Nico Kalkusinski profile photo

Nico Kalkusinski

Drop me into the mess. I’ll make the system work and the product a pleasure to use. Then you can say, “Finally, an engineer with taste.” Built LanguageEverest, because I spent years convinced there had to be a better way to learn than what school taught us. Shipped across an embarrassingly wide portfolio of products, tools, and systems. Sharing knowledge through writing, events, and meetups when time allows. I own things end to end. Customer call in the morning, PRD by lunch, codebase in the afternoon. I question everything that seems like a given and get itchy when my work sucks. Read how I work Four countries, three languages, two owned SaaS products, more industries than make sense on paper. Outside of work: dancing bachata and rethinking how people learn languages.

View experienceMore about me

I've never seen somebody pick up a project and start producing results so quickly. Nico was thrown into it, onboarded himself, stuck his nose into every possible hole, mapped out the client's priorities, and built a six-month product roadmap. In less than a month.

Jerzy WenzelBusiness Development Director @ RITS Center

You can throw anything at Nico and be sure it will get solved. He'll bring both the white swans and the black swans to your attention, and he'll challenge the assumptions you really don't want challenged. He's the glue in a team. Wherever there's a gap, he fills it.

Dinko SvetopetricCEO @ Qu8

I managed Nico at Multiverse Computing. He picked up work across the platform and saw it through. He owned a feature from planning and specs to delivery and docs. He pushed us to use AI in incident work, challenged decisions, and helped teammates get unstuck. I'd work with him again.

Rubén González ArandaTechnical Lead @ Frenetic

When I interviewed Nico, he'd never worked in a big team or with our Git and Kubernetes setup. He put in the work, asked when he needed help, and became a strong teammate. He cared about testing strategy even when it wasn't his job. His CV undersells him. I'd recommend him.

Daniel Moreno RocaSenior SDET, QA Automation Engineer

Nico sees beyond how a task is framed. He spots risks early, catches details in code review, and gets to the real problem before trying to solve it. On tight deadlines, his planning and documentation keep the team moving without chaos. He tests new tools, then shows us where they actually help.

Yozhef HandraburhSoftware Engineer @ Julius Baer

You learned a lot just by sitting near Nico. When he hit a problem, he'd ask the team, go figure it out, then come back and explain it. He gave credit for even the smallest help and had already tried every new AI tool. He made the team better to work in. I'd work with him again.

Alberto GarcíaSoftware Engineer @ Multiverse Computing

Experience

Technical roles. Before that, 5+ years in customer service and hospitality.

Qu8

Product Engineer

Jul 2026 – Present

Qu8 builds custom apps, business systems, and automations for companies. My role is 70% hands-on full-stack development and 30% project management. I work from discovery and specifications through implementation and delivery, keeping the software tied to the client's workflow and original problem.

Multiverse Computing

Platform Software Engineer

Dec 2025 – Jun 2026

Multiverse Computing builds compressed AI models and quantum-inspired software. It works with more than 100 companies across 10 industries, including finance, energy, and manufacturing. I worked on the shared platform used by its products: keeping production services reliable, improving APIs, fixing security issues, and making builds and releases easier for other engineers.

Qu8

Business Development Manager

Sep 2025 – Nov 2025

Qu8 builds custom apps, business systems, and automations for companies. I managed early client conversations and the technical work behind them, turning business needs into clear proposals and plans engineers could build. I continued advising on selected projects after that role ended.

Neotic Technology

Customer Success Manager

Sep 2024 – Aug 2025

Neotic Technology is a Valencia-based IT company that provides business software, cybersecurity, and technical support. I worked with clients from onboarding through delivery, led development of its CULTINEXT agricultural software, and automated internal work. The onboarding changes I made cut the time from first contact to implementation by 65%.

LanguageEverest

Bootstrapped Founder

Sep 2021 – Present

LanguageEverest is a language-learning app with vocabulary practice, AI conversations, and feedback on mistakes. I founded it and built the product: interviewing learners, designing the interface, and developing the app and its AI features. I also run the business and decide what to build next.

Featured projects

My flagship projects that made the biggest difference.

I’m bootstrapping the whole thing: what gets built, how it works, looks, and sells. It started when I had to learn Spanish in 90 days. My promise: you’ll reach the level you want, even if you don’t want to. You just need to keep showing up. I’ll make sure you’ll get results.

  • Next.js
  • React
  • TypeScript
  • PostgreSQL
  • Supabase
  • AI
  • CI/CD

NDASix weeks to make releases less stressful while the team kept shipping

August 2026

A live finance product, manual deployments, and four developers still shipping features. I owned the six-week overhaul: tested releases, controlled rollouts, rollback procedures, and documented setup. Builds dropped from 17 minutes to 4. The next developer was running the app in 15 minutes without help.

9 min read
  • Docker
  • GitHub Actions
  • Google Cloud
  • PostgreSQL
  • Turborepo
  • Turbopack
  • DevOps

NDA6,000 pages of dental records into a CRM in 38 days

March 2025

800 patients' histories stuck on paper. I built a custom scanning and dictation app in 11 days. Three dental assistants used it to move the records into their CRM in 27 more, checking every entry before import.

