I've sat in your chair.
Five ventures since 2009, from Engineers in Belgrade and London to It's GameTime and ClinicLink. I've owned the P&L, hired the team, raised the stakes, and lived with the outcome, good and bad.
Founder · Fractional CPO, CTO & AI lead · Since 2004
Experienced leadership for your product exactly when you need it.
I'm Ivan Trajković. For 22 years I've been on both sides of the table: building my own companies, and helping 100+ founders and leadership teams build theirs. I join as an outside partner and bring clarity, honesty and a plan that moves.
- Years of experience
- 0+
- Founders worked with
- 0+
- Products shipped
- 0+
- Ventures founded
- 0
- Markets served
- 0+
Engineers✳It's GameTime✳ClinicLink✳OrigenAI✳IDW Publishing✳One Heart Clinic✳LEDVANCE✳Edco Learning✳Monster.com✳bwin✳Amberley Innovations✳
01Why outside eyes
Every team eventually gets too close to its own product. An outside partner who has founded companies, written production code and sat with more than a hundred founders sees what you can't, says what others won't, and knows which mistakes to avoid, because he has already made them.
I can read the code, not just the deck.
I started as a software engineer on fund management systems in Slovenia and Italy, then at Monster.com in Prague and bwin in Vienna. I understand your architecture as well as your roadmap.
I've advised at every level.
From advising Serbia's Minister of Telecommunications to working with 100+ founders and leadership teams across the US, UK, Ireland, DACH, the Nordics and the Middle East.
02When companies call me
Seven situations
I know well.
Nobody hires a fractional leader for a title. They call because something is stuck, risky or new, and they want someone who has seen it before. These are the calls I get most often.
The product has stalled.
- What's happening
- Releases slow down, the roadmap has become a wish list, and adoption has flattened.
- What I do
- Find where decisions get stuck, reset priorities around outcomes, and rebuild the delivery rhythm.
- What changes
- A short roadmap everyone believes in, and visible progress within weeks.
- Fractional CPO
- Product review
Engineers, but no product leader.
- What's happening
- A capable team or agency builds what it's asked to build, but nobody owns the why.
- What I do
- Step in as fractional CPO, set strategy and discovery, then coach or hire your permanent product lead.
- What changes
- Product decisions are made by your company, not by your vendor.
- Fractional CPO
- Founder advisor
The technology is holding the business back.
- What's happening
- Fragile releases, legacy systems, every feature takes twice as long, and a rebuild debate that never ends.
- What I do
- Review the architecture and code, decide between refactor, rebuild or buy, and plan a migration that keeps the business running.
- What changes
- An honest plan with real costs and risks, and a team that ships again.
- Fractional CTO
- Technology review
Everyone talks about AI. Nothing ships.
- What's happening
- Pilots, demos and slide decks, but no AI in the daily work and no measurable payoff.
- What I do
- Pick two or three use cases worth the effort, design the process around them, and implement agents and automation with your team.
- What changes
- AI in production, measured in hours and money saved.
- AI implementation lead
A traditional business needs to go digital.
- What's happening
- A publisher, clinic, manufacturer or retailer with a strong brand and a digital presence that lags behind it.
- What I do
- Define the digital product, e-commerce or app strategy, choose the right partners, and lead delivery.
- What changes
- A digital channel that earns its keep, owned and understood in-house.
- Transformation lead
- Product design
Vendors and agencies are out of control.
- What's happening
- Budgets overrun, deadlines move, and nobody inside can judge the quality of the work.
- What I do
- Sit on your side of the table: review scope, contracts and code, reset the brief, and manage delivery.
- What changes
- You own the product thinking, and vendors deliver against a clear brief.
- Independent review
- Fractional CTO
Launching a new product or venture.
- What's happening
- A founder or an established company has an idea, a budget and a deadline, and a lot of unknowns.
- What I do
- Run discovery, validate with real users, design the MVP and business model, and assemble the team to build it.
- What changes
- A validated first version in market, with evidence for the next investment decision.
- Innovation partner
- Founder advisor
- Product design
03Roles I step into
One partner,
eight hats.
The role follows the situation, not the other way round. Select a role to see the situations above where it fits.
04How an engagement starts
The first 30 days.
Every engagement starts the same way, whatever the industry. Listen before advising, look at the real thing, earn trust with early results, then commit to a plan.
