Fractional CTO — European trust and corporate services provider (regulated).
Platform implementation, a read-only MCP server with KYC masking and an audit log, onboarding automation.
Ongoing.
Advisor and builder, Madrid
AI operating partner for financial-services operators.
- MSc in theoretical physics (Moscow State University)
- corporate finance and M&A at EY
- product management at Yandex.Taxi and Citymobil
- three years running IT and product operations at a European venture fund with roughly €1B under management
- independent advisor and builder in Madrid since 2018. Currently fractional CTO to a European trust and corporate services provider.
The combination that matters in financial services: the technical depth to build the actual system, and the judgment to know which system not to build. Most advisors have one of the two. Add enough familiarity with how regulated operations actually run to tell a platform demo from a real solution.
How I work. A 20-minute call about the decision that is stuck. A written memo within 48 hours, fit or not. If there is something to do: a three-week diagnostic at a fixed fee — automation map, risk register, ninety-day plan. Most seats continue from there on a monthly retainer plus a success fee. Fixed price where scope is fixed; full code ownership; no lock-in.
Ex-EY · Ex-Yandex.Taxi · Fractional CTO, regulated trust company · Madrid, Spain · References on request
01
Engagements
Platform build — European mobility operator.
Taxi-ordering platform, stage one; trilingual site with a fare calculator.
Fixed scope, delivered.
IT and product operations — European venture fund, ~€1B AUM.
Identity, collaboration and AI infrastructure for a fund and its entities; migrations, vendor cost discipline, portfolio reporting pipelines.
Role, 2023–.
02
How I build
In Q1 2026 I shifted from advising to building. Using Claude Code as my primary development tool, I built 14 iOS and macOS apps in 90 days, alone. Ten are live on the App Store, four in preparation. Each app is localised across 30+ languages.
The speed is not the point; the system is:
- 45-minute focused sessions, 94% success rate across 297 tracked sessions
- Structured context saves that give the model persistent memory between sessions
- A shared Swift package (AppFoundation) behind every app: analytics, crash reporting, monetisation
- Pre-flight checklists that cut App Store submission rejections by half
922 commits, 14 apps, 3 months. I build the apps and the system that builds them.
03
The name
Alarife is the old Spanish word, from Arabic, for the master builder — the one who judged what should be built and then built it. Alarifa is that word made new. It is the whole job description.
05
Twenty minutes is enough to know.
The monthly note
One story, one number, one decision a month. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.