Arash Vakil — product executive, builder, AI team operator

// 01 · How to engage

Three ways to put me on your product.

Model 01 / Full-Time

CPO, VP, Head of Product.

I embed and own the outcome. For companies ready for a step change, not another roadmap doc.

Commitment · 12mo+Scope · Own it

Model 02 / Fractional

Two to three days a week.

Executive horsepower without the full-time line item. Series A to C. You need senior product judgment now.

Commitment · 3mo+Scope · 2-3 d/wk

Model 03 / Advisory

Sprints, audits, M&A, board.

Strategic sprints. Product audits. M&A due diligence. One recent client got into Y Combinator.

Commitment · WeeksScope · Surgical

// 02 · Track record

Five eras. One operating system.

Vakil Ventures 2024 → today · Operator ● Running

Shipped a portfolio of production products by orchestrating the right model for each job.

Same player-coach instincts, applied to a heterogeneous AI team instead of FTEs. I define product, decompose specs, and route each task to the model that wins on cost and quality: Claude for taste and architecture, GPT and Gemini for cheaper bulk implementation, local models for offline grunt work. Real software with real users: BagRescue, Talon, Let Me Take A Look, Haulduo, UpdatesOn, ShadowShare.

12

Products live

Days

Idea → prod

Solo

Operator

2024+

Since

Byborg Enterprises 2020 — 2024 · SVP Product Top-50 site, globally

Reversed a 7-year decline into 25% YoY growth on a $3B platform.

Everyone said it was a dead platform. I redefined positioning, rebuilt GTM, and shipped 0-to-1 products that hit 1M MAU in 6 months. Built an ML recommendation engine processing 2B+ events daily at sub-100ms latency.

50M+

Daily users

11x

ROAS

2B+

Events / day

150+

Countries

50+

A/B tests / qtr

Paltalk, Inc. 2016 — 2020 · CPO Acquired

Six straight years of record growth as CPO of a public social platform.

Pioneered monetized gamification (now 50% of company revenue). Cut CAC 75% (from $4.00 to $1.75) while increasing ARPU 25%. Redesigned the flagship app with Day-3 retention up 50%. Led AWS migration saving $2M annually.

75%

CAC reduction

+25%

ARPU

6yr

Record growth

+50%

D3 retention

AVM Software 2008 — 2016 · PM → CPO Acquired · NASDAQ (STVI)

PM to CPO over eight years. 3x revenue growth, NASDAQ acquisition.

Drove revenue from $9M to $30M. Launched subscription, virtual goods, and premium features that grew to 50% of revenue. Led international expansion to Europe, Asia, and Latin America (35% intl mix in 3 years). Led the Snap Interactive acquisition as a key stakeholder.

3x

Revenue ($9M → $30M)

35%

Intl revenue mix

8yr

PM → CPO

Exit

NASDAQ · STVI

PawMoji 2020 — 2024 · Solo founder Acquired

Solo-built a consumer app, zero to acquisition, across 100+ countries.

Taught myself Swift and Kotlin. Built a pet emoji app from scratch. Partnered with NYC animal rescues. Donated a portion of every sale to animal welfare. Four years, solo founder, full stack, exit.

100+

Countries

4yr

Solo build

Exit

Acquired 2024

// 02b · Growth infrastructure

I've built automation engines for every channel that matters.

Performance marketing is a software problem dressed as a media problem. Bid logic, creative rotation, audience refresh, attribution stitching, anomaly detection, daily reporting. I've built the engines end-to-end on every major platform. The same systems that turned $10M into $110M (11x ROAS) at Byborg.

01

Subreddit-aware bidding. Creative-per-community. Native CAPI.

02

Google

Search + PMax. Custom bidding scripts. Server-side conversion API.

03

TikTok

Spark-ad rotation. Auto-pause underperformers. Hook A/B at scale.

04

How I build now.

I run a team of AI agents the same way I used to run human product teams. Define the product. Break it into specs. Route each task to the right model for the job.