5 min read
  • React
  • Google Cloud
  • OCR
  • Speech-to-Text
  • Data migration

Seven technicians. Three managers. I built their app in about six weeks. Logging work took 45 seconds, and they dropped paper reports after five days using both systems. Sensem: 'Our technicians save ~37h every month.'

7 min read
  • Bubble.io
  • Low-code
  • Internal tools
  • Workflow design
  • Reporting
View all projects

Also: Everyone wants Christmas off, but the hotel still needs someone at reception, LanguageEverest Email Operations Service, Portfolio Website (This Page) and 7 more

As an Individual, in a Team, and in Ambiguity

How I Work

Individually, I move fast but never at the cost of clarity. Ownership end-to-end matters to me, so discovery, implementation, and production reliability stay in the same conversation from day one. I prefer shipping real progress over performing progress, and I treat quality as part of speed, not as something bolted on later. I proactively look for things to improve, fix, or add instead of idly waiting for tasks to be assigned. If something new shows up in tech, I usually know about it and try it the same day. In teams, I keep everyone in the loop and keep communication explicit. Over-communication is better than under-communication. A good team gets you miles ahead. When I give feedback, I give full context, direct feedback, and concrete proposals. I actively ask for feedback on my own work, proactively help others, and make a point of unblocking teammates when they get stuck. I do not throw loose ideas left and right: I validate first, pressure-test from multiple angles, and bring a draft people can build on instead of something that gets forgotten in five minutes. I am a high-volume doer and learner, comfortable jumping across docs, projects, and contexts and stitching them together quickly. I consume as much information as I can find. Ambiguity is often where I shine, because it gives my creative side space to take ownership, propose solutions, and act. I iterate fast, drop work when it stops moving the needle, and constantly test decisions against reality, constraints, and trade-offs. My weak spot is simple: my quality bar is very high, so I can keep polishing longer than needed. The output is usually strong, but if I do not control scope, it can burn extra time and energy.

Capabilities

Everything your ATS would pick up. And then some.

  • TypeScript
  • SSR
  • Node.js
  • Payload
  • FastAPI
  • CMS
  • N8N
  • TanStack
  • Customer Success Management
  • Product Delivery
  • APIs
  • CodeRabbit
  • Partnership Development
  • Technical Architecture
  • Teleport
  • Integration Testing
  • Aikido
  • Zod
  • Sentry
  • RLS
  • Claude Code
  • Personal Access Tokens
  • Terraform
  • RBAC
  • Specifications
  • Next.js
  • Incident Response
  • PostgreSQL
  • Delivery tracking
  • Django
  • Prettier
  • Linear
  • GCP
  • GitLab
  • Lovable
  • OpenRouter
  • MQTT
  • ArgoCD
  • User interviews
  • Rust
  • Client Discovery
  • Project management
  • Jest
  • Cross-functional Collaboration
  • OAuth
  • Creatio
  • Product roadmaps
  • Process Optimization
  • Pino
  • Notion
  • i18n
  • Monday
  • Webhooks
  • AI Workflows
  • Code Review
  • Make
  • Azure
  • Plane
  • HubSpot Inbound Marketing
  • RAG
  • Process mapping
  • Docker
  • CI Quality Gates
  • Calendly
  • Husky
  • AWS
  • Playwright
  • Codex
  • Claude
  • Raynet CRM
  • ABAC
  • Helm
  • Nginx
  • LanguageEverest
  • OpenClaw
  • Qu8
  • RevenueCat
  • Slack
  • ESLint
  • ClickUp
  • AI Ethics
  • Photoshop
  • B2C
  • Canva
  • CLI
  • WordPress
  • OCR
  • Streaming AI chat
  • Google Analytics
  • Model Training
  • Microsoft Office
  • Discovery calls
  • HackMD
  • PWA
  • MailScale
  • Skills
  • Apollo
  • Google Sheets
  • Data cleanup
  • End-to-end ownership
  • MVPs
  • Multiverse Computing
  • Polar
  • SaaS
  • Data Visualization
  • AI tutoring
  • Less rework
  • Active recall
  • Datadog
  • FSRS
  • PostHog
  • Risk reduction
  • Scheduling
  • Creatio CRM
  • Email operations
  • Stripe
  • Resend
  • Clear documentation
  • Internal tools
  • Atera
  • ERP
  • React
  • Adapty
  • Bachata
  • Predictable delivery
  • Firebase
  • API design
  • Zapier
  • B2B
  • Fast handoffs
  • Spanish
  • RPCs
  • Low-code
  • K8s
  • Data digitization
  • Tapas
  • Fewer blockers
  • Internationalization
  • Puppeteer
  • SEO
  • Team setup
  • Valencia
  • Rapid onboarding
  • CRM
  • Route 53
  • LLM Orchestration
  • AI-assisted coding
  • Python
  • Language learning
  • Technical Consultation
  • Linting
  • Prompt Engineering
  • