Arash
Vakil

Product Executive. Builder. Operator.

I lead teams, write code, and turn declining products into growth engines.

20+
Years
50M
Daily Users
$500M+
ARR
3
Exits
Arash Vakil

How I Work

Full-Time Executive

VP/Head of Product, CPO. Long-term transformation. I embed with your team and own the outcome. Built for companies ready for a step change.

Fractional Leadership

2-3 days per week. Executive horsepower without the full-time cost. Ideal for Series A-C companies that need senior product leadership now.

Advisory & Consulting

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

Case Studies

Byborg Enterprises

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

Top 50 website globally. Everyone said it was a dead platform. I redefined product 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 11xROAS 2B+events/day 150+countries 50+A/B tests/quarter
Startup — PawMoji

Solo-built a consumer app from 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 4yrsolo build Exitacquired 2024
Paltalk — NASDAQ

PM to CPO to M&A exit with 6 straight years of record growth

Acted as divisional CEO. Pioneered monetized gamification (now 50% of company revenue). Cut CAC 75% while increasing ARPU 25%. Redesigned the flagship app with Day 3 retention up 50%.

75%CAC reduction +25%ARPU 6yrrecord growth +50%D3 retention

Player-Coach

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 dividends.

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

The Builder

Most product leaders stop building. That's 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's not luck. That's math.

Product leaders who can't build are becoming middle management. Full stop.

Expertise

Strategy & Leadership
Turnarounds Product Strategy Team Leadership Startup Advisory M&A Exits Board Advisory
Technical & Engineering
AI/ML Systems Data Infrastructure Full-Stack Development Mobile (iOS & Android) A/B Testing Platforms Web3/DeFi
Growth & Revenue
SaaS Scaling Growth Engineering Monetization Pricing Strategy User Acquisition Retention Optimization

My Philosophy

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 →

Wrong Metrics

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

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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.

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Fighting 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.

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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.

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Impact Over Extraction

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

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Projects

Social Impact

PassItOn.to

Get real guidance from people who've been there. Guides donate 100% of their fees to nonprofits. Every conversation funds verified charities.

Next.js Supabase Stripe Daily.co
Visit Site →
Legal Tech

FreeDemandLetter

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

Express Gemini AI Turnstile
Visit Site →
Open Source

LeiaGuard

WireGuard VPN management done right. Invitation codes for family and teams. QR codes for instant mobile setup. Self-hosted.

Node.js WireGuard Docker
GitHub →
Games

Pasur Online

The classic Iranian card game, online. Play Pasur with friends or strangers. Track scores, compete in matches, and keep the tradition alive.

React Express Firebase
Play Now →
AI / Mobile

TailorTail

Turn your pet into a work of art. Upload a photo, pick from 300+ magical styles, and watch AI transform your furry friend.

React Native Gemini AI Firebase
Try It Free →
Multiplayer / 3D
Private Beta

FlightSim

Multiplayer flight combat over a photorealistic 3D Manhattan. Real-time WebSocket dogfights with Google 3D Tiles rendering the entire city.

Three.js Google 3D Tiles WebSocket PostgreSQL
Coming Soon
SaaS
Private Beta

BagRescue

Never miss a Too Good To Go bag again. Automated monitoring, instant alerts, and auto-purchase. Save food, save money.

Next.js FastAPI Redis Stripe
Coming Soon
AI Platform
Private Beta

Talon

Deploy and manage AI assistants from a single dashboard. One-click deployment, usage analytics, and team collaboration built in.

Next.js Prisma Coolify API Stripe
Coming Soon
Censorship Resistance
Open-Sourcing Soon

ShadowShare

Multi-protocol VPN distribution via Telegram for censored regions. VLESS+Reality, CDN-routed WebSocket, and Shadowsocks with automatic failover. Referral-based trust network. Zero-knowledge architecture.

Node.js grammY Marzban Hono
Coming Soon

What People 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 have high goals and set the company standard at a maximum level.

Rajiv J. G., Product Management

Let's build something.