Education · 2026 → 2028
•Executive MBA
SP Jain London School of Management
Part-time and online, alongside work, expected 2028. Studying to sharpen the business half of the job.
§ 001Available · Senior / Founding Product Engineer
Full-stack productengineerwho ships.
Eight years building products end to end, from the first user conversation to the database schema to the launch post. Early engineer at YC-backed Waydev, product engineer at The Social Cat. Founder of Basetool Labs and Sussur, an AI sales coach for Mac I built and launched alone. Co-author of Avo, the open-source Rails admin framework past 2M downloads.
- 08
- years shipping product
- 2M+
- Avo downloads · co-founder ’20–21
- 150K+
- users at The Social Cat
- 1.5M+
- profiles in the pipeline
Trusted stack · Where the work has shipped
§ 002Open to work
Ready for the right product team.
I do my best work with a small team, direct customer access, and ownership from product decision to production code.
- Role
- Founding or senior product engineer
- Focus
- AI, developer tools, B2B SaaS
- Setup
- Remote from Constanța (EET, UTC+2/+3), overlaps US East Coast mornings
- Start
- Available now
§ 003Now · Updated 24 Sep 2026
What I'm doing now.
Sussur is live, the MBA has started, and small client builds keep my hands in production code while I look for my next team.
Product · macOS · 2026
↗Sussur
Solo founder · app still live
A Mac app that listens to live sales calls and whispers the next good question. Audio never leaves the laptop. Built in about three months, launched with a free tier and a $29/month Pro plan, 8 signed LOIs and 96 founding-cohort members. I stepped back in September 2026 when funding didn't come together.
Contracting · 2025 →
↗Basetool Labs
Founder
My contracting company. Small MVPs and presentation websites for local businesses, solo from scoping to launch. A recent favorite: a multilingual, SEO-ready Next.js site for a translation office that used to be invisible on Google.
§ 004Work
Full-stack, production, real users.
From early-engineer roles to product-owning IC work. Every line shipped, measured, iterated.
Founder
AI sales coach for macOS. It listens to live sales calls and whispers the next good question. Audio never leaves the laptop.
- Built it in about three months, AI-first with parallel Claude Code agents: an Electron and React app with on-device transcription, a real-time coaching loop on cloud LLMs, RAG over sales material, and post-call recaps.
- Launched on Apple Silicon with a free tier and a $29/month Pro plan, plus the website, onboarding flow and docs.
- Found early demand: 8 signed LOIs and 96 founding-cohort members.
- Stepped back in September 2026 when funding didn't come together, and kept the app live.
ElectronReact 19TypeScriptSQLiteDrizzleLanceDBsherpa-onnxOpenRouterFounder · contracting
My contracting company. A handful of small MVPs and presentation websites for local businesses, solo from scoping to launch.
- A recent favorite: a multilingual, SEO-ready Next.js site for a translation office that used to be invisible on Google.
Next.jsTypeScriptProduct Engineer
Led product and engineering with the CTO, three of us in total: talk to users, build, launch, measure, repeat.
- Owned the Next.js frontend from wireframes to production as we grew from about 15K to 150K+ users in under two years.
- In parallel, worked on Clip (useclip.com) from day one: a UGC video platform where brands brief campaigns and vetted creators deliver licensed ads. It now lists 10,000+ creators and 3,000+ brands.
- Built creator discovery on top of an ML pipeline of 1.5M+ Instagram and TikTok profiles (about 10K new each day), with filters, rankings and custom charts that stay fast on slow connections.
- Designed the GraphQL contracts with the backend, integrated TikTok and Meta APIs, and built the shared TypeScript component library.
- Ran A/B tests and funnels: quarterly retention up about 15%, organic sessions up 32% through programmatic SEO.
TypeScriptReactNext.jsNestJSGraphQLPostgreSQLAWSSoftware Engineer - OceanSMART
Container-shipping ERP. Worked with port experts to turn how terminals actually run into software.
