# Nico Kalkusinski
> Full-Stack Engineer • SaaS Founder • Forward Deployed Engineer

## Contact
- Email: nicokalkusinski@gmail.com
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nicokalkusinski
- Medium: https://medium.com/@nicokalkusinski

## Primary pages
- [/](https://nicokalkusinski.com/): Locale detection entry route.
- [/projects](https://nicokalkusinski.com/projects): Legacy redirect route for localized projects pages.
- [/life](https://nicokalkusinski.com/life): Legacy redirect route for localized life pages.
- Life topics: The Accident, On the Road, Rethinking Language Learning, The Social, Breaking Barriers.

## Professional summary
Hyper-generalist 5+ years of experience in Tech.

Built two SaaS products: LanguageEverest, a language learning platform with AI tutoring, and CULTINEXT, an enterprise agricultural management system. Implemented over fifty automations & integrations between CRMs, ERPs, and business tools. Sharing knowledge through writing, events, and meetups when time allows.

Worked in technical roles requiring direct customer interaction, partnership negotiation, and cross-functional collaboration.

Native in English and Polish, professional in Spanish. Currently in Spain after living and working across four countries. Outside of work: dancing bachata and rethinking how people learn languages. 

## Work experience
### 1. Software Engineer, Platform Engineering at Multiverse Computing
- Period: Dec 2025 – Present
- Location: Spain
- Company URL: https://www.multiversecomputing.com
- Summary: Platform engineering in a regulated, security-sensitive environment supporting multiple internal and external products. Own production reliability, API evolution, security remediation, and CI/CD migration while improving developer experience across teams.
- NDA note: Specific technologies, project names, and implementation details are kept generic due to signed NDA.
- Responsibilities:
  - 1. Platform Engineering & API Evolution: Owned delivery of production fixes in a core internal platform used by multiple teams—handling full loop from reproduce to rollout without breaking consumers. Heavily contributed to API cleanup effort, mapping real usage across products, flagging dead surface area, and proposing migration plans that reduced ambiguity between docs and actual system behavior.
  - 2. Security Remediation with Verification: Took ownership of security findings end-to-end, triaging exploitable vs theoretical issues, implementing mitigations, and proving fixes with automated tests to prevent regression. Upgraded team security workflow by tightening review checklists and validation steps, turning security tasks into repeatable engineering practice.
  - 3. CI/CD Migration & Developer Experience: Migrated non-trivial CI pipeline between providers, translating job logic, artifact handling, and test stages into a maintainable setup with clear documentation. Improved build and local dev workflows by standardizing Make targets and containerized tooling, cutting 'works on my machine' issues and lowering contribution cost.
  - 4. Testing Strategy & Quality Uplift: Increased test coverage in high-impact areas with behavior-focused tests that lock down expected outcomes, improving confidence for refactors and security changes. Evaluated end-to-end test coverage, identified gaps, and drove pragmatic improvement plan based on what was actually being tested.
  - 5. Cross-Team Collaboration & Leadership: Acted as high-signal reviewer across merge requests, improving correctness, clarity, testability, and operational readiness. Unblocked teammates through debugging and environment support while fixing, documenting or delegating underlying process gaps. Produced decision documents and technical proposals that helped decision-makers choose direction on platform evolution.

