(*written in my lows somewhere back in 2019*)

I'm a tech person who recently ended a side project initiated at the end of 2018. I invested some money, but mostly my time, developing various components (apps, web, automation, etc.) for the concept. The startup focused on creating custom t-shirts from Instagram profiles in the B2C sector.

My background is in software development, having held positions such as senior engineer, tech lead, and CTO. While this isn't my first failed idea, it felt different. Despite believing I had the necessary knowledge to run it successfully and attempting to follow conventional practices, it didn't pan out as expected. The process itself isn't as crucial as the lessons learned.

Reflecting on what went wrong, I realized that my 'Ego' played a significant role.

I called it - **Founder's Ego Trap**

* ego is the worst enemy of a technical founder  —  *Hi there, I'm not!*

* ego denies its existence  —  *They are all wrong, you don’t have any issues — carry on.*

* ego overrates technical side — *Do a great software and they will come.*

* ego compares you with others  —  *Oh look — that guy over there is way better. I bet he did his product in single approach!*

* ego pulls you away from non-technical tasks  —  *Marketing, validation, feedback — who needs this! Great app will defend itself.*

* ego preys on your anxiety  — *You should do it better. 'They' expect perfection. Iterations are for weak.*

* ego will always overrate tiny missing feature  — *Without that N-th feature your app is useless.*

* ego will stretch your MVP  —  *People love to have more options. MVPs are for weak*

* ego will trap you in endless technical considerations  —  *You should do it better. Try to micro-optimize it. What will happen when millions of users come?*

* ego doesn’t like you doing stuff you are not best at  —  *You know nothing about marketing. Don't spend time learning it — you're a great developer so let's stretch that MVP instead.*

* ego will always find someone to blame  —  *People were unable to see a value. It's their fault.*

* ego will find reasons why you shouldn’t ship  —  *Wait! We are still missing something — that one unique feature.*

* ego looks for praise, doesn’t like validation and criticism  —  *Don’t hurt me! You are nothing without me.*

* ego will push you away from current project to new better one  —  *Look there is a new, better opportunity. You have already done a hard tasks. Leave it.*

* ego expects you to create something revolutionary/unique  —  *look at that code/tech/(...)! we can extend it and make a library — people are waiting for it!*

* ego makes you focus on future celebrations not on road to them  —  *after we succeed, we will …*

---

**Ego is your worst enemy**. Ego will keep you in your bubble.

Be quick. Be open for feedback and validation. Test. Release quick and often. Prototype.

*(it took me 2.5 months to hit 'publish' button)*

---

Cover image photo by [Orkun Azap](https://unsplash.com/@denizen?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/a-close-up-of-a-street-sign-on-a-pole-Pt1EJz7ygAs?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash)

Curb your ego

I do sofware.

Photoshop plugin created to extend Photoshop's AI possibilities. With this plugin installed Photoshop gains superpowers thanks to integration with:\
\- OpenAI's DALL·E 2 and DALL·E 3 ([openai.com/dall-e-3](https://openai.com/dall-e-3))\
\- StabilityAI Stable Image ([stability.ai](https://stability.ai))

But the real game-changer is its compatibility with all the AI models available at Relicate ([replicate.com](https://replicate.com)). Replicate already hosts hundreds of models, each of which can be easily imported into Photoshop.

This plugin offers users a fantastic opportunity to easily compare results from different models without ever leaving Photoshop. Users can even create multi-model workflows, where the output from one model becomes the input for another.

With a built-in prediction history, users can conveniently access all their results along with the corresponding input data. Prompts can be copied and reused across different models with ease. Plus, adjusting and repeating predictions is as simple as clicking a button.

(video presentation taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZoEqt0vqe4)

AI Photoshop Plugin

Annotely is easy to use web based screenshot annotation and markup tool. Works on any browser and any device - mobile or desktop. Privacy focused application where are image manipulation is done on client side.

A real side project started in early 2010 🥹. A private battleground to learn new technologies and practice product development. Annotely currently has a steady growing number of users.

Annotely

Fabristic was an online B2C venture where users could create t-shirts, backpacks, pillows from their Instagram posts. \
All instagram photos were imported automatically to present user products. \
I did web frontend application, iOS application, backend and all integrations. In a nutshell - all was done wrong.

Fabristic

Member of a frontend team responsible for current Kraken.com trading application. I was tasked with optimisation of critical components and overall optimisation of the client facing trading platform. I worked on new multi-team feature introducing dynamic forms creation and data gathering. 

Due to job force cuts my position was terminated based on short employment history (ref. https://blog.kraken.com/post/16442/business-update) 🤷🏻‍♂️

\#typescript #nextjs #node

Senior Software Engineer

Technical Team Lead

Enginner

Online B2C photobook printing company where I was tasked with a challenge of creating a client application, custom desktop publishing (DTP) solution and end-to-end architecture design (i.e. data exchange and storage formats). As a solution architect I was responsible for building Adobe Flex client application and migrating it to React. I was a lead engineer responsible for implementing all crucial React components. \
Solution I created is currently handling tens of thousands of orders with fail rate far less than one percent.  Key challenges I was facing were - first, high memory consumption issues while working with large numbers of user photos (with average size over 2MB) multiple low level image manipulations and uploads. Secondly a number of security threats while processing user provided files. And lastly, rendering performance issues we faced when rendering content interactively modified by users. I was also responsible for creating data flow architecture as well as API specification for both company owned client application and external printing facilities. As a technical team leader I was coordinating the work of 3 other software developers. I’ve created a multi platform React application to be run on desktop and mobile devices with clear UI and BL separation.\
\
\#typescript #react, #node.js #aws #as3

Lead developer / Architect / Co-Founder

iOS Developer

iOS Lead Engineer

Member of Adobe Prototyping Team (internal R&D). I was involved in multiple of the internal projects working as a full stack engineer focusing on providing complete solution for product prototyping needs. Working with React, React Spectrum UI, web components and iOS Swift. I've worked closely with stakeholders gathering requirements and building testable prototypes. As a full stack engineer I was also involved in designing APIs and backend solutions for prototypes I was involved in. APIs were mostly created with TypeScript and Node.js leveraging integrations with internal systems and deployed using Docker on AWS and later on proprietary cloud platform based on Kubernetes and Docker.

\#typescript #react #node.js #docker #aws

Led a team in creating a web-based order creation and tracking application for a concierge platform. Oversaw team building and served as the lead React engineer. As a React lead created several prototypes during the project's initial phase. Designed application architecture, selected tools, and managed integrations with third-party applications like freshdesk.com and tookanapp.com using Python and AWS.

Matt

2024