Parallel fanout · spec → shipt = 0…04:12

Explore

Claude · map surface

Plan

Claude · decompose

Impl · 1

GPT · schema + API

Impl · 2

Gemini · UI + flows

Impl · 3

Local · jobs + alerts

Review

Claude · gate

Ship

Arash · prod

Arash · taste & arch on critical pathThroughput ~6 agents · cycle days

Right model for each job. Claude for taste, architecture, and review. GPT and Gemini for cheaper bulk implementation. Local models for grunt work that doesn't need a frontier API. The result is throughput, not lock-in.

Player-coach for software. I still write code on the critical path. The agents handle the rest of the throughput. I keep the taste, the architecture calls, and the product judgment.

This is not a demo. It is how every product on this page now gets built and operated.

What that unlocks. Things that used to take a quarter ship in days. The bottleneck moved from engineering capacity to taste and decision speed. That suits me.

If your team still treats AI as a code-completion sidekick, you are three platform shifts behind. I can help you catch up.

// 05 · About

Player-coach. Leader & Builder.

The Leader

I take declining products and make them print money. Turned a 7-year death spiral into 25% YoY growth. Led 100+ people across product, engineering, data science, and design.

Started at Dell EMC. Learned enterprise M&A integration before most people knew what product management was. That foundation still pays.

Queens College undergrad. Baruch MBA. Proud CUNY product. Now I teach there. Giving back to the system that gave me a shot.

100+ reports · 4 orgs · 20+ years

The Builder

Most product leaders stop building. That is a mistake. I still ship code. Taught myself iOS and Android. Launched an app to 100+ countries. Run Ethereum validator nodes.

Built ML systems processing 2B+ events daily. Put $10M into marketing. Got $110M back. 11x ROAS. That is not luck. That is math.

Today I ship faster than ever by orchestrating the right AI model for each job. Same instincts, new leverage.

Swift · Kotlin · TS · Python · Solidity

Strategy & Leadership06

Turnarounds
Product strategy
Team leadership
Startup advisory
M&A exits
Board advisory

Technical & Engineering06

AI / ML systems
Data infrastructure
Full-stack dev
Mobile · iOS & Android
A/B testing platforms
Web3 / DeFi

Growth & Revenue06

Marketing automation
SaaS scaling
Monetization
Pricing strategy
User acquisition
Retention optimization

// 07 · Philosophy

Six things I keep repeating.

I / 06

Build, don't brief.

If you can't build, you're becoming irrelevant. Ideas that took months now take 48 hours. While you're in your third alignment meeting, someone else shipped the product.

Read more →

II / 06

Wrong metrics.

90% of startups celebrate acquisition like it's the Olympics. Wrong game. Real enterprise value is loyalty. Making your product non-negotiable in their routine.

Read more →

III / 06

Execution beats credentials.

Fancy resumes are historical documents. The market reinvents itself every 18 months. I bet on intellectual horsepower and bias for action. Every. Single. Time.

Read more →

IV / 06

Fight for the underdog.

First-gen immigrant. Worked CVS graveyard shifts through college. The system intimidates people without resources. So I built FreeDemandLetter. Over 1,000 people have used it.

Read more →

V / 06

Pricing lessons.

Zero to millions of daily users. Made every pricing mistake possible. Underpriced. Overpriced. Wrong model entirely. You learn it by bleeding revenue. Full stop.

Read more →

VI / 06

Impact over extraction.

Cameo raised $194M. Takes 70%. Gives 0% to charity. PassItOn takes 0%. Gives 100%. What you build reveals what you value.

Read more →

// 08 · The proof · 12 products

Shipped, in production, by one operator + agents.

Live

SaaS · Foodv1.4

BagRescue

Never miss a Too Good To Go bag. Monitoring, instant alerts, auto-purchase. Save food, save money.

Next.jsFastAPIRedisStripe

Visit BagRescue →

Private Beta

AI PlatformBeta

Talon

Deploy and manage AI assistants from one dashboard.

Let Me Take A Look

Proactive construction QA marketplace. Async pro reviews, dispute-ready PDF.

Next.jsDrizzleStripe Connect

Visit site →

Live

Family · Commsv2

UpdatesOn

One-link family updates, no accounts. Built for the "how is grandma doing" use case.

Next.jsPostgresDrizzleAWS SES

Visit site →

Live

Social Impactv1

PassItOn.to

Real guidance from people who've been there. Guides donate 100% of fees to nonprofits. Takes zero.