- Built React and GraphQL screens for port operators, including an auto-fill connector that cut manual entry by 25 to 30%.
- Added live vessel routes and map layers, and modernized a two-year-old frontend without pausing the roadmap.
TypeScriptReactNode.jsGraphQLMongoDBSoftware Engineer
Engineering-analytics platform for enterprise engineering leaders.
- Owned core parts of the main app (Laravel, Vue.js), including the cycle time, PR throughput and code review dashboards enterprise customers used daily.
- Moved the platform to Laravel Octane, improving response times and stability under load by about 35%.
- Built the notification service (in-app, email, Slack, Teams, Google Chat) and helped with interviews and onboarding.
Vue.jsLaravelRedisMySQLAWSJavaScript Trainer
Taught HTML, CSS, JavaScript and React to career changers at one of the largest coding academies in CEE.
- Reworked the exercises from student feedback and mentored newer trainers.
JavaScriptReactHTMLCSSCo-Founder
Co-founded with my brother after Avo: an open-source internal tool framework (280+ GitHub stars) that gives teams one protected place to view and manage the data they already own.
- Built the fields model, filtering, views and permissions in TypeScript, React and Next.js.
- Ran a beta with pilot customers and got a Y Combinator interview for W22.
TypeScriptReactNext.jsPostgreSQLCo-Founder & Engineer
A Ruby on Rails framework that turns a few lines of config into a full admin panel. Still actively maintained at avohq.io, with 1.8K+ GitHub stars and 2M+ downloads.
- Co-built the UI layer and configuration system: view components, form fields, filters, roles and permissions.
- Ran the open-source side: reviewed contributions, wrote docs and RFCs, supported the community.
- Went through YC Startup School and Launch.ro, and interviewed with Y Combinator for S21.
Ruby on RailsHotwireStimulusTailwindPostgreSQLSoftware Engineer · Consultant
Enterprise Java, Salesforce and public-sector software before the startup years.
- Amdocs (2020 to 2021) - Java and Spring microservices for Vodafone Romania's Digital Experience platform.
- National Union of Public Notaries (2020 to 2021) - Rebuilt the public site and a secure internal app for meetings.
- Deloitte Digital (2019 to 2020) - Shipped Cloud4M on Salesforce, cutting repetitive input by about 30%. Two Salesforce certifications in under six months.
- EcoKnights, Kuala Lumpur (2018 to 2019) - Built a volunteer platform for a sustainability NGO and helped run its events.
JavaSpringSalesforceLWCApex
§ 005Ventures
Companies I've built or co-built.
Three of my four ventures: a Mac app I built alone, a small contracting practice, and an open-source framework still in production.
01
Sussur
AI sales coach · macOS
Listens to live sales calls and whispers the next good question. On-device transcription, real-time coaching, post-call recaps. Audio never leaves the Mac.
See the appRole · Period
Solo founder
Jan 2026 → Sep 2026
Status
Stepped back · app still live
Metric
8 signed LOIs
02
Basetool Labs
Contracting company
Small MVPs and presentation websites for local businesses, solo from scoping to launch.
Visit siteRole · Period
Founder
2025 → Present
Status
Active
Metric
Scope → launch
03
Avo
Open source · Rails admin
Configuration-based admin framework for Ruby on Rails. Still actively maintained by the core team at avohq.io.
Visit avohq.ioRole · Period
Co-founder
2020 → 2021
Status
OSS · still shipping
Metric
2M+ downloads
§ 006Toolkit
What I reach for.
Full-stack by default. Deep on TypeScript + React, comfortable owning schemas, services and infra.
