ABOUT US
A small engineering studio from Kraków.
Senior team. One project at a time. Hands-on, not advisory.
Oleksandr Kotliarov
Founder · Engineering Lead
I've been building engineering organizations since 2014. I've been a tech lead in B2B SaaS, then a solo founder, then ran delivery at an 8-person studio. I've shipped products across B2B SaaS, EdTech, FinTech, and enterprise data — from MVPs to platforms scaled to tens of thousands of concurrent users.
In 2024 I shifted to fractional and project-based work. The shape that keeps showing up: founders need a partner who works hands-on, not someone who shows up with a deck and leaves a memo. From an MVP at pre-seed to a delivery rebuild at Series A — the engineering challenges differ, but the operating posture doesn't.
I take one retainer client at a time, plus shorter audits and sprints alongside. That gives each engagement enough oxygen to actually ship — not just produce written recommendations.
Poland gives me a working window from 9:00 CET to 18:00 EST, which fits most US/EU teams. SF/LA — edge slots, 1–2 meetings a week. The team beyond me is four senior engineers, a designer, and a part-time writer; names available after NDA.
What I don't do: I'm not a label-based fractional CTO. I don't sit on board calls or write 40-page strategies. I don't sell AI hype. If a problem doesn't need an LLM, I'll say so.
— Oleksandr
4–6 people per project. Senior-only.
Names available after NDA. We don't list public team pages because most of the team works elsewhere full-time and joins us on focused engagements.
Oleksandr Kotliarov
Founder · Engineering Lead
Technical leadership and delivery
Senior Backend Engineer
Backend / Architecture
8 years · names available after NDA
Senior DevOps / SRE
Infrastructure / Observability
7 years · names available after NDA
Senior Frontend Engineer
Frontend / Product
6 years · names available after NDA
Designer
UX / Product design
Per project
Researcher / Writer
Content team
Part-time
Six operating principles.
1 · One project at a time
One retainer client at any moment, with audits and short sprints alongside. That gives each engagement enough hours to ship.
2 · Hands-on, not advisory
We work with code, processes, hires, and customers. Not with strategy decks.
3 · Senior-only team
Every engineer on a project has 5+ years in production. No junior staff augmentation.
4 · Outcome-anchored contracts
Fixed-fee on audits. Fixed-scope on sprints. Milestone billing on transformations. We write commitments we can defend.
5 · Written-first delivery
Weekly written updates and a monthly executive review on every engagement. If it isn't written down, it didn't happen.
6 · Honest no's
If we aren't the right team, we say so on the discovery call and recommend an alternative.
What we test for the next client.
Open-source contributions
Internal tools we use in delivery — review checklists, readiness templates — released publicly.
AI tooling research
Where LLMs actually help an engineering team and where they don't. Tested quarterly with client permission. Findings published in /writing.
Field data
Aggregated patterns from current engagements. Published as anonymized field notes.
The principles that make us say no.
Want to know if we're the right team?
30-minute discovery call. We'll tell you honestly.