A team that needs a CTO's judgement before it can justify hiring one.
What I do
I own the architecture and the technical hiring, and I'm the technical voice to your board and investors, through launch and listing. With more days, I run the roadmap with the team too. We agree the monthly deliverables up front: board briefings, architecture decision records, a technical roadmap, hiring recommendations.
How it runs
Spread across the week around the priorities we agree, and I'm easy to reach in between.
From $4ka month, for one day a weekScales up as the work needs it.
Before the money moves: a term sheet, exclusivity or an announced acquisition.
What I do
A two-page decision brief first, then the investment-committee memo, the evidence annex and the cost to remediate in engineer-weeks and money, in ten business days. A red-flag read takes five and gives go, no-go or go-with-conditions, with the material risks.
How it runs
Fixed fee, fixed date. We agree the repositories, entities and questions in writing before I start.
A decision that will be expensive to undo once it's built.
What I do
One decision area, such as the chain, the custody model or the launch plan: evidence review, the options, a written recommendation and a debrief with the people who have to live with it.
How it runs
A fixed two-week sprint. If you want it built afterwards, that's a separate contract.
$12k to $25ktwo weeks, one decision areaThree to four days for one question with the evidence already in hand, $4k to $8k.
We agree what needs doing and what it has to achieve.
Step 2
Written terms
The fee, the deliverables, the dates and the access I need, all in writing before the work starts.
Step 3
The work
Retainers run week by week; reviews and due diligence run to the agreed dates.
Step 4
The deliverable
The written work, and a debrief to walk through it.
Systems
What I've built and led.
Card programme chain
I led the delivery of a live L2 chain for a non-custodial debit card, end to end, from the indexer and oracles to account abstraction, with KYC wired in for MiCA alignment.
RoleArchitectClientWirexConstraintA new product on live card rails, without disrupting the existing one.OutcomeSelf-custody card payments with no gas fees, in market as Wirex Pay.
Blockchain RPC proxy
I designed the RPC proxy, a cache layer and rate limiting in front of the chain nodes. At peak it served 140k+ requests per second in production.
RoleHead of BackendCompanyGateway.fmClientsOpera, 1inch, Gnosis, Ethereum FoundationConstraintFour clients' traffic through one proxy, at 50 ms average on the heavy requests.OutcomeA paid product that won its clients and ran on fewer nodes. No outages at peak.
Staking infrastructure
I led the department that ran the infrastructure behind $1B+ locked in staking.
RoleVP of Platform and YieldCompanyGateway.fmProductGateway YieldProtocolsLido, Gnosis, Stellar, CantonConstraintA 99.99% uptime target.OutcomeA recurring revenue line for Gateway, with funds, custodians and protocol foundations staking through it.
Shared ZK proving
I led the build of a shared prover used across several ZK protocols and L2 ecosystems, with GPU and CPU autoscaling.
RoleVP of Platform and YieldCompanyGateway.fmProtocolsPolygon zkEVM, cdk-erigon, Miden, Iden3ConstraintGPU proving on spot capacity that can be taken back at any time.OutcomeNew ecosystems onboarded without new infrastructure, at a lower proving cost per chain.
App kits for fintech
I designed and led an app-kit framework for fintech products, and took the RWA, stablecoin and payments kits into client delivery.
RoleVP of Platform and YieldCompanyGateway.fmProtocolsPolygon, Canton, Miden, EthereumConstraintOne month to market for a regulated fintech product.OutcomeClients launched for less than a custom build.
AI network token launch
I designed the infrastructure behind a decentralised AI network's token launch and exchange listing.
RoleFractional CTOClientDeepNodeConstraintTen months, to a fixed launch date.Outcome$140M+ FDV at launch, January 2026; a top-5 CEX listing.
NFT launch platforms
With Uddug, which I co-founded, I built the platforms behind NFT launches that raised $100M+ in total, including two collections at $10M+ and $2M+ at launch.
RoleCTO and Technical LeadClientsOG:Crystals, Arsnl.art, Snark.artLaunches15+ NFT projects.
Background
Fifteen years of building.
I've been writing software since I was a student, and I've never wanted to do anything else.
2011First codeFirst websites, built while studying at Moscow State University.
2014Into blockchainA solar-powered mining farm, a Bitcoin faucet network and a micropayment system across three chains.
2015PartnershipMet my business partner and merged our companies: CRMs, web products, then a crypto ad network.
2017ICEXCo-founded a crypto exchange with my partner on a pre-seed round. Closed it at about 70% built, when the investor pulled out.
2018UddugCo-founded with my partner and grew it to 15 people. NFT, healthcare and data security projects, plus Web3 Foundation and Protocol Labs grants.
2020 to 2022NFT launchesLaunch platforms for artists and collections, among them OG:Crystals and Frank Stella's Geometries.
2021Gateway.fmJoined early, designed the RPC proxy, became Head of Backend.
2024Uddug acquiredBecame VP of DLT after the deal, running about 25 people across two departments.
2025DeepNodeFractional CTO from March 2025 to January 2026, through the token launch and listing.
2026Felag and the practiceCo-founded Felag, an engineering studio, with my partner. Started this practice under my own name.
Contact
Book a call.
Tell me what needs doing and I'll come back with a time for a 30-minute call.
Already know what you need? Book the 30 minutes directly.