- Frontend
- TypeScript · React · Next.js · Vue · Redux · Tailwind · Vite · design systems · accessibility
- Backend
- Node.js · NestJS · Laravel · Ruby on Rails · Java / Spring · Electron
- APIs & data
- REST · GraphQL · WebSockets · PostgreSQL · MongoDB · Redis · MySQL · SQLite
- Visualisation
- D3 · custom charting · real-time dashboards · maps and geospatial UI
- Platform
- Docker · AWS · GCP · Railway · Vercel · GitHub Actions · Playwright · Sentry
- Product
- User interviews · A/B testing · GA4 / Mixpanel funnels · landing pages · pitch decks
- AI
- OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini APIs · OpenRouter · AI SDK · RAG · pgvector · evals · on-device speech-to-text · Omnigent over Claude Code and Cursor · local open-weight models
§ 007Build log · Writing in public
Notes from the workshop.
I build in public - on the blog, on X and Instagram, and in commits on GitHub. Everything below is a real post.
Essays
Event notes
GitHub contributions
2,344 contributions, Oct 2025 → Oct 2026, mostly in private repos, so GitHub shows counts, not code. Source: GitHub ↗
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | 0 |
| Nov 2025 | 0 |
| Dec 2025 | 0 |
| Jan 2026 | 0 |
| Feb 2026 | 0 |
| Mar 2026 | 304 |
| Apr 2026 | 651 |
| May 2026 | 231 |
| Jun 2026 | 259 |
| Jul 2026 | 389 |
| Aug 2026 | 436 |
| Sep 2026 | 74 |
| Oct 2026 | 0 |
§ 008Recognition · Languages · Off-screen
Receipts.
Awards & publications
- 2019Best Paper Award · 31st Twente Student Conference on IT
- 2020IEEE SMC 2020 · word prediction for mammography reports (with Mocanu and Seifert)
- 2021Y Combinator interviews · Avo (S21) and Basetool (W22)
- 2026Pitched Sussur with a live on-device demo at the Gluon Conference, Bratislava
- 2023 →Ironman finisher · long-distance triathlon
Languages
- RomanianNative
- EnglishFluent · C2
- GermanProfessional · B2 (Goethe DSD)
- DutchElementary · A2
Education
- Executive MBA
SP Jain London School of Management · part-time · 2026–2028 - BSc Technical Computer Science
University of Twente · Final grade 9/10 · 2016–2019
Off-screen
- Ironman training
- Hiking & snowboarding
- Reading
- Cooking (mostly Asian)
Certifications
- Salesforce Certified Administrator · 2020
- Salesforce Platform Developer I · 2020
- Deutsches Sprachdiplom B2 · Goethe-Institut
- ECDL Core Certificate
§ 009Press & speaking
Available for podcasts, panels and press.
Topics: AI-native engineering, building solo with AI agents, founding engineering, open-source developer tools.
Short bio
David Marin is a full-stack product engineer and founder. He built and launched Sussur, an AI sales coach for Mac, co-founded the open-source Rails admin framework Avo, and was an early engineer at YC-backed Waydev and a product engineer at The Social Cat.
Long bio
David Marin is a full-stack product engineer with eight years of building products end to end. He founded Sussur, an AI sales coach for Mac that he built and launched alone, and runs Basetool Labs, a small contracting practice. Previously Product Engineer at The Social Cat and Clip, Software Engineer at Oceaneering and YC W21 startup Waydev, and co-founder of the open-source Rails admin framework Avo (avohq.io). Earlier work at Amdocs, Deloitte Digital and the National Union of Public Notaries. BSc Technical Computer Science, University of Twente, with a Best Paper Award and an IEEE SMC 2020 publication. Studying for an Executive MBA at SP Jain London. Ironman finisher, four languages, based in Constanța.
Recent talks
- May 2026Gluon Conference, Bratislava · live on-device demo of Sussur
- Jun 2026Café Cursor Bucharest · talk on building Sussur
- 2026Delta Bootcamp by Launch Romania · five-day founder program
High-res headshot on request · Press contact: david@basetool.ai
§ 010Contact
Hiring a product engineer who can actually ship? Let's talk.
Open to founding or senior product engineer roles, remote from Constanța. Email is the fastest way to reach me.
Book a call ↗