Email
Web
https://eli.cool

I've been building products for fast-moving companies since 2012. I like Machine Learning, VR, and the human side of Engineering.

GitHub
https://github.com/Ely-S
Linkedn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-sakov-b6555688

Tender Finance May 2022 - Nov 2022, San Francisco

https://tender.fi
Co-Founder / Chief Technology Officer

Led the engineering team of an early-stage startup building a web3 lending platform. Accepted into Binance’s Most Valuable Builder accelerator.

  • Hired 4 engineers and built a 7 person product team
  • Web3 Full-Stack development: Font-end in *Remix.js*, *React.js*, and *TypeScript*. Wrote smart contracts in *Solidity*
  • Shipped 2 MVPs in 6 months
  • Demonstrated technical thought leadership by speaking at San Francisco Blockchain Week, Decentral Miami, and EthCC Paris.

unspun.io Jan 2021 — May 2022, San Francisco

https://unspun.io
Software Lead

Led software projects at a body-scanning / ml / robotics startup.

  • Engineering lead + product manager for the unspun app, a body-scanning clothing-making experience with 4.9 stars on the app store as of April 2022.
  • Contributed to the body-scan -> physical jeans system using *Python*, *React.js*, *PostgreSQL*, and *Machine Learning* with *JupyterLab*.
  • Organized quarterly resource planning meetings for the executive team.
  • Talked to customers & prioritized features to iterate on *UX* in *Swift*. Collaborated with designers & developers on our *Figma*.
  • Created a new cross-team (sw, production, growth) sprint planning process.
  • Facilitated honest conversations. Smoothed friction between teams.
  • Improved engineering processes with more intentional sprint planning.

Ondaka Oct 2018 — Jan 2021, Mountain View

https://ondaka.com
Lead Developer

Engineer #1 at Industrial 3D modeling & machine vision (StartX, Alchemist) company.

  • Trained *Machine Learning* models on synthetic data from 3D models, and submitted my contributions to Google Brain's Automl repository (http://tinsy.me/rCngSF)
  • Built and delivered a web-based 3D visualization product used by big energy companies from the ground-up
  • Shipped an enterprise MVP in 1 month using *React.js* + *CSS* + *Node.js*+ *MongoDB*
  • Engaged in dialogues with customers to understand the user-journey.
  • Worked with the sales team to close deals by attending client meetings
  • Built and maintained a resilient cloud infrastructure on AWS that meets customers' security and uptime objectives
  • Trained machine vision models that run in web browsers with *Tensorflow* and *Tensorflow.js*.

Brazen Ideas Feb 2019 — Present, San Francisco, CA

https://brazenideas.co
Principle Engineering Consulting

I consult with startups to improve software design and process. Some of the companies I have had the pleasure of advizing include: Ex3.io, Resnet.ai, VIIRA.io, and the NCRI.

Kaliber.AI Feb 2016 — Oct 2018, San Francisco, CA

https://kaliber.ai
Lead AI & Full-Stack Developer

Employee #1 and lead developer of an ML startup. I did a lot: hired developers, ran sprints, coached, mentored, built infrastructure, and wrote code.

  • Lead developer of cross-functional speech recognition & machine vision team
  • Trained and deployed ML models in *Python* with *Tensorflow* and *Keras*
  • Wrote enterprise apps across the whole stack ML + UI + Back-End
  • Built & evaluated deep convolutional network architectures with *Keras*, *Tensorflow*, and *Jupyterlab*
  • Instituted standards and research processes for ML & Data Science teams
  • Led team of back-end developers to build REST services with *Python*, *MongoDB*, *PostgreSQL*, and *Redshift*
  • Designed scalable, containerized services with *AWS* & *GCP*, *Docker*, and *Travis*
  • Implemented complex, real-time single page apps in *React.JS*, *HTML5*, and *CSS3*

Invisible Analytics Mar 2015 — Dec 2015, New York, NY

Co-Founder / Data Scientist

Lead development and implementation of a personal healthcare analytics app.

Digital Media Academy, Stanford Summer 2014, Stanford, CA

Teaching Assistant

Taught students in Introductory and Advanced *Java* Classes

ErgoDirect.com Nov 2012 — Aug 2013, San Carlos, CA

Full-Stack Web Developer

Created web-based data analytics & reporting platform, worked on database system, improved customer-facing U.I.

Machine Learning

  • Python (numpy, pandas, etc.)
  • TensorFlow + Keras
  • Jupyterlab
  • R
  • Stata

Back-End

  • Docker
  • Flask/Django
  • Node.js
  • AWS & GCP
  • MongoDB
  • PostgreSQL

Technical Leadership

  • Understanding Customers
  • Ruthless Prioritization
  • Sprint Planning
  • Combating Scope Creep

Front-End

  • Ethers.js
  • JS/HTML/CSS
  • React.js
  • THREE.js

DAO Planet 2021 — Present

DAO Planet
Volunteer

We created the first ever 2-day DAO summit during EthDenver.

Taskforce.is 2013 —

taskforce.is
Volunteer

We build large-scale digital campaigns to protect Internet freedom.

The Gubbio Project January 2020 —

thegubbioproject.org
Volunteer, tech support

Data Engineers & Data Scientists Project Group 2016 — 2017

Organizer

I organized small group that met in the Burlingame library that geeked out-over data science

Probabilistic Programming for Advanced ML Summer 2015

Student

A DARPA-funded summer-school to study probabilistic programming languages for Bayesian Inference.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Class of 2015

B.S. Economics, Cum Laude

Academic Experience

  • Graduated youngest of my class, at age 18.
  • Thesis: A Critical Review of the Econometric Research on Youth Unemployment
  • Paper: An empirical analysis of the Solar Photovoltaic Industry
  • Archive of my Machine Learning, Econometrics, and Data Science Labwork.
  • Started a startup senior year
  • Rensselaer Leadership Award
  • Rensselaer Professional Leadership Program