Next.jsSupabaseStripeDaily.co

Visit site →

Live

Legal Tech · Free1k+ users

FreeDemandLetter

Landlords. Contractors. Scammers. They count on you not knowing how to fight back. 1,000+ people have used this.

ExpressGeminiTurnstile

Visit site →

Open Source

InfraOSS

LeiaGuard

WireGuard VPN done right. Invitation codes. QR setup. Self-hosted.

Pasur Online

The Iranian classic, online. Play, track, keep the tradition alive.

ReactExpressFirebase

Play now →

Live

AI · Mobile300+ styles

TailorTail

Upload a pet photo, pick from 300+ styles, watch AI transform.

React NativeGeminiFirebase

Try free →

Private Beta

Multiplayer · 3DBeta

FlightSim

Multiplayer flight combat over a photoreal 3D Manhattan. Real-time WebSocket dogfights.

Three.js3D TilesWSPostgres

Coming soon

Open-Sourcing

Censorship ResistancePrivate Beta

ShadowShare

Multi-protocol VPN distribution via Telegram for censored regions. VLESS+Reality, CDN-routed WebSocket, Shadowsocks with auto failover. Zero-knowledge.

NodegrammYMarzbanHono

Coming soon

Just for Fun

Geocities · SeriousLive

FixTheMets

Mets fan rage in 1996 GeoCities form. Live W-L from the MLB API, real payroll, a global fire-this-guy counter, a voting board for fan demands. Marquees, blinks, broken visitor counter. A joke, and also serious, and also sad.

HTMLExpressMLB Stats API

Visit site →

// 09 · References

What the people who shipped with me say.

Incredible attention to detail, deep knowledge, and hard-working nature made development smooth and efficient. His ability to break down complex challenges into clear, actionable steps was exceptional.
Alexey P. · Principal Software Engineer

The person every manager wants on their team. Hard working, dependable, creative. He manages the complete lifecycle of the project better than anyone I know.
David B. · Technical Manager

Uncanny way to see the 30,000 ft view and take it to granular level. Realistic yet visionary. Enables teammates to set the company standard at maximum level.
Rajiv J. G. · Product Management

// 10 · From the blog

Recent writing.

Mar 23, 2026

Privacy Erosion Isn't a Bug. It's the Business Model.

I was quoted in the New York Post on AI and privacy. The hard truth: data is the asset, convenience is the pitch, and nine-figure fines are rounding errors.

Read →

Mar 16, 2026

I Can't Stop Taking Things Apart

I've always been the person who signs up for a product and immediately starts thinking about what I'd change. So I started writing it down.

Read →

Feb 20, 2026

Reddit Ads Is Leaking Your Data to Other Advertisers

Three separate incidents where Reddit Ads support agents shared other advertisers' PII in my chat sessions, documented over one week. Screenshots included.

Read →

View all posts →

Arash /Vakil

Three ways to put me on your product.

CPO, VP, Head of Product.

Two to three days a week.

Sprints, audits, M&A, board.

Five eras. One operating system.

Shipped a portfolio of production products by orchestrating the right model for each job.

Reversed a 7-year decline into 25% YoY growth on a $3B platform.

Six straight years of record growth as CPO of a public social platform.

PM to CPO over eight years. 3x revenue growth, NASDAQ acquisition.

Solo-built a consumer app, zero to acquisition, across 100+ countries.

I've built automation engines for every channel that matters.

How I build now.

Player-coach. Leader & Builder.

The Leader

The Builder

Strategy & Leadership06

Technical & Engineering06

Growth & Revenue06

Six things I keep repeating.

Build, don't brief.

Wrong metrics.

Execution beats credentials.

Fight for the underdog.

Pricing lessons.

Impact over extraction.

Shipped, in production, by one operator + agents.

BagRescue

Talon

Let Me Take A Look

UpdatesOn

PassItOn.to

FreeDemandLetter

LeiaGuard

Pasur Online

TailorTail

FlightSim

ShadowShare

FixTheMets

What the people who shipped with me say.

Recent writing.

Privacy Erosion Isn't a Bug. It's the Business Model.

I Can't Stop Taking Things Apart

Reddit Ads Is Leaking Your Data to Other Advertisers