Martin Olsansky
Contact
About me
Intro
I have 9+YOE as a full-stack web engineer (focus on frontend) in domains such as cybersecurity [nordvpn.com, saferpass.net], banking [george-labs.com], video platform [filmzie.com], marketplaces [seasy.at] and healthtech [gohealth.com].
Outside of work, I mentor to aspiring software engineers [nodeschool.io] and entrepreneurs [growni.sk].
I co-founded a company [seasy.at] which has secured a 7 digit figure funding. We've been also selected to collaborate with ESA (European Space Agency) and join their innovation incubator and also YC school. Had a chance to hire and work with some great people. We generated revenue and were able to put some bread on the table. We've made our customers lives easier. There is a lot to unpack from this experience.
I gave lighting talks about JS and React. Co-organised events dedicated to biotech, bioinformatics and biohacking. I've participated in many Startup Weekends. I was a core member of a local hackerspace. I've converted a chest freezer into my own Wim Hof cold plunge. Wrote some tech articles and contributed to open source projects.
Motivation
I appreciate that my ideas and opinions are heard, and it feels good to know that my work is valuable to others. It's important to have a clear goal or vision, as it gives me something to work towards. Having time to improve myself and help others improve is great too. It's nice when people keep their promises, showing that they're reliable. "Skin in the game" means having a personal stake in what I'm doing, which I believe is important. Lastly, I value transparency as it helps in understanding what's going on and builds trust. A place where we can grow.
Time zones
Working remotely from the EU.
At 8AM EST, I have 2PM CET.
That's 5-6 working hours overlap.
At 8AM PST, I have 5PM CET.
That's 2-4 working hours overlap.
See more at worldtimebuddy.com (pre-filled)
Experience
NordVPN
VPN service that encrypts your internet traffic. Unicorn with 3B+ valuation and millions of users.
Senior Software Engineer
- Developed browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge
- By constantly improving the product, I have increased ratings in extension stores. This had direct effect on increase in subscriptions and revenue
- Mentored junior team members, helped them to grow their skills and knowledge, contributed to their professional development
- Conducted hiring interviews
- Improved DX, increased team productivity and streamlined our development workflow
- Participated in the design and UX process, provided feedback and suggestions that improved the overall product experience
- Communicated and collaborated with other teams, facilitated knowledge sharing and better alignment of goals
- Provided human code reviews for our and other teams
- Debugged many low level issues (e.g. proxy authentication - had to dig into source code of Chromium and Firefox)
- Fixed (and created) tons of bugs
- Helped set up our automated QA
- Improved loading times and performance
- Prototyped internal test and labs projects, closely collaborated with R&D team
Seasy
Discover, book, and experience over 1,500+ sailing destinations across the globe. You can book marinas from the comfort of your yacht.
Tech Co-Founder
Aug 2019 -> Nov 2021
- As a tech co-founder, I’ve basically built the whole thing
- We have received 7 digit investment and generated revenue
- Had a chance to hire and work with some great people
- We have made our customers lives easier and safer
- Designed and implemented architecture for services such User, Search and Discovery, Booking, Messaging, Reviews, Notifications, Managing, Support, Backoffice, Payments, Refunds
- React Native app (via Expo)
- SEO focused React SSR frontend
- Federated Apollo GraphQL server with Postgres
- Sometimes I took role of customer support to learn more about our stakeholders journey and experience
Erste Bank
George is white-label banking frontend for all banks acquired by Erste Bank. It is used by millions of people in Europe.
Senior Frontend Engineer
Aug 2016 -> Apr 2018
- Incremental refactoring of legacy codebase from Marionette/Backbone.js to React, Redux and TypeScript
- Implemented, improved and maintained several key features such as plugins, transactions, chat, import and export
- Took part in grooming of new features
- Improved application loading times and performance
- Performed regular code reviews for other developers
- Strong proponent of TDD, knowledge sharing and Bus factor
SaferPass
SaferPass is a password manager that securely stores, manages, and autofills passwords, passkeys, credit cards, notes and more.
Full-stack Software Engineer
Jul 2015 -> Aug 2016
- Implementing and maintaining sync of encrypted data across multiple devices
- Worked on automatic conflict resolution and upserting (not CRDT/automerge, but pouchdb)
- Handling edge cases such as merging encrypted data with devices that were offline for longer time, versioning encrypted data
- Developing browser extensions for 4 different browsers and build system to automate it
- Developing Android and iOS app
HomeCredit
Internal tools for insurance/loan projects.
Senior/Lead Frontend Engineer
Mar 2019 -> April 2020
- Designed and implemented single-spa architecture (or micro-frontends)
- Lazy loading of applications
- Deployments to k8s via helm
- Introducing React frontends
- Mentored juniors
- Will add later...
Treeti
Treeti is a streaming provider that offers a wide range of movies and TV shows in various genres and languages.
Full-stack Software Engineer
2018 -> 2019
- Will add later...
Audinn
Control your business environment with music and advertising solutions that suit your brand. (Now decommissioned)
Tech Co-founder
- Will add later...
IKEA Components
Custom knowledge base solution for local automated IKEA warehouse, specialising in the packaging and delivery of furniture accessories and parts. (Now decomissioned)
- Will add later...
Tech stack
Languages
human code reviews, typescript, javascript, go (learning), python (learning), sql, php, wasm
Frontend
react, vite, tailwind, apollo, relay gql, next.js, gatsby.js, jamstack, storybook, redux, backbone.js, vue (sometimes), jquery
Backend
node.js, apollo server, deno, rest api, express, koa.js, prisma, hasura, graphql/gql, trpc
Apps
electron, react native, expo, browser extensions, ionic
Database
postgresql, mongodb, supabase, firebase, mysql, redis, neo4j, sqlite, dgraph (learning), pgvector (learning), pg_graphql (for mvp), crdt (learning), pouchdb
DevOps
docker, kubernetes/helm, heroku, netlify, aws, gcp, firebase
QA / Testing
playwright, puppeteer, jest, fuck around -> find out (scientific method), fuzzing
ML / AI
langchain, gpt/openai, r/LocalLLaMA, learnprompting.org
Writing
Certs
