Work
Jan 2023 - Present 3 yrs 9 mos
Co-founder & CTO Molin AI
- As of 2026, more than 700 shops use Molin as their AI employee for support & sales
- Reached 7,000 users and 150 monthly paying customers in just 3 months at launch
- Built a highly scalable serverless infra (JavaScript, Web Components, PWA, Python, GPT-3, LLMs, langchain) that runs at edge on Cloudflare Workers (275+ datacenters)
Jul 2020 - Dec 2022 2 yrs 6 mos
Co-founder & CTO Proptee
- Grew the platform to 5,000 clients and 20 property listings from EU/US in 1 year
- Built a trading engine with strong correctness guarantees (Go, SQL), iOS app (SwiftUI), APIs (Go), database (PostgreSQL), backoffice internal tools
Jun 2019 - Aug 2020 1 yr 3 mos
Software Engineer Freetrade
- Relentlessly shipped features for 200,000 investors: portfolio gain/loss, fractional trading
- Praised by CTO for end-to-end feature ownership and strong problem-solving skills
- Subject matter expert for data pipelines, stock data APIs, price feed APIs (Airflow, Python)
- Achieved 10x speedup of serverless function deployment (Terraform, GCP, DevOps)
- Built cross-platform for mobile, backend and backoffice (Firebase, TypeScript, iOS, Android)
- Regular on-call duties to fix live operational issues and improve reliability
Sep 2016 - Oct 2018 2 yrs 2 mos
Co-founder & CTO Futuristico
- Built AI customer support tools for a Spanish online travel agency (Node.js)
- Built a chatbot for finding cheap flights, used by 10,000 Product Hunt users
- Built a scooter-sharing solution with React Native apps for Android (Java) and iOS
- Built a cryptocurrency portfolio management app for iOS
May 2015 - Nov 2020 5 yrs 7 mos
Founder MFD LABS LTD
- Launched the first Facebook Messenger app for Mac, Windows, Linux
- Generated $100,000+ in revenue from 1,000,000+ downloads
- Sold to an American operator after 5 years
Nov 2014 - Aug 2016 1 yr 10 mos
Mentor Codementor
- Had 50+ mentoring sessions with an average rating of 5 (out of 5) stars
- Consulted clients on React, Firebase, Docker, Scala, Cassandra, 10+ more
Nov 2013 - Mar 2015 1 yr 5 mos
Web & Android Developer StarterSquad
- Part of 2 software development teams, shipped features for 5 startups (clients)
- Wrote the foundation code for the internal project management dashboard
- Proficient in Angular.js, Node.js, MongoDB, Agile, TDD
May 2013 - Nov 2013 7 mos
Web Developer (CloudSpokes) Topcoder
- Successfully delivered 10+ projects involving Angular.js, LDAP, iOS
- Migrated CloudSpokes APIs from Ruby on Rails to Node.js and Karma tests
- Built the platform's Chrome extension with Backbone.js
Education
2016 - 2019
- Finished 1st and 2nd year with a first-class degree (above 70%)
- Part of the committee of 3 societies during my 2nd and 3rd year
- Studied Algorithmics (Java, 88%), Data Management (SQL, 95%), Programming II (Java, 92%), Computer Systems II (C), Computer Vision (Java), Machine Learning (Python), Intelligent Systems, Interaction Design, Theory of Computing, Web Infrastructure
- Activities: HackaSoton (President), Fish on Toast (Technology Advisor), Entrepreneurs Club (Tech Officer), SalsaSoc (Member), Amateur Boxing Club (Member)
2012 - 2016
Romanian Baccalaureate “Roman-Vodă” National College
- Graduated with 10 in Informatics and 9.8 in Mathematics (out of 10)
- Participated in the National C# Olympiad, InfoEducatie National Contest, Regional Informatics Olympiad, Startup Weekend Iasi, CodeCamp Iasi
- Outside school I taught myself software development and worked as a freelancer
- Activities: National C# Olympiad, InfoEducatie National Contest, Regional Informatics Olympiad, Startup Weekend Iasi
Certifications
ClickHouse Certified DeveloperClickHouse · Jan 2026
Financial Markets (with Honors)Yale University · Jun 2021 · EAGL5K2NV752
Architecting with Google Kubernetes EngineGoogle · Aug 2019 · DZVLTSWA8D4A
Docker Certified AssociateDocker, Inc · Oct 2017 · 10926646
IELTS (C1)British Council · Sep 2015 · 15RO002263ROSA001A
Courses
2024
2021
- Financial MarketsRobert J Shiller · 99.2% with Honors
2020
- Presentation Skills and Public Speaking ClassGeneral Assembly
2019
- Architecting with Google Kubernetes EngineGoogle
- ├─Architecting with GKE: Production93.60%
- ├─Architecting with GKE: Workloads99.46%
- ├─Architecting with GKE: Foundations97.50%
- └─Google Cloud Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure96.13%
2017
- UD723 Rapid PrototypingGoogle
2016
- Functional Programming Principles in ScalaMartin Odersky, EPFL · 100%
- Introduction to NeuroeconomicsHSE University · 88.40%
- DS220: Data ModelingApache Cassandra · 100%
- Get Stuff Done Like a BossTiago Forte
- Time Management FundamentalsDave Crenshaw
2015
- Introduction to Mathematical Thinking Stanford University82.17% · Certificate
- Introduction to LogicStanford University · 95.58% with Distinction · Certificate
- Cloud Computing ConceptsUniversity of Illinois · 78.54%
- Learning How to LearnUniversity of California San Diego · 78.70%
2014
- Machine LearningAndrew Ng, Stanford University · 95.43% · Certificate
Projects
Oct 2025
Learn zhuyin efficiently using FSRS v6 (spaced repetition). It keeps all progress in the browser so there is no account to create and it works offline after the first load.