-
Week 1
Listen
Conversations with founders, leadership, the team and, where possible, customers. What do people believe, and where do they disagree?
-
Week 2
Audit
The product, the codebase and architecture, the delivery process, the team and the vendors. The real thing, not the slide about it.
-
Week 3
Quick wins
A few visible improvements shipped early. They build trust and momentum, and show what the team can do when decisions are clear.
-
Week 4
Plan & rhythm
A clear diagnosis, a prioritised 90-day roadmap, team and vendor recommendations, and the operating rhythm to deliver it.
After that, we either execute together or I hand over a plan your team can run on its own.
05AI implementation
AI that works
on a Monday morning.
I don't train models. I put AI to work inside real businesses: design the process first, then the agents and automations that run it, with guardrails your team trusts.
- 01
Grounded customer assistants
Answers drawn only from your own documents, prices and policies. Nothing invented.
- 02
Agents that take action
Booking, lead capture, triage and handoff to a human, with full context attached.
- 03
Workflow automation
Documents, data entry, reconciliation and reporting: the work nobody wants to do.
- 04
Internal copilots
Knowledge assistants that help teams find answers and draft work faster.
- 05
Integration into existing systems
AI wired into your CRM, ERP, e-commerce or clinical tools via APIs, without a rebuild.
- 06
AI-assisted software development
Helping engineering teams adopt AI tooling safely and actually ship faster.
- 07
Readiness & governance
Use-case prioritisation, data readiness, risk and policy, before money is spent.
06Breadth
Fifteen industries.
Patterns that travel.
The best answer for your industry often comes from another one. Filter by discipline to see where I've done the work.
Product Design Engineering AI
07Ventures
Companies I've founded.
Real companies, real customers, real lessons. This is where the experience I bring to clients comes from.
Engineers
A design-led software engineering partner, founded in Belgrade with a London company from 2014 to 2021. 350+ products designed and built from scratch for 100+ clients.
enginee.rs
It's GameTime
An industry-agnostic platform with implementations across sports, healthtech and edtech. Its AI product, OrigenAI, is a grounded front desk for any business.
- OrigenAI
- SportsTech
- HealthTech
- EdTech
ClinicLink
An AI clinic orchestrator for professional patient engagement, built to the standards of healthcare, the most demanding industry there is.
cliniclink.ioivan.agency
My independent practice since 2016: fractional product, technology and AI leadership for founders and leadership teams. Based in Valencia, Spain, from 2026.
Work with me08Client highlights
Trusted by brands
with a lot at stake.
- 01 IDW Publishing Publishing & Entertainment · US Home of TMNT, Sonic the Hedgehog, Godzilla and Star Trek comics, with a thriving direct-to-fan store.
- 02 One Heart Clinic Healthcare · London Harley Street cardiology: 30+ cardiologists across London and the South East, with a dedicated patient app.
- 03 LEDVANCE Lighting & Smart Home · US Direct-to-consumer e-commerce for SMART+, TruWave, LED and vintage lighting across the United States.
- 04 Edco Learning Education · Ireland One of Ireland's leading educational publishers, bringing print and digital learning to schools nationwide.
Selected work
Current and past clients and ventures across industries. Some are still growing, some exited, and some didn't make it. All of them taught me something.
- ActiveClient nameIndustry · Country
- ActiveClient nameIndustry · Country
- ActiveClient nameIndustry · Country
- RaisedClient nameIndustry · Country
- RaisedClient nameIndustry · Country
- ExitedClient nameIndustry · Country
- ExitedClient nameIndustry · Country
- PastClient nameIndustry · Country
- PastClient nameIndustry · Country
- PastClient nameIndustry · Country
- PastClient nameIndustry · Country
- PastClient nameIndustry · Country
Across 100+ founders, I've seen every kind of ending.
- RaisedFunding rounds from first cheques onward
- ExitedAcquisitions and successful exits
- ProfitableSustainable businesses that pay their own way
- FailedAnd taught me the most
09Exclusive partner · London
Amberley
Innovations
In the UK I work exclusively with Amberley Innovations to deliver B-POWA, their Business Process Optimisation with Automation method.
Together we map how work really flows, find the bottlenecks, and automate them with small interventions that have outsized impact. Your people keep the tools they know, and the friction goes away.
