About

Hey there 👋, thanks for checking a more extensive version of my humble brag!

Why

This corner of the internet helps me clarify and improve my thinking. It's a mechanism to cope with the chaotic world of information and try to make sense of things whilst resolving various internal conflicts and improving the meta-game in the rapidly changing world.

Who

I currently work as a principal product manager at a tech BigCo. In my free time, I am building and tinkering with digital products whilst learning to code and design. Occasionally I write essays and long-form articles about exploration, experiments and calm life. synth When possible, I also help founders with product, growth, talent acquisition, and fundraising. I am a small investor in:

• Calm company fund
• Replit

Anti-portfolio and wishlist (Didn't invest or dragged too long):

• Synthesis school - an online enrichment program for kids ages 8-14 (based on Astra Nova)
• XanPay - a modern payments for your next billion customers.

Professional milestones

• 2010 - Landed my first job in private equity fund and helped raise over $200m in debt financing for renewable energy projects in CEE with an impact of saving 130,000 tonnes of carbon p.a. powering 200,000 households.

• 2011 - Started my first startup that copied a business model from US. After incorporation, printing flyers and business cards, we realized we had 0 customers. Learned how not to start a company.

• 2012 - Moved to Berlin during the boom of start-up copycat models and joined a growing venture studio that is now spanning fintech, adtech and healthech portfolio. This has been a fantastic experience in understanding shifting technology cycles. We saw mobile overtaking web traffic from the front-row seats and opportunities it brought.

• 2014 - Started a mobile-first user acquisition agency and reached $30k in revenue the first month. It was the first digital nomad experience whilst living and travelling in Thailand. A year later my bank sent me a cease and decist letter and I had to close down. I learned a lot about preserverance and stress but also independence and non-default paths.

• 2015 - Joined a seed stage startup in Berlin and went from 0 revenue to one of the industry leaders in mobile advertising. We grew from 10 people to 160 employees and I was lucky to experience a true 0 to 1 startup scale-up story including market launch in 7 different countries.

• 2016 - Took a career break and spent time with my family. Also learned about ethereum and participated in ICO wave of 2017. Spent the year learning to code, understanding crypto and launched a newsletter focusing on educational content.

• 2018 - Made a move to Singapore and worked with the largest C2C marketplace in SEA on a platform utilising blockchain and external data to identify bad actors. Met some of the most amazing entrepreneurs in the region and engraved myself in the VC ecosystem.

• 2020 - Got accepted into an early-stage start-up programme and worked on a machine learning ops product to help push models into production faster. This was a breaking point in my own mental model of how the world works, probability and why venture model is not a good fit for majority of the founders. It was such a great experience though that again provided a chance to learn from the best in the industry.

• 2021 - A complete professional fiasco. I got a chance to interview for my dream job, completely messed it up and ended up in a abusive environment, followed by a stint in a feature factory. On a bright side I officially moved to a product manager job!

• NOW - I made it to a tech BigCo. The job is pretty challenging from technical and organisational perspective but it nudges growth. Other stuff I focus on in my free time:

  • Code - I went back part-time self-teaching rabbit-hole because I want to be able to get an API working, or launch a front-end of GPT-3 model, play with procedural algorithmic art. There is just so much cool stuff going on that it makes me feel like I am a kid discovering multiplayer Doom and "IDDQD". Currently working with TypeScript, Next.js, Prisma, tRPC and Supabase/Pocketbase.
  • Design - In combination with above, I am also learning about UX/UI and accessibility. I think design is really underrated moat for a lot of products.
  • Communities - Trying to be more active in a few communities, mostly focused on solopreneurship and indie-making. I think one of the major contributors to happiness comes from the sense of belonging and having like-minded people around.
  • Calm companies - I signed-up for a scout programme from Calm Company Fund and on the lookout for profitable companies or solo devs working on a software product that are seeking to go full-time.
  • 2nd brain - After 2 years of tinkering with Roam, Logseq, Obsidian. I am back on notion as I love the databases mental model and with their upcoming AI featureset it seems like a no brainer. I take less notes these days and don't need backlinks to feel that I am retaining well. What I did discover though is Raycast which feeds into Notion with a super cool extension called Hypesonic for todos.
  • Non-default paths - Being stuck at home during covid really made me think about the choices that I made and path I have chosen. I am a big fan of pathless path and non-conventional journeys of people doing things that are not default. I am still exploring what does it mean for myself though.

Some keywords and phrases that I like to throw around that define my path:

• Living an examined and calm life
• Exploration & experimentation
• Seeking mastery & expertise
• Beginner's mind and art of starting from scratch
• Lifelong learning and forever student
• Non-convention and non-conformity
• Simplicity and minimalism
• Virtue cultivation
• Individual journey and direction
• Bits of hungriness and foolishnesses

My DMs are always opened, alternatively you can book a call.