sent back. Our team modelled its order data in R to find what really drives profit, profitability and returns.

Discount explained most of the swing in profitability, and orders above about 30% discount were very likely to lose money. Returns were far more likely in the West region and with same-day shipping.

  • Business analytics
  • Regression modelling in R
  • Profitability analysis
  • Pricing and discount strategy
  • Operations and logistics
  • Executive recommendations

More

More Projects

Strategy consulting2025

Telco Handset Leasing Strategy

BCG Strategy Consulting job simulation · Forage

A telco's profits were falling. Should it add a handset leasing model? I tested the hypothesis with a comparables-based profit model, then designed the offer for the segment it fits.

  • Hypothesis-driven analysis
  • Financial modelling
  • Customer segmentation
  • Executive summary
Data consulting2020

Customer Segmentation and Targeting

KPMG Data Analytics virtual internship · InsideSherpa

A client wanted to know which new customers to target. I scored existing customers on recency, frequency and spend, and turned the result into a targeting dashboard.

  • Python
  • RFM segmentation
  • Excel dashboard
  • Customer analytics
Consulting project

Pacific Grove Spice: Funding Growth

Spice company · Team case study

A small food company wants to grow but its loan covenants cap its debt. Which growth path creates the most value: an acquisition or a marketing push?

  • Target DCF $17.7m vs $13.2m price
  • Marketing push: NPV $1.56m, IRR 21.7%
  • WACC 8.13% vs peers 7.2 to 7.4%
Consulting project

AIXTRON Equity View

AIXTRON · Team case study

Market sizing from the whole chip industry down to one equipment niche, the company's competitive moat, peer multiples and a two-scenario DCF.

Consulting project2026

Intuitive Surgical Platform Moat

Intuitive Surgical · Team case study

How installed systems, recurring instrument revenue and surgeon training reinforce each other, and why large incumbents struggled to compete.

Consulting project

Gym Churn AI Case

Fitness chain · Team case study

A business case for reducing membership churn with a churn-prediction model and an in-app coaching assistant.

Consulting project2025

Prysmian Strategy

Prysmian · Team case study

Where to put retained cash, how much leverage to carry, and which operating levers protect margins in different 2027 scenarios.

Analysis2025

Bayer vs Merck Financials

Bayer and Merck · Financial statements

Two German pharma groups compared on profitability, solvency, liquidity and efficiency, using parent-company accounts.

  • Also: Dallara: what makes a niche race-car engineer's business model hard to copy (team case study)
  • Also: Customer churn regression in R (GitHub)

Education

Education

  1. SRM

    2013 – 2017

    B.Tech

    SRM Institute of Science and Technology

  2. Technische Universität Berlin, Germany

    2022

    M.Sc.

    TU Berlin, Germany

  3. SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan

    2026

    Executive Leadership Course

    SDA Bocconi, Milan

  4. Stanford University, USA

    2026

    Graduate Exchange (GVS)

    Stanford University, USA

  5. Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

    2025 – 2026

    MBA

    Frankfurt School

Certifications

Certifications

  • Certified Scrum Product Owner · Scrum Alliance2023
  • Certified ScrumMaster · Scrum Alliance2024
  • AI Product Manager Nanodegree2026
  • Growth Product Manager Nanodegree2026
  • McKinsey Forward Program · McKinsey & Company2024
  • Six Sigma Green Belt · TU Berlin, Chair of Quality Science2020
  • Negotiating, Customer Focus, Change Management · Harvard Business Impact2026
  • Strategy Consulting job simulation · BCG via Forage2025
  • Internal Auditor, ISO 9001 and ISO 45001 · TU Berlin2020
  • Data Analytics Consulting virtual internship · KPMG via InsideSherpa2020
  • Machine Learning · Stanford Online via Coursera2020
  • Simulink, Stateflow, and verification and validation of Simulink models · MathWorks Training Services2017

Awards

Awards