Kyle Ramachandran

By age 32, Ramachandran found himself as the CFO of a public company.

“A little bit of luck and timing and a lot of hard work and perseverance by a great group of people helped all of us reach this milestone,” he says. “We started the business with a PowerPoint presentation and a financial model, raised a couple of rounds of capital, built a team with diverse skills and experiences and brought laser-focus on listening to our customers and creating innovative, value-added solutions.”

Throughout the past five years, Solaris has become a leading provider of fit-for-purpose solutions to increase productivity and efficiency in the completion of oil and gas wells in the Lower 48. It designs, manufacturers and rents cutting-edge inventory management solutions, including its market-leading mobile proppant management systems for sand, to help customers improve supply chain management and increase well completion efficiency.

Mentors and motivation: Ramachandran’s rewarding journey has been fueled by curiosity and entrepreneurism. The ingenuity he witnesses within the industry helps keep him motivated.

“There are risk-taking wildcatters who bet it all, genius engineers and thinkers who come up with new ways to solve complex problems, and an ever-changing geopolitical landscape that keeps everyone on their toes,” he says.

“At Solaris, our approach is to proactively identify trends that we believe will lead to future challenges in the industry. We raised capital, hired the team, executed on a plan, won business and built a sustainable business that has created jobs for hundreds of people.”

Advice for young professionals: “There is no replacing hard work. Stay hungry and humble. Be an enabler of your own future and don’t be afraid of taking the path less traveled.”