Founder, Basetool · Bucharest
David Marin
Founder of Basetool, an AI-augmented custom-software studio, and Sixthly, a stealth productivity agent. Eight years shipping product at YC-backed consumer and developer-tools startups. Twente CS, IEEE SMC 2020 Best Paper, four languages, Ironman finisher.

- Founder · Basetool + Sixthly
- 8y at YC-backed startups
- Twente CS
- IEEE SMC 2020 Best Paper
- Ironman Finisher
- ex-Deloitte
// now
April 2026What I'm shipping this month
- Building Sixthly in stealth. Reimagining personal productivity in the age of agents.
- Shipping custom software for SMB founders and CTOs at Basetool.
- Writing about personal websites in 2026 and what AI-native engineering changes for small studios.
Experience
- Jan 2026 — present
Sixthly ↗
Founder · Delaware, US (remote, stealth)
- Building a Mac-native productivity client that rethinks calendars, notes, to-dos and inboxes for use with AI agents.
- Own the frontend architecture: TypeScript, modern React, a design-token system, and a reusable component library shared across surfaces.
- Design the client-server contract from scratch, including typed schemas, latency budgets and offline-tolerant data flows.
- Run product end to end as a solo founder: RFCs, user research with pilot testers, and weekly production releases.
- 2025 — present
Basetool
Founder · AI-augmented software studio · Bucharest
- Custom-software studio for SMB founders and CTOs, delivering frontend-heavy product work with an AI-native engineering workflow.
- Lead engineer and architect on client engagements: React and Next.js frontends, Node and GraphQL backends, deployed and operated in production.
- Shipped an internal ERP platform on Railway (Laravel 11, Filament, PostgreSQL), including PHP runtime alignment, migration ordering, proxy trust configuration and SSO authentication.
- Write the studio's public notes on personal websites in 2026 and on how AI-native engineering changes small teams.
- Apr 2023 — Dec 2025
The Social Cat ↗
Product Engineer · London (remote)
- Led product and engineering with the CTO in a three-person team at a fast-growing influencer-marketing SaaS. Owned roadmap execution: research, build, launch, measure, iterate.
- Owned the React and Next.js frontend from wireframes and design reviews through production. Scaled the platform from ~15K to 150K+ users in under two years.
- Built a reusable TypeScript component foundation and design-token system shared across the marketing site, the application and onboarding.
- Built data-heavy creator-discovery UI over an ML pipeline of 1.5M+ Instagram and TikTok profiles (~10K/day ingested), with custom charts, filters and ranking views. Designed GraphQL contracts and integrated TikTok and Meta APIs for creator verification and campaign management.
- Owned production observability through A/B testing, GA4 and Mixpanel funnels, and error tracking. Quarterly retention rose ~15%; organic sessions rose 32% through programmatic SEO and high-intent content targeting.
- Aug 2022 — May 2023
Oceaneering ↗
Software Engineer · Remote
- OceanSMART — a container-shipping ERP used by global logistics teams to plan, track and optimise vessel and container operations across ports and terminals.
- Built React and GraphQL UI for port operators, including a data auto-fill connector that cut manual entry by 25–30% on critical workflows.
- Delivered map-enrichment features (real-time vessel routes, layered geospatial data) that improved operational visibility for multi-port logistics teams.
- Refactored and upgraded a two-year-old frontend dependency stack (Node, build pipeline, UI libraries) to improve security and deployment reliability.
- Jan 2022 — Apr 2025
Software Development Academy ↗
JavaScript Trainer · Bucharest
- Taught HTML, CSS, JavaScript and React to students entering tech at one of the largest accredited coding academies in CEE, with a practical, industry-focused approach.
- Improved teaching materials and exercises iteratively based on student feedback. Mentored more junior trainers.
- Oct 2021 — Aug 2022
Waydev ↗
Founding Software Engineer · San Francisco (remote, YC W21)
- Owned core parts of the main Waydev app (Laravel, Vue.js) at a YC W21 engineering-analytics startup. Built dashboards visualising engineering KPIs — cycle time, PR throughput, code-review metrics — used daily by enterprise customers.
- Migrated the platform to Laravel Octane, improving response time and uptime stability by about 35% under load.
- Built a notification microservice for in-app, email and Slack / Teams / Google Chat channels. Also contributed to a metrics-trendline system, technical interviewing, and onboarding documentation.
- Jul 2021 — Jan 2022
Basetool (v1)
Co-Founder · Bucharest
- Co-founded the original Basetool: a TypeScript / React / Next.js platform for bringing data under one roof from all the tools a technical team already uses.
- Built the fields model, the filtering system, views and role-based permissions.
- May 2020 — Aug 2021
Avo HQ ↗
Co-Founder & Engineer · Remote
- Co-built Avo, an open-source admin framework for Ruby on Rails — still actively maintained at avohq.io.
- Co-built the UI layer and configuration system: reusable view components, form fields, filtering, roles and permissions. Validated across pilot projects.
- Operated an open-source codebase publicly: reviewed contributions, wrote technical docs and RFCs, and supported a community of external developers.
- Completed YC Startup School and the Romanian incubator Launch.ro with the team.