Jun 2018 - Sep 2018 4 mos
Urbio was a scooter-sharing platform aimed towards the Spanish market.
Sep 2017 - Jun 2018 10 mos
At Futuristico, we built a cryptocurrency portfolio manager app for iOS, aimed towards "crypto aficionados". We focused on simplicity, privacy, security, and user experience.
Sep 2017 - May 2018 9 mos
As part of the HackaSoton student society committee, I designed the website for our annual hackathon in Sketch and coded it in static HTML using the Tachyons CSS toolkit.
Apr 2017 - Sep 2017 6 mos
Tomo Cheap Flights was a Facebook Messenger bot specialized in finding cheap flights for travellers. We built our custom bot framework with node.js and MongoDB, using wit.ai for NLU (natural language understanding).
Feb 2017
Snaploop was a game played by chatting with a bot on Facebook Messenger. Players were given the description of an object and they had to take a photo of a similar object and send it. If somebody guessed, they had to send the next snap, and so on. I built the app at IC Hack 17 with my team from UoS. We used Clarifai's machine vision API to extract keywords from the images.
Nov 2016
Susu Cat Bot was a Facebook Messenger bot designed to facilitate students' life. She could answer questions about the weather, due coursework, timetables, campus orientation and places to eat. Being powered by a Natural Language Understanding engine (not mine), she had no problem understanding typos or weird sentences.
Oct 2015 - Jan 2016 4 mos
I built an open-source Chrome app for the awesome https://remembered.io web app. Eventually I received the creator's endorsement and he linked to my app on the official website.
Oct 2015 - Jan 2016 4 mos
Tweeather was a Machine Learning project that correlated Twitter sentiment to European weather. It was inspired by a study where user behaviour on Twitter was used to build a predictive model of income. After I came up with the idea, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to venture into the world of Big Data, and so I learned Spark and Hadoop.
May 2015 - Aug 2015 4 mos
Fou was a social network for fashion people, designed so they could get in touch with each other and draw inspiration from sources like Pinterest, Instagram, and Artsy. I designed the whole service-based architecture from the ground up. For the API I used Hapi.js and RethinkDB. The frontend was an isomorphic React app built with Fluxible, Koa and Babel.js. Everything was deployed using Docker.
Apr 2015
UniNet was a social network for students, aimed at helping freshers to get used to the student life. It was created during a 24-hour hackathon, which I won with a friend.
Apr 2015 - May 2017 2 yrs 2 mos
Messenger for Desktop was a simple desktop client for Facebook Messenger. It offered a distraction-free experience on OS X, Windows, and Linux, due to it being separated from the facebook.com website. Technically, it was a native desktop app built with web technologies and NW.js. In November 2016, it was one of the best cross-platform clients for messenger.com and had over 6 million downloads. I later rewrote it to take advantage of Electron.
May 2014 - Aug 2014 4 mos
Butler was a voice-powered personal assistant for Android, based on Google's Knowledge Graph and voice recognition / text-to-speech technology. The backend was written in Scala using Akka, and everything was hosted on AWS.
2012
My first Android app, written in Java. It let people watch RObotzi, a popular Romanian animated series, download episodes and get notified when a new one was out. 70,000+ people used it, and it was published on the Play Store.