- → Less rekeying and fewer spreadsheet workarounds
- → Fewer errors, better reporting
- → Systems that finally talk to each other
10Journey
Twenty-two years,
eight countries.
From Florida to Slovenia, Italy, Prague, Vienna, Belgrade, London and now Valencia. Engineer first, then advisor, then founder, and always building.
- 2000–2004
Nova Southeastern University
B.S. in Computer Information Systems. Four years on a full scholarship with the NSU Sharks men's basketball team, and Resident Advisor in 2003/04. · Fort Lauderdale, USA
- 2004–2006
Software engineer, fund management
Building solutions for the management of liability funds. · Slovenia & Italy
- 2006–2007
Software engineer, Monster.com
Engineering at one of the world's largest job platforms. · Prague
- 2007–2008
Software engineer, bwin
High-traffic, real-time online gaming at European scale. · Vienna
- 2008–2009
Advisor to the Minister of Telecommunications
Technology and digital policy at government level. · Belgrade
- 2008–2012
EuropeanStartups
Writing about Europe's startup ecosystem, its founders and their companies.
- 2009
Founded Engineers
A design-led software engineering company, growing to 350+ products for 100+ clients. · Belgrade
- 2014–2021
Engineers London Limited
Serving UK and international clients from London. · London
- 2016
Founded ivan.agency
My independent advisory practice for founders and leadership teams.
- 2021
Founded It's GameTime
An industry-agnostic platform with sports, healthtech and edtech implementations, and later OrigenAI. · Delaware, USA
- 2025
Founded ClinicLink
An AI clinic orchestrator for patient engagement. · London
- 2026
ivan.agency, Valencia
Working with a small number of companies at a time as their fractional product, technology and AI lead. · Valencia, Spain
Education · 2000–2004
Nova Southeastern
Nova Southeastern
University
Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems. Resident Advisor, 2003/04. Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
nova.edu
NSU Sharks · Full scholarship · 4 seasons
Men's Basketball
Four seasons of NCAA Division II basketball taught me what I still use with every team: know your role, trust the people next to you, and win on execution.nsusharks.com
11Point of view
What 22 years
have taught me.
i.
Projects fail at the brief, not in the code.
Most of the trouble I'm called in to fix was decided before the first line was written. Getting the brief right is the cheapest work in any project.
ii.
Own your product thinking.
Outsource the build if you like, but never the why. The company that understands its product best should be yours, not your vendor.
iii.
Unclear decisions slow teams down, not quality.
Speed and quality are not a trade-off. Teams slow down when nobody knows who decides, or what was decided.
iv.
Failure teaches more than exits.
I've learned more from the startups that failed than from the ones that sold. I bring those lessons so you don't have to pay for them twice.
v.
Technology problems are people problems in disguise.
Behind most broken systems is a conversation that never happened. I fix the conversation first.
vi.
A good consultant makes himself unnecessary.
Fractional is temporary by design. Success is a team that no longer needs me, and calls me only for the next big decision.
Writing & speaking
- 2008–2012EuropeanStartupsA blog about Europe's startup ecosystem and its founders.
- SpeakingConference or event nameTalk title, city, year
- TeachingInstitution or programmeWorkshop or lecture topic
- ArticlesPublication nameArticle title, year
12Engagement models
Senior leadership,
sized to fit.
Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute conversation. If I'm not the right person for your situation, I'll tell you, and usually point you to someone who is.
The sounding board
2–4 sessions / month
For founders and executives who want an experienced partner on call for product, technology and AI decisions.
- Strategic sessions
- Async access between sessions
- Second opinions on big decisions
- Hiring and vendor support
Embedded leadership
1–3 days / week
I join your leadership team as fractional CPO, CTO or AI lead, with real ownership of outcomes, for as long as it's needed.
- Product, technology & AI strategy
- Team leadership & rituals
- Roadmap and vendor ownership
- Hiring my own successor
Review or launch
2–6 weeks
A fixed-scope engagement: an independent product and technology review, an AI use-case sprint, or discovery for a new venture.
- Discovery & research
- Product & tech review
- Prototype or MVP
- Clear go / no-go plan
13Contact
Let's talk about
what's next.
Tell me where you are and where you want to be. I'll reply within one business day with an honest view on whether, and how, I can help.
Based in Valencia, Spain · Working across the US, UK, Ireland, DACH, the Nordics & the Middle East · English & Serbian