- Oct 2020 — Aug 2021
Amdocs ↗
Software Engineer · Bucharest (Vodafone Romania account)
- Built Java and Spring microservices for the Digital Experience platform serving Vodafone Romania. Owned Swagger contracts, unit tests and integration with the wider Amdocs infrastructure.
- Oct 2020 — Feb 2021
National Union of Public Notaries ↗
Full Developer · Bucharest
- Digitised state-institution workflows: rewrote the public-facing site and shipped a security-heavy internal app for meetings and document upload / download.
- Dec 2019 — Sep 2020
Deloitte Digital ↗
Salesforce Cloud Consultant · Bucharest
- Shipped Cloud4M, a Deloitte Manufacturing Cloud asset: frontend on Lightning Web Components, backend on Apex. Cut repetitive input by about 30%.
- Completed the Salesforce bootcamp and earned Salesforce Certified Administrator + Platform Developer I in under six months.
- Nov 2018 — Feb 2019
EcoKnights ↗
Web Developer Intern · Kuala Lumpur
- Built a volunteer platform for a Malaysian sustainability NGO. Researched how technology can strengthen volunteer recruitment and engagement, and helped run sustainability events in KL.
Education
- 2016 — 2019
BSc Technical Computer Science, University of Twente
Enschede, Netherlands. Software systems, network systems, data & information, intelligent interaction design, algorithms.
- 2012 — 2016
Mathematics-Informatics, National College Mircea cel Bătrân
Constanța, Romania. Final grade 9.06 / 10. Goethe-Institut Deutsches Sprachdiplom B2, ECDL Core, Information Technology Olympiad.
Publications
- 2020
Effectiveness of neural language models for word prediction of textual response reports
Published at the 2020 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC). Best Paper Award at the 31st Biannual Twente Student Conference on IT.
Honors
- 2020
Best Paper Award — Twente Student Conference on IT (31st Biannual)
For the BSc final thesis on neural language models for medical report writing; published at IEEE SMC 2020.
- 2023 →
Ironman Finisher
Long-distance triathlon finisher.
- High school
Information & Technology Olympiad — Romania
National-level IT olympiad qualifier.
Certifications
- 2020
Salesforce Certified Administrator (SCA)
Earned during the Deloitte Digital Salesforce bootcamp.
- 2020
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I
Apex and Lightning platform development.
- High school
Deutsches Sprachdiplom B2 — Goethe-Institut
German language, B2 level.
- High school
ECDL Core Certificate
European Computer Driving Licence.
- —
JavaScript (Basic) Certificate
JavaScript fundamentals assessment.
Languages
Romanian
Native
English
Professional (fluent)
German
Professional (B2)
Dutch
Elementary
Hobbies
- Triathlon / Ironman training
- Reading
- TED talks & tech YouTube
- Hiking & snowboarding
- Cooking (Asian food bias)
Selected work
See all work →- Oceaneering2023 · 10 months (Aug 2022 — May 2023)
Software engineering at Oceaneering: OceanSMART container ERP
Nine months on a container-shipping ERP platform used by global logistics teams. Stack modernization, vessel and container tracking, real-time operational visibility.
- JavaScript / TypeScript
- React
- Node.js
- GraphQL
- Avo HQ2021 · 16 months (May 2020 — Aug 2021)
Avo: a zero-maintenance admin framework for Ruby on Rails
Co-founded an open-source Rails admin framework, still shipping at avohq.io. Configuration-based, no code generation, designed so teams can extend it without owning it.
- Ruby on Rails
- Hotwire / Stimulus
- Tailwind
- PostgreSQL
- Basetool (v1)2022 · 7 months (Jul 2021 — Jan 2022)
Basetool v1: bringing data under one roof for technical teams
Co-founded the original Basetool in 2021: a TypeScript / React / Next.js platform that let technical teams pull data from all their tools into one configurable workspace.
- TypeScript
- React
- Next.js
- Redux
Writing
Read all posts →- 2026-04-24What makes a good personal website in 2026Personal sites are not resumes. They are trust compression tools. Notes on what works, what screams "AI-generated", and how to build one that earns the click.
- 2025-06-01Hello from BasetoolFirst post on the Basetool blog. Notes from the studio on AI, engineering, and shipping custom software.
Speaking & press
Available for podcasts, panels, and press on AI-native engineering, founding engineering, consumer product shipping, and Rails developer tooling. Short and long bios below. High-res headshot on request.
Short bio
David Marin is the founder of Basetool, an AI-augmented custom-software studio in Bucharest, and Sixthly, a stealth productivity agent. Previously Product Engineer at The Social Cat and co-founder of the Ruby on Rails admin framework Avo.
Long bio
David Marin is the founder of Basetool, an AI-augmented custom-software studio, and Sixthly, a stealth startup reimagining personal productivity in the age of agents. Previously Product Engineer at The Social Cat, Software Engineer at Oceaneering and at YC W21 startup Waydev, and co-founder of the open-source Rails admin framework Avo (avohq.io). Earlier work at Amdocs for Vodafone Romania, Deloitte Digital (Salesforce) and the National Union of Public Notaries. BSc Computer Science, University of Twente — Best Paper Award at IEEE SMC 2020. Ironman finisher, four languages, based in Bucharest.
Want to build something?
30 minutes on the calendar. No pitch. I listen, I ask questions, I tell you whether we can help.