### 2. BDR & Technical Solutions Architect at Qu8
- Period: Sep 2025 – Nov 2025; Ad-hoc (Current)
- Location: Poland
- Company URL: https://qu8.pl
- Summary: Worked as both BDR and technical owner from discovery through implementation, tailoring solutions to each customer context and turning commercial discussions into executable delivery plans. Continue supporting qu8 in an ad-hoc technical consultant capacity.
- NDA note: Specific technologies, project names, and implementation details are kept generic due to signed NDA.
- Responsibilities:
  - 1. Discovery-to-Implementation Technical Ownership: Owned the full technical arc from initial discovery calls to implementation handoff, keeping solution choices tied to actual customer constraints, goals, and operational reality.
  - 2. Customer-Tailored Solution Design: Translated business needs into technical options with clear tradeoffs, then proposed implementation approaches that teams could execute without ambiguity.
  - 3. PRD Authoring & Implementation Planning: Wrote product requirement documents and practical implementation plans that aligned stakeholders on scope, sequencing, risks, and delivery expectations.
  - 4. Technical Leadership in Customer Meetings: Led the technical side of customer meetings, clarified architecture and integration questions, and built confidence by explaining complex topics in a way decision-makers could act on.
  - 5. BDR + Technical Bridge: Operated at the intersection of business development and engineering, qualifying opportunities while shaping technically credible paths forward—functioning as an all-things-technical, almost CTO-style point of ownership.
  - 6. Ad-hoc Technical Consulting (Current): Continue to support selected initiatives with technical consultation, implementation guidance, and decision support where product, sales, and delivery intersect.

### 3. Technical Solutions Lead, Business Operations, Customer Success Manager at Neotic Technology
- Period: Sep 2024 – Aug 2025
- Location: Valencia, Spain
- Company URL: https://neotic.es
- Summary: Led development of CULTINEXT agricultural SaaS from concept to market. Built 50+ business automations, established key CRM partnerships, and implemented systems that reduced client onboarding time by 65%.
- Responsibilities:
  - 1. Technical Platform Development & Automation: Led end-to-end development of CULTINEXT enterprise agricultural SaaS from idea to ready-for-market product. Built smart integration between Raynet CRM and Atera RMM that automatically syncs clients and contracts, saving 3 hours of manual work every week.
  - 2. Sales Engineering & Go-to-Market: Worked with sales team to translate technical products into what customers actually want. Designed and executed multi-channel campaigns across LinkedIn, email, and content marketing.
  - 3. Customer Success & Relationship Management: Built onboarding systems that get clients results 65% faster—from first contact to full implementation. Created customer success stories showing real business impact with hard ROI numbers.
  - 4. Strategic Business Operations: Proposed, negotiated, and closed strategic partnership with Raynet CRM—expanding capabilities and opening new revenue streams. Automated weekly reporting for data-driven decisions.
  - 5. No-Code CRM/ERP Delivery (Creatio & Bubble.io): Led active development across four business applications: three Creatio systems (language-school CRM, internal CRM/ERP, and metal-industry CRM/process/project platform) and one Bubble.io production app (Sensem task and hour management). Implemented automation across email workflows, scheduling, payments, materials, and project tracking to reduce manual coordination and improve operational visibility.

### 4. Founder & Full-Stack Software Engineer at LanguageEverest
- Period: Sep 2021 – Present
- Location: Side Project
- Company URL: https://languageeverest.com
- Summary: Built and launched a complete AI-powered language learning SaaS. Architected real-time AI tutoring system with multi-tenancy, implemented LLM orchestration with task-specific model selection, and shipped production-ready PWA with CI/CD.
- Responsibilities:
  - 1. Product Development & Architecture: Built complete language learning SaaS using Next.js, React, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Supabase. Architected AI-powered chat with real-time streaming, active recall practice, and multi-tenancy.
  - 2. Full-Stack Engineering: Built comprehensive system with authentication, authorization, RLS security, TanStack Query optimistic updates, SSE streaming, third-party integrations, automated testing, CI/CD, and PWA.
  - 3. AI Integration & Orchestration: Integrated multiple LLMs via third-party providers with task-specific selection, reasoning models, streaming, and prompt engineering. Implemented content generation, real-time corrections, and context-aware experiences for the user.
  - 4. Customer Research, Journey Design & Feedback Loops: Owned customer research end-to-end through interviews, direct discovery, and continuous feedback collection across the product lifecycle. Mapped and optimized the full user journey from onboarding to retention, then translated insights into product priorities and shipped improvements.
  - 5. Business Operations, Marketing & Strategic Direction: Owned the business side of LanguageEverest, including company administration, marketing execution, team coordination, and day-to-day operational decisions. Set product and business direction, prioritized roadmap tradeoffs, and aligned delivery with growth goals.
  - 6. UI/UX Ownership, User Testing & Product Iteration: Designed and owned the full UI/UX across the platform, including flows, visual language, and usability decisions. Ran continuous user tests, actively gathered feedback, and used the product daily myself to identify friction early and iterate toward a better experience.


