Hi, i'm Marko
Family Guy
Analytical + Critical
Prod | Data&AI | Psych | Med
Academic Roots
I originally planned to become a medical doctor, but left med school with top grades to pursue a degree in developmental psychology. I later shifted into experimental psychology and language acquisition theories, focusing on NLP. I began PhD studies, but transitioned to the private sector to be able to support myself financially.
Career Evolution
Researcher → Data Scientist → Product Manager → Product Leadership & Business Development → Entrepreneur →My background in IT outsourcing spans startups to enterprise clients, technical to strategic leadership roles, and a wide range of business domains.I’ve worked across both ends of the tech spectrum, an enterprise firm handling large-scale systems and contracts (Comtrade System Integration), and a specialized data & AI/ML agency guiding startups and SMEs from 0 to 1 (SmartCat).Check my SELECTED WORK →
Entrepreneurship
Eventually, I invested into couple of business and founded my own. Being invested into business gave me a far sharper, practical perspective on setting priorities, managing risk and costs, and balancing "must-haves" against "nice-to-haves."However, things rarely work out the way they do in theory. As a former colleague of mine loved to say: In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
Life Perspective
These days, my priorities are naturally centred on family, health, and building what comes next for my kids.Continuous learning is at my core, but every day, I appreciate simplicity just a little bit more.I'm genuinely looking forward to diving into first-grade materials now that my oldest child has started primary school.
SELECTED WORK
The Flagship Project (4-Year Initiative)
Role
Product & Delivery Lead, 34 Person Team Lead, Executive LiaisonScope
A 24/7 distributed microservices system supporting millions of active web/mobile sessions and processing billions of backend events under strict regulatory constraints. AI-ready Lakehouse for heterogeneous big data, enabling rapid data experimentation and ML deployment. Hybrid architecture spans both private data centers and the cloud.Impact
The reengineered platform handles 10x its original capacity, allowing the client to seamlessly scale markets, accelerate feature delivery, and increase YoY revenue. Built a €2.5M direct annual revenue stream for SmartCat company.
Discovery & Strategy Workshops
Role
Business Analyst and Strategy LeadScope
Led 200+ discovery sessions and 35+ deep-dive strategy workshops, bridging complex business models with practical engineering to help founders and executives build viable product roadmaps before burning capital.Impact
Helped dozens of clients design resilient product roadmaps, align tech specifications with business strategy, and unlock new project revenue streams.
Data Warehouse & Predictive Analytics in Banking
Role
Data Scientist, Data Product StrategistScope
Hands-on development of Data Warehouse, Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics models using big vendor tech stack. Guiding clients Product Managers and Owners how to utilise data into valuable insights and reports.Impact
Extensive reports with never used before KPIs and predictive models, which increased customer retention and satisfaction.
Smart Energy Systems
Role
Product LeadScope
Testing Product-Market fit while leading small team to build central system for predicting and reducing energy consumption in a commercial buildings, consequently reducing the costs and CO2 emissions. Creating and managing partnerships with various vendors and companies.Impact
Product failed due to problems with integration points and lack of funding.
Some other interesing projects
Pilot algorithm for optimising energy production and utilisation from solar panels to big energy spenders such as EVs, HVACs, and more. Scaling Boston startup, short project, small team, but interesting and sweet.Building Digital Media for the Behavioral Sciences (The 0 → 0.1 Stage). Leading user research, market analysis, and early product validation. Navigating high ambiguity and turning initial hurdles into actionable insights for the next iteration
Words from my ex-CEO
"He was instrumental in leading a strategically important project for our key customers, and delivered high-quality results on time and within budget. He also improved the project's transparency and reporting."
"He took on the responsibility of conducting workshops with potential clients, where he applied his data science background and analytical thinking to design solutions that met their needs and expectations."
"He worked closely with me on developing and executing marketing and sales strategies for our company. He helped us identify and target new markets and verticals, strategize on campaigns, and created plans of execution."
SHORT POSTS
I don't sell courses.
I wright my short thoughts, nothing else.
Stay soft. Stiffness is how things die.
Stalker (1979) | 09-2026
At the end of Stalker, the Stalker recites a parable: the soft and pliant are the companions of life. The hard and rigid are the companions of death.A tree that won't bend snaps in the storm. Water outlasts stone not through force, but through refusing to stop moving, refusing to hold its shape too tightly.The Stalker spends the whole film leading others toward a room that grants wishes — and never enters it himself, uncertain, adaptable, alive with doubt.Founders worship rigidity — the fixed plan, the roadmap defended past its expiry date. But the ones who last bend with what the market teaches them.
Growth isn't abandoning your values. It's learning when to act on them.
Expanse (2011-2021) | 09-2026
James Holden started as a man who broadcast every secret to the whole solar system — because it felt honest.That impulse nearly got everyone he loved killed. Early Holden acted on principle without weighing consequence, mistaking transparency for wisdom, and mistaking conviction for competence.Book by book, he didn't get less principled — he got slower. He learned to hold information, read a room, let a decision sit before making it public. The crew that once cringed at his choices started trusting his judgment.Founders start as Holden too — certain, loud, reactive. The job matures you, or the company doesn't survive you.
Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.
The Devil's Advocate (1997) | 09-2026
John Milton never sold Kevin Lomax on evil. He sold him on being exceptional.Bigger cases. Bigger wins. A name people whispered in rooms. Kevin stopped asking if the work was right and started asking if it made him look brilliant — until the win itself replaced the reason he started.Founders fall into the same trap. The pitch decks, the "visionary" profile, the conference stage — it starts feeling like the job. Meanwhile the product, the actual thing customers needed, quietly stops being the point.Fame is a hell of a business model. It's a terrible product strategy.
Hope is the most important act.
Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006) | 09-2026
Kelsier planned a heist against a thousand-year empire that had never lost.Enslaved, broken, having watched his wife die — by every measure he should have stayed broken. Instead he walked out plotting the impossible: overthrow an immortal god-emperor with a crew of thieves and no army.He didn't just build a plan. He built belief — recruiting people who'd given up on hope and handing them a reason to fight again.Founders do this too — not just make a product, but convince a team the impossible deadline, the impossible market, is worth trying anyway.
A man can be destroyed but not defeated.
Old Man and The Sea (1952) | 08-2026
Santiago fished 84 days with no catch. The village called him unlucky.On day 85, he hooked the biggest marlin of his life. Three days holding the line alone, hands torn open, refusing to quit — then sharks stripped it to bone on the way home.He returned with nothing but a skeleton. Still undefeated.Founders live this on repeat: the dead launches, the customers who vanish, the pivot that costs a year. It's not proof you're wrong. It's day 84.
Faith isn't the absence of doubt. It's building through it.
Field of Dreams (1989) | 08-2026
Ray Kinsella heard a voice in his cornfield: "If you build it, he will come."No research. No demand. No proof anyone wanted a baseball diamond on Iowa farmland — just debt, dying crops, and a voice only he believed. Everyone around him saw a man throwing away his farm on a hallucination.He built it anyway.Founders face this exact moment — the point where logic runs out and only faith is left. The odds don't clear before you commit. They clear because you committed.