RA Consulting was founded at the end of July 1989 by our CEO Armin Rupalla. Today, the software company can look back on an impressive path of success. The garage company has developed into a global player with 80 employees, headquarters in Bruchsal (near Karlsruhe) and subsidiaries in the USA and China. With a constant stream of new business ideas, numerous joint ventures, and international partnerships as well as great entrepreneurial foresight, Armin has successfully navigated RA Consulting through political, social and technological change as Managing Director supported by his wife Vera as Director of Finance.
Today, he manages the company together with his long-time companions Andreas Hege and Stephan Meichle.
In the coming weeks, we will report on how the initial IT investment consultancy has developed into the software company it is today.
The last 3 ½ decades have been filled with exciting and perhaps unexpected milestones. Stay tuned!
MILESTONE #1
Start-Up Founder In 1989
Imagine if Armin Rupalla were a start-up founder today: He would network via social media and business platforms, build thought leadership, present company and product pitches, and form strategic alliances to convince potential customers with his ideas and visions.
These activities are not unfamiliar to Armin, even if they were called differently in his early days in the 1980s. At that time, the fall of the Berlin Wall was imminent, the World Wide Web was born, mainframe computers were still partly working with punch cards and the sending of e-mails was still in its infancy.
As a computer science student at TU Karlsruhe, Armin was already active as a freelance consultant in project management for the engineering firm Dr. Trippe. Among other things, he designed documentation and information systems for the management of large-scale projects for the former Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center. In 1985, Armin co-founded bigbyte GmbH with a fellow student and in 1988 he gave a presentation in Kyoto, Japan on an expert system for the decommissioning of nuclear facilities.
The enterprising strategist was already dealing with the precursors of Artificial Intelligence (AI) back then. Today, Armin is convinced that AI is based on ideas and concepts from previous decades: “We have only now achieved the breakthrough because, compared to the past, enormous computing power is available to process the masses of data that enable today’s form of AI.“
1989: Armin and Vera Rupalla
Success story from 1989 – 2024
MILESTONE #1
MILESTONE #2
MILESTONE #3
