Hey, I’m Damir.
Founder / AI researcher
Recently I hit pause to take a gap year, which sounds chill, yet it became the busiest year of my life. At 19, I built a $8M AI company, Vetra. It’s your personal secretary that saves a full workday every week by taking over your planning.
Find me at
Built on Learning
Alongside shipping Vetra, I’m researching how AI reshapes early-stage teams and fundraising. I’m co-authoring with AI/ML engineer Aldamzhar Kiikbayev and have synthesizing 100+ founder interviews (Unicorns, YC, StartX, Alchemist, 500 Global). Guided by Geoffrey Moore (bestselling author, Stanford'67) and Poh Kam Wong (top-2% cited scholar, National University of Singapore)
My open tabs
Vetra AI
Founder & CEO
Built a full stack AI secretary integrating Telegram, WhatsApp, Gmail, Outlook, Asana, and Slack; recognized as a Top 100 Startup in Central Asia and Top 15 of 300+ at the Astana Hub accelerator.
Secured $200K in tech credits and a $600K pre-seed investment offer; formed partnerships with ISSAI and Runa (valued at $200M).
OyLab - Accelerator & Startup Battles
Co-Founder/Strategic Advisor
Transformed OyLab Startup Battles into Seven Studio, a 7-week incubator + accelerator combining startup mentorship from unicorn founders and investors with college admissions guidance from Stanford, Ivy League, Duke, and HKU advisors.
Building Central Asia's largest youth startup ecosystem, expected to launch Spring 2025 with 100+ high school participants and elite mentorship network spanning Silicon Valley to Asia.
nFactorial
Mentor/Speaker
Led the nFactorial Solo track for AI solo founders, guiding participants from idea validation to interviews, MVP design, go to market strategy, and first sales.
Led the Generative AI track, teaching image and video generation plus no code workflows in n8n with integrations into core business tools.
Mentoring Higgsfield Growth track on aggressive growth tactics, Metrics & ROI, Automation & Scale
BlueBots
Growth & Innovation Lead
Integrated Yale and Duke dining plus NetNutrition data into an AI chatbot, added course-based chats aligned with no cheat student policy, and refined AI visuals through iterative testing.
Secured VC and partner relationships and built traction through strategic pilots that positioned the startup for growth.
BCC Invest JSC & Veritas AI
SWE Intern & Research Scholar
Completed a selective global research program (4–6% acceptance rate) on full financial aid; mentored by Stanford and Harvard alumni while building an ML model for credit card fraud detection.
Applied research at BCC Invest (Top 3 Kazakhstan bank subsidiary) serving 380K+ users; first high school intern, shipping fraud alerts and analytics that improved decision accuracy and investment safety.
AI
Read about my journey here
Let’s build something useful
My calendar is open. In the past few months I’ve met 200+ new builders and students — sometimes for a quick nudge, sometimes to stay on as a strategic advisor. If you’re building something meaningful, I’d love to hear from you.