Research
Sep 2018 - Apr 2019 8 mos
Applicability and new architectures of multicompartmental neural networks (University of Southampton)
BSc Part III individual project (45 credits), supervised by Jize Yan. Reimplemented Sacramento et al.'s dendritic cortical microcircuits and Mesnard's ghost-unit network in numpy and TensorFlow, then tested new architectures against them. Interviewed the paper's first author, João Sacramento, and defended the work as a live demo.
Oct 2015 - Jan 2016 4 mos
Tweeather (personal research)
Correlated Twitter sentiment against European weather over 2 large public datasets, using Spark and Hadoop. Filed SPARK-12675 upstream from the work.
Presentations
5 Jul 2025
Cozy, a personal AI assistant
Live demo of my personal AI assistant, built that same morning and shown that afternoon with almost no preparation.
3 Jun 2025
Connect AI to your own apps (ft. MCPs & Claude Code)
How to connect an AI assistant to your own applications with MCP servers and Claude Code.
25 Oct 2023
Molin AI (pitch and product demo)
On-stage pitch and demo of Molin AI at the Cloudflare London office.
24 Mar 2021
Proptee (live demo and Q&A)
A 7-minute live demo of Proptee, a commission-free property stock exchange, followed by a Q&A.
5 May 2018
Docker 101: Getting to know Docker
A repeat of the Docker workshop as a session inside the hackathon, as a Docker Campus Ambassador.
3 May 2018
node.js workshop
Hands-on workshop on JavaScript, git, node.js and npm, run with the HackaSoton and Fish on Toast societies.
27 Feb 2018
Docker 101: Getting to know Docker [Workshop]
My first workshop: a hands-on introduction to Docker for students, as a Docker Campus Ambassador.
12 Sep 2017
Chat Bot Skills 101
A technical talk on chatbots and how to build one, given while at Futuristico.
Awards & Hackathons
8 Feb 2020
Hack The South 2020
1 Dec 2019
TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin 2019 Top 10 Finalist
Built Proptee in a team of 5. Proptee is a mobile-first exchange market for real estate properties.
23 Feb 2019
Campus Hack 19
9 Feb 2019
Hack The South 2019
University of Southampton finished 1st in the official 2019 MLH Europe school rankings. The ranking combined merit points from winning projects and participation points from attendance across the season.
25 Nov 2018
OpenBankHack18 Winner
1 Nov 2018
Cryptocurrencies for Fun & Profit 1st place
"Not wanting to miss out on the fun (and profit), Netcraft has devised its own cryptocurrency: Cryptopuff. However, it was written in a rush during a single weekend - who knows what vulnerabilities may be lurking in its depths?" Our team accumulated the most points and won by optimising the Go code and exploiting vulnerabilities such as hash collisions and default passwords.
1 Oct 2018
UKIEPC 2018 (in Southampton) 2nd place
My team and I solved 5 out of 12 algorithmics problems in 5 hours. We were 2nd amongst the 18 teams from our University and 43rd across all the UK and Ireland.
5 May 2018
Hack The South
24 Nov 2017
HackTrain 4.0
21 Apr 2017
Hackaburg
Programmed an autonomous driving car at the Regensburg hackathon.
24 Mar 2017
DfT Hacks Winner
As a team, we were given a dataset of vessel movements across the English Channel and we had to analyse their behaviour to detect anomalies. We used machine learning to detect anomalies which we plotted on a 3D visualization of the Earth. We also had an Apache Spark processing pipeline that showed real-time data in a Grafana dashboard.
17 Mar 2017
START Hack 2017 3rd place
My team and I built Insure Ride, a solution that would allow drivers to get insurance rates personalised to their unique driving style. We did this by using the sensors of the Bosch XDK together with machine learning to build accurate driver profiles. The driver would only "pay as they go", on a drive-by-drive basis, using blockchain contracts.
24 Feb 2017
SotonHack17
4 Feb 2017
IC Hack 17
3 Dec 2016
ARM Hackathon
Built a university assistant bot with the winning team.
19 Nov 2016
Hackday 1st place
My team and I built a Facebook Messenger chat bot for our university. "Susu The Cat Bot" could answer questions about the weather, how (not) to cheat on exams, your due coursework, your timetable, and how to find your way around the campus.
1 Oct 2016
Phishing for Fun & Profit 1st place
After analysing a selection of real world phishing kits, my team and I won the first place by accumulating the most points. One point meant locating a destination to which stolen credentials were sent.
1 Apr 2015
FII Practic Hackathon 1st place
I won the hackathon with UniNet, a social network for students aimed at helping freshers to get used to the student life. The hackathon lasted 24 hours and I worked together with a friend.
