Cristian Dan

Co-Founder & CTO | Engineering Leader
London, UK.

About

Technical co-founder and CTO with 10+ years in startups, specializing in building products from zero to scale. Took a fintech app from first commit to 10,000+ users in 3 months and Apple's App of the Day. Scaled systems to serve 30+ countries and 2,500 bank integrations while cutting infrastructure costs by 60%. Experienced in hiring and leading engineering teams of up to 9, and comfortable operating across the full stack — React Native, Node.js, AWS.

Work

Yayzy
|

Co-Founder and CTO

London, UK

Summary

Led the end-to-end technology vision and execution for a FinTech startup, overseeing product development, infrastructure scaling, and team growth to support global operations and significant user acquisition.

Highlights

Built the product from scratch — React Native app, Node.js backend, AWS infrastructure - reaching 10,000 users in the first 3 months and earning an Apple App of the Day feature.

Scaled the platform to support 30+ countries and 2,500 bank integrations through a microservice architecture with auto-scaling, increasing throughput by an order of magnitude while reducing infrastructure costs by 60%.

Grew the engineering team from 2 to 9, owning recruitment, hiring, and mentorship across developers and designers.

Trained an ML model to classify transaction data by industry, sub-industry, and merchant, powering the app's core carbon-tracking functionality.

Drove user engagement and retention through real-time analytics and iterative optimization of the onboarding flow.

Set the technical vision and roadmap, balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform scalability.

Raised $1.5M+; backed by Antler, Oxford, LBS and featured by TechCrunch, BBC, Forbes and others.

Stint
|

Chief Technology Officer

Summary

As an early team member and CTO, spearheaded technology strategy, product development, and team building for a high-growth startup connecting employers with on-demand university student workforce.

Highlights

As an early team member, played a pivotal role in a tech startup connecting employers with on-demand university student workforce, contributing to user base growth to over 4,000 students by 2019.

Spearheaded the company's technology strategy and vision, implementing secure and resource-efficient technologies to drive platform development and growth.

Directed the end-to-end development and successful release of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within 4 months, ensuring a stable infrastructure and continuous platform functionality.

Increased job postings from 10/week to over 150/week by optimizing platform performance, implementing improved features, and enhancing UI/UX under my technical leadership.

Built and led a high-performing 6-member development team, optimizing workflows, advising on platform security, and mentoring junior engineers in React, Node, Python, and Jupyter.

Collaborated cross-functionally with UX, design, and executive teams to define optimal technical solutions, ensuring successful scoping, planning, and implementation of new features.

Oversaw daily technical operations, conducting code reviews, resolving blockers, and facilitating team meetings while contributing hands-on to key projects.

Enhanced cross-functional knowledge sharing across the organization by implementing collaborative tools like Trello and Google Drive/Docs.

Zebra Fuel Ltd
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Senior Software Engineer

Summary

Developed and architected critical frontend and backend systems, contributing to product development and team growth for a mobile fuel delivery service.

Highlights

Developed a suite of JavaScript projects, including a React Web + Cordova hybrid mobile app for customers, Node.js microservices on AWS Lambda, and a React web portal for business fleet orders.

Implemented cutting-edge frontend technologies including GraphQL, React v16 with error boundaries, Semantic UI for rapid prototyping, and an external configuration loader.

Architected and delivered a Dashboard project using GraphQL and Relay, enhancing clarity and accessibility of resources for frontend clients.

Contributed significantly to business logic and product development, while actively participating in interviewing and recruiting new frontend team members.

Mentored team members on GraphQL, enabling successful adoption and integration of this technology into new projects.

TRISOFT Group
|

Contract Software Engineer

Summary

Delivered high-quality software products as a contract engineer, leveraging diverse frontend technologies and ensuring timely project completion.

Highlights

Collaborated remotely to deliver 5 high-quality products across various projects using Vue, Angular, and React technologies.

Achieved proficiency in Vue.js within one week, enabling prompt coding contributions that accelerated project delivery schedules.

Enhanced the 'Literally Canvas' library (React-based) to function as a t-shirt designer, enabling the client to launch an MVP in under 80 work hours.

Ensured successful, on-schedule delivery of the 'Ready Player One Movie's page' project by providing continuous support and applying comprehensive technical expertise.

iQuest Group
|

Software Engineer

Summary

Contributed to software development within a large solutions provider, focusing on technology research and advocating for efficiency improvements.

Highlights

Collaborated effectively within a 10-member team in a leading software solutions department of 25.

Researched and championed the adoption of cutting-edge technologies like Qlik, React, and JavaScript, accelerating team project delivery time by 20%.

City365
|

Technical Co-founder

Summary

Co-founded a tech venture, leading the design, development, and scaling of a hybrid mobile application with a robust backend on Azure.

Highlights

Designed and developed a hybrid mobile application (Ionic, Angular.js) with a Node.js backend on Azure, achieving seamless scalability of tens of thousands of requests per second within 3 months.

Managed the end-to-end development lifecycle from launch to app store submission, including training developers on new technologies and processes.

Led a 3-member development team in building the backend, admin panel, and mobile application, fostering expertise in Node.js, REST, Angular.js, and DevOps methodologies.

Education

Babeș-Bolyai University

Master's Degree

Distributed Computing and Systems in Internet

Babeș-Bolyai University

Bachelor's Degree

Computer Science

Languages

English
French
Romanian

Skills

Programming Languages

JavaScript, Python, Java, C#, C++, C, x86 Assembly.

Frameworks & Libraries

React.js, Node.js, Vue.js, AngularJS, Ionic Framework, ASP.NET MVC, GraphQL, React Native, HTML, CSS, HTML5.

Cloud & Infrastructure

AWS, Azure, Hadoop, Microservices, Auto-scaling Infrastructure.

Databases

SQL.

Methodologies & Practices

Software Engineering, OOP, Scrum, Programming, Software Development Lifecycle, Test Driven Development, DevOps.

System & Product Management

System Architecture, Product Development, Product Management, Project Management, Mobile Programming.

Leadership & Strategy

Technical Leadership, Engineering Management, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Planning, Strategy, Coaching, Servant Leadership, Prioritization, Influence.

Machine Learning

ML Model Training.