Denis Darkin

Technical Partner-Investor

I invest capital + code in early-stage startups.
25 years building systems, recently survived my own startup failures,
and I still prefer debugging production servers to debugging term sheets.
$25K-$75K
Investment Range
25+ Years
Technical Experience
Hands-On
Development
Explore Partnership Process

Why Technical Partnership Works

💻

Capital + Code

Investment plus hands-on technical contribution. I write code, architect systems, and solve technical problems - not just give advice.

🔍

Technical Risk Reduction

Due diligence from someone with skin in the game and 25 years of building scalable systems across multiple industries.

🚀

Startup Battle-Tested

Recently went through startup successes and failures myself. I understand the reality beyond enterprise experience.

🎯

Aligned Incentives

Equity participation means I only succeed when your startup succeeds. My money and reputation both on the line.

Technical Expertise That Scales

Enterprise Scale Leadership

Led 30+ engineers across 10 time zones at Aspose. Delivered $50M+ product lines and mentored 12+ engineers to senior roles.

AI/ML Innovation

PhD in pattern recognition. Built AI-powered PDF→Word conversion systems that generated significant revenue streams.

Financial Systems

Developed algorithmic trading infrastructure for billion-dollar hedge fund. High-performance computing and risk management.

Full-Stack Development

C#, Python, React, Unity, iOS. 25+ years across game dev, fintech, enterprise software, mobile. Can contribute immediately to any stack.

Firmware & Scientific Computing

Fortune 500 wireless firmware experience at Motorola. PhD research in satellite data processing with 13+ published papers in remote sensing.

Document Processing Innovation

Built AI-powered PDF→Word conversion systems from scratch. Deep expertise in OCR, document APIs, and MS Office integration technologies.

Recent Startup Reality

Everdawn Champions - Blockchain Gaming (2024-2025)

Full-stack developer with equity position at Nexus Interactive/Aradena. Joined during funding crisis to help ship Unity 3D tactical trading card game to Epic Games Store. Built Web3 integration, 3D battlefields, and blockchain asset systems.

Lesson: Even with strong technology (1M+ games played in beta) and major platform launch (Epic Games Store), funding challenges in crypto markets can derail promising projects.

Employee DNA - HR Analytics (2018-2019)

Technical lead building talent acquisition and retention analytics platform. Full-stack development (LAMP stack), LinkedIn data integration, Chrome extensions, and predictive analytics for recruitment professionals.

Lesson: Product-market fit and sustainable customer acquisition are more critical than technical sophistication for B2B SaaS success.

These experiences give me recent, real-world understanding of startup challenges that complement my enterprise technical background.