## Projects
### 1. Language Everest
- Year: 2021 – Present
- Type: featured
- Link: https://languageeverest.com
- Description: Language learning B2C SaaS with real-time AI tutoring, active recall practice, 14k+ vocabulary items with full context, 30 languages supported. Features AI chat with streaming responses, context-aware corrections, all practice angles (writing, reading, speaking, listening), A1-C2 content and truly premium and modern UX on all devices.
- Tech: Next.js, React, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Supabase, AI, CI/CD

### 2. Portfolio Website (This Page)
- Year: 2026
- Type: featured
- Link: https://nicokalkusinski.com
- Description: Multilingual portfolio platform built with Next.js App Router, React, and TypeScript to present experience, projects, and personal story in EN/PL/ES. Includes an AI-powered 'Ask About Nico' assistant, downloadable resume and cover letter files, locale-aware routing, and SEO-focused static delivery with metadata and sitemap generation.
- Tech: Next.js, React, TypeScript, i18n, AI Chat, SEO, SSR

### 3. Second Brain
- Year: 2026
- Type: featured
- Link: N/A
- Description: A fully automated life-operations system with a Notion-based UI and Python backend running on VPS. It unifies quick calendar capture, resource nodes, personal CRM, task prioritization, expense and habit tracking, then continuously proposes optimized schedules, reminders for important dates, gift ideas, and follow-up to-dos based on daily conversations, other tasks or projects.
- Tech: Python, Notion, VPS, AI Automation, Personal CRM, Productivity System

### 4. CULTINEXT Agricultural Platform
- Year: 2025
- Type: featured
- Link: https://cultinext.es
- Description: Enterprise agricultural management platform using Next.js, React, TypeScript, Supabase. Features include multi-tenancy, multi-layered security, Auth, bilingual support (EN/ES), type-safe everything, smart caching, automated deployments.
- Tech: Next.js, React, TypeScript, Supabase, Multi-tenancy, CI/CD

### 5. Dental Records Digitization System
- Year: 2025
- Type: additional
- Link: N/A
- Description: Internal OCR and text-to-speech system built for a dentist clinic to digitize 3000+ pages of patient records. Features dual input modes: OCR for scanned/photographed documents and a voice capture module for illegible handwriting, enabling accurate data extraction from poor-quality paper records.
- Tech: React, Python, OCR, Text-to-Speech, API, Data Digitization

### 6. Task & Hour Management for Sensem
- Year: 2025
- Type: featured
- Link: https://neotic.es/sensem
- Description: Daily time-tracking and project allocation system that eliminated paperwork by letting employees log hours against specific projects. Provided management and clients with live visibility into work progress. Replaced manual paper status updates and enabled angles for data-driven resource planning.
- Tech: Bubble.io, Low-Code, Business Application, Time Tracking, Project Management

### 7. Language Schools CRM Automation (Creatio)
- Year: 2025
- Type: additional
- Link: N/A
- Description: CRM system for language-learning schools that automates student communication, class scheduling, payment flows, and material organization in one process-driven workspace. Built to keep student progress and operations data centralized for faster administrative decisions.
- Tech: Creatio, CRM, Workflow Automation, Education Ops, Process Management

### 8. Internal CRM/ERP Operations Platform (Creatio)
- Year: 2025
- Type: additional
- Link: N/A
- Description: Internal CRM/ERP platform to manage services, projects, customers, products, and operational workflows across teams. Reduced process fragmentation by standardizing records, ownership, and delivery stages in a single system.
- Tech: Creatio, CRM/ERP, Operations, Service Management, Project Management

### 9. Metal Business Discovery & Delivery CRM (Creatio)
- Year: 2025
- Type: additional
- Link: N/A
- Description: Process, product, and project management system for a metal-industry business with a strong focus on streamlining initial client discovery. Structured intake, qualification, and follow-up steps to reduce early-stage delays and improve handoff quality.
- Tech: Creatio, CRM, Client Discovery, Process Automation, Project Delivery

### 10. Raynet-Atera Integration System
- Year: 2025
- Type: additional
- Link: N/A
- Description: Internal business intelligence tool that connects CRM and service management. Automated reporting system that eliminates manual data matching, keeps everything synced, provides weekly insights and actionable recommendations based on contract status, support tickets, and client interactions.
- Tech: Automation, CRM Integration, Business Intelligence, Data Sync, Reporting

### 11. E2E Automated Newsletter Generation
- Year: 2025
- Type: additional
- Link: N/A
- Description: LLM-enhanced content system using N8N automation and OpenRouter API. Automatically creates HTML newsletters matching brand and audience. Connected multiple AI models through third-party integrations. Resulted in a fully branded and automated content pipeline that generates, formats, and delivers newsletters without manual intervention.
- Tech: N8N, Third-party Integrations, Content Automation, AI Orchestration


## Skills
- Development: TypeScript, Next.js, React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Python, FastAPI, Django, Firebase, Supabase, N8N, Make, Zapier, GitHub, GitLab, CI/CD, APIs, OpenRouter, RPCs, Vercel, ArgoCD, Docker, K8s, Teleport, Rust, Grafana, Aikido, AWS, Clerk, LogTo, Sentry, Codex, Cursor, Claude Code, Creatio, Bubble.io.
- AI & Automation: LLM Orchestration, AI Workflows, Prompt Engineering, RAG, MCP, Model Training, Process Automation, Skills.
- Business Tools: Notion, Monday, Slack, ClickUp, Photoshop, Canva, WordPress, Calendly, Creatio CRM, Stripe, Raynet CRM, Atera.
- Leadership: Strategic Negotiation, Technical Consultation, Customer Success Management, Partnership Development, Team Leadership, Cross-functional Collaboration, Process Optimization, Growth Strategy.

## Languages
- English: Native
- Polish: Native
- Spanish: Professional

## Life sections
### 1. The Accident
- Subtitle: One person, one conversation
- Section id: accident

In my second year of high school, I had zero interest in studying. I was convinced I could land a job without a degree—maybe not entirely unrealistic at the time, given how the tech industry was scaling up toward its peak.

My school organized a trip to a neighboring city for a student fair, where universities advertised themselves. Since I still had two years before final exams, I wasn't particularly interested in any of it. I was just wandering around when I noticed a stand about studying in the UK.

What happened next is burned into my memory. A guy at the stand spotted me, called out, and asked if I was interested in studying abroad. I wasn't—but somehow he convinced me to attend a lecture starting in an hour or two. We had to stay at the fair until early afternoon anyway, so I figured I'd kill some time.

Those 40 minutes completely flipped my understanding of higher education. I had assumed UK universities required perfect grades and that applying would be a waste of time. Turns out, the opposite was true: applying to the UK was *easier* than applying to Polish universities.

I got his contact, and the topic went dormant—after all, I still had two years of high school ahead. But near the end of my third year, the thought resurfaced. I reached out, and we started the process almost immediately. He also organized funded trips to the UK where prospective students could visit campuses, attend classes, and experience student life firsthand. I will be forever grateful for what he did for me—he changed the trajectory of my entire life. The university covered everything, so I volunteered. I got a spot and spent a week living like a student in the UK.

I was closed off at the time—not particularly open to making friends. Some of the other volunteers probably thought I was the weird kid in the group. Ironically, several people I met on that trip became my closest friends, people I still stay in touch with today.

So from one random conversation at a fair, I ended up moving to a different country, studying in a different language, making friends from around the world, taking my first real steps into independence, and figuring out life as a 19-year-old alone in a foreign place.