27 Mar 2015
Startup Weekend Iasi
1 Dec 2013
CreateHS November Challenge 1st place
I won the November challenge by rewriting my high school's website from the ground up. It featured a more stylish design, a simpler dashboard, and a responsive layout. I built it using Node.js, Bootstrap, and MongoDB. The project, titled CNRV.ro, was judged by @gvanrossum, @pamelafox, @jeresig, @dhh.
1 Aug 2013
Cisco Network Programmability Contest 1st place
I won the first place by designing a QoS (quality of service) Manager app for Cisco routers. The contest took place during the InfoEducatie summer camp in Romania.
Press
5 Mar 2026
Curiozitatea care l-a dus din Roman până în Londra și un startup AI
Romanian interview about my path growing up in a small town in Romania, moving abroad to study in the UK, and growing several startups.
26 May 2025
Claude Code does our releases now
Front page for a day: 69 points and 78 comments on how Claude Code ships Molin's releases.
17 Sep 2023
Cápák között (Hungarian Shark Tank), season 6
Molin AI pitched on national Hungarian television. 1,200 visits in the first hour and 50 shop submissions.
19 Apr 2022
Messenger For Desktop Update: How I Sold My Company On MicroAcquire
Founder story on selling Messenger for Desktop, the app that had passed 6 million downloads, through MicroAcquire.
6 Dec 2021
Proptee secures €60,000 to develop and launch property investment app
Covered the €60,000 institutional round, and our efforts on getting the app into the hands of thousands of users.
31 Mar 2021
Finovate podcast
Fintech podcast episode about Proptee, recorded with my co-founder.
25 Nov 2020
Proptee reached #3 on Hacker News
1,500 visitors and hundreds of signups in a day. 3 investors and 1 journalist got in touch.
6 Jul 2016
Messenger for Desktop Explained: Usage, Video and Download
Softpedia's editorial walkthrough of the app, with video, a year after launch.
30 Jun 2015
Urbaniac, season 1 episode 15
A 28-minute interview on the local station in Roman, about Messenger for Desktop and WhatsApp for Desktop. Filmed the day after the Adevărul piece and broadcast the following Tuesday.
28 Jun 2015
Are 18 ani şi a îmbunătăţit deja Facebook-ul
Romanian national TV news site, covered Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
25 Jun 2015
Puştiul de 18 ani din Roman care a îmbunătăţit Facebook
National Romanian newspaper interview about Messenger for Desktop.
22 Jun 2015
Show HN: WhatsApp for Desktop
Reached #3 on the front page: 120 points and 81 comments.
22 Jun 2015
WhatsApp for Desktop reached #1 on Product Hunt
#1 Product of the Day and #5 of the week, the same day the Show HN hit #3 on Hacker News.
22 Jun 2015
„WhatsApp for Desktop“: Nativer Client für Windows, Mac und Linux
German tech magazine coverage on launch day.
13 Apr 2015
Install Facebook Messenger Desktop App In Linux
Linux publication walkthrough of the app, linking my repo and messengerfordesktop.com.
12 Apr 2015
Messenger for Desktop: Facebook Messenger für Windows, OS X und Linux
German tech blog, 2 days after launch, on the Messenger client for all 3 desktop platforms.
11 Apr 2015
Messenger for Desktop reached #2 on Product Hunt
#2 Product of the Day, the day after launch, for the Facebook Messenger client.
Volunteering
May 2018 - Apr 2019 1 yr
Technology Advisor
Having enjoyed their events as a student, I joined the committee to get behind-the-scenes access to special guests and help with Future World's prestigious Dragon's Den.
May 2018 - Apr 2019 1 yr
President
HackaSoton promotes student entrepreneurship through hackathons.
May 2018 1 mo
Local Organiser
I organised a workshop where I helped students learn Node.js and JavaScript.
Jul 2017 - Jul 2018 1 yr 1 mo
Campus Ambassador
Responsible for raising student interest in Docker and organising events.
May 2017 - Apr 2018 1 yr
Tech Officer
ECS Entrepreneurs is a student run society whose mission is to build a platform for students who share like entrepreneurial passions to start building their technology start-ups.
May 2017 - Apr 2018 1 yr
Tech Executive
HackaSoton is a student-led community of skillful and passionate developers and tech-lovers who look for constant improvement by putting their knowledge in practice through entrepreneurial, technical and engineering competitions, conferences and events.
2013 - 2014
Community Volunteer
The group brings together people from Roman who care about their local community.
Languages
- 🇬🇧 British EnglishProfessional (C1)
- 🇷🇴 RomanianNative
- 🇪🇸 SpanishElementary