Those years taught me more than any classroom could. I was studying full-time while working part-time to support myself — building real friendships from zero, learning to keep going when there's no one to call, paying rent, cooking, doing laundry, and handling all the tiny daily things you never think about when someone else handles them.

I think about this sometimes. If I had walked past that stand. If he hadn't called out. If I had said no to that lecture. I'd have a completely different life. Different friends. Different memories. A different me.

That's the thing about accidents. You don't see them coming. One random Tuesday. One conversation with a stranger. And suddenly you're on a path you never planned, becoming someone you didn't know you could be.

### 2. On the Road
- Subtitle: Collecting places, preserving chapters
- Section id: travel

My step-dad says traveling makes you richer; my mom that nobody can steal your experiences.

And I do travel, quite a lot actually. So far, I've been through Poland, the UK, Sicily, Spain, the USA, Puerto Rico, Croatia, and Fuerteventura. Each destination leaves something behind—a new perspective, a connection, a story worth remembering, or *a magnet for my granny.*

It started innocently *(and incredibly brave when I look back at it)*: moving out of my parents' house to the UK for university. It evolved into taking trips abroad with friends and gradually transformed into moving out to different countries as if it was taking a bus to nearby city. I'd risk saying I spent more time at airports or in-flight than using buses and metro.

It's not sunshine and rainbows, though. Everybody sees all the places you visited, delicious food you ate, people you met and cultures you experienced. They don't see longing for places that felt like home, leaving friends behind or not being able to form life-losting connections because every destination you visit is just a page in a book; not a chapter. On one hand, you feel like a citizen of the world, constrained only by layovers at the airports; on the other, you're a stranger everywhere, without a real home, longing for stability and peace people take for granted. It gets lonely. It's tiring—the constant hustle, living out of a backpack, not knowing where you'll sleep next month. But the world is too big and too beautiful to stay in one place. It's not for all, but once you start living as a citizen of the world, you can't stop seeing the endless ocean of opportunities right in front of you.

 While on the road I shoot a lot of footage, then edit it into something that lasts. I call it *Memories on Tape*—a bit cliché, but it does the job. Every trip or a chapter gets its own video. Years later, watching them back shows me *(and all the people I've met along the way)* not just where I was, but who I was.

It doesn't get easier. You just get better at carrying the contradiction. I've learned to build a life that fits in a backpack and relationships that don't need daily maintenance. I miss birthdays, I watch friendships fade, and some nights I want a kitchen I know instead of a view I've never seen. But I've also learned that you don't need a fixed address to feel like you belong somewhere. The same restlessness that makes me restless is what makes me pay attention — to people, to moments, to experiences, to the now I live in.

### 3. Rethinking Language Learning
- Subtitle: There must be a better way
- Section id: languages

I can lose sleep over this. It's been with me since childhood, when my dad forced me into extracurricular English classes. I hated them then. Now I know they changed everything. *Thank you Dad, I love you.*

I don't see language as words or grammar. I see it as an imperfect human attempt on compressing the infinity of the universe into manageable pieces we use to share information. 

The more languages I learn, the more I admire how machines communicate. They use infinite dimensions of vectors. No different vocabulary lists, no accents, rules and irregularities, and no *forgot the word*. They have one unified latent space to represent meaning itself — without compressing it into words. And human brain, also creates those vectors — some shorter, some longer. That's why I believe multilingual people switch mid-sentence. The distance to certain concepts is shorter in one language than another.

Although, it comes with a cost: you feel like an impostor in every language. You can't finish a sentence without borrowing from other language.

Across the years people have tried to fix this by creating synthetic languages like Esperanto or Toki Pona *(my favourite)*. But you can't globally unify a language without diluting culture. And impossible-to-understand-prononciation will always exist *(looking at you, Andalucía.)*

I don't want new rules nor unified language. I want to prove there's another, better way of learning than what our teachers taught us.

Traditional methods obsess over grammar, teaching you 47 different rules before you even know the words to apply them. I believe in volume-vocabulary; absorb as much words as possible through exposure and let grammar emerge naturally. Eventually you need some structure — otherwise you're just pointing at things and hoping your speaker *gets it*. I developed this method of volume-vocabulary, used it on myself to learn Spanish in ±3 months, then forged into a system. My mom was my first test subject. After 4 months she quit her English tutoring, doubled her active vocabulary size and finally felt like making progress after 7 years of stagnation. That experiment later became LanguageEverest.

### 4. The Social
- Subtitle: Strangers, rhythm, and the freedom of no expectations
- Section id: dance

I picked up bachata completely at random. I was in Valencia with friends when we stumbled into a beach social—my first real exposure to bachata. People were dancing, socializing, and moving to the music. It was awkward at first. The only places I'd ever "danced" before were alone in the shower or at clubs where nobody cares what you look like.

The class itself was great. We rotated partners constantly, which meant you met new people every few minutes without the usual awkwardness—most of us were beginners anyway, and that shared inexperience made it easier.

I had already been looking for a new physical hobby besides the gym. Bachata became that.

There's a specific kind of freedom I feel when dancing, especially with strangers. No responsibilities. No expectations. No eyes judging you. Just a brief window where you can drop every mask, every worry, and truly be present. The music takes over. The movement becomes the only thing that exists. For those few minutes, you're living *now*—not yesterday, not tomorrow, just the rhythm and the connection.

I'm a volume doer by default, and bachata was no exception. Once I started, I went to socials three times a week. My level shot up fast—when you put in the hours, progress comes quickly.

In 2025 I set myself a challenge: attend 50 bachata classes or events. I almost hit it, but I couldn't sustain that intensity indefinitely—life gets busy. Still, I'm in love with it, and I use every opportunity to hit a class or a social.

Salsa comes with the territory—I'm not as enchanted by it, but where there's bachata, there's usually salsa, so I'm picking up moves as I go.

In Valencia, the best place to dance is definitely Miky House. It's a small, crowded, chaotic spot—but the people make it real. Most of my Valencia friends are dancers I met there.

### 5. Breaking Barriers
- Subtitle: What is possible
- Section id: motivation

I will die on this hill: ninety-nine percent of *"I can't"* is just a mental barrier nobody taught us to question.

Look at my life. A single conversation at a random fair rewired everything—my education, my career, the countries I lived in, the people I know. I had zero social skills. Zero network. Zero belief that someone like me could study abroad. But I went. Then I moved to countries where I knew no one, built a career across four nations, learned languages, started companies, picked up dancing at twenty-something. Every single one of these started with the same sentence: *"I have no idea how to do this."*

The thing nobody tells you: you were assigned a name, a religion, a city, a nation, a culture, a set of standards the day you were born. Before you could speak. Before you could think. And most people never stop to ask—*is this actually mine?* They follow the script. School, job, mortgage, retirement, death. A life lived in default mode because questioning feels dangerous.

But here's the truth. Being afraid to look stupid is the most expensive mistake you can make. I will happily be the dumbest person in any room. The one who asks the basic question everyone else pretends to understand. The one who admits *"I don't get it"* and makes people explain. Those who ask are fools for a minute. Those who don't stay fools for life.

Carving your own path is not comfortable. It's not safe. You will feel lost. You will question yourself at 3am. You will watch people around you settle into predictable lives while you're stumbling in the dark, learning, failing, rebuilding. That's the price. And humans? We're built for this. We didn't evolve to sit in climate-controlled offices clicking buttons. We evolved to solve hard problems, to adapt, to overcome.

You're here for a good time, not a long time. The clock started ticking the day you were born and it never stops. So what are you actually doing with it? Following someone else's map? Living by rules you never agreed to? Or are you building something that feels like *yours*?

Mental barriers are just that—mental. They dissolve the moment you decide to walk through them. The only question is whether you'll make that decision today, tomorrow, or never.


## Certifications
- Machine Learning
- AI Ethics
- Data Visualization
- Sales Engineering
- CRM Systems
- Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
- Google Analytics
- HubSpot Inbound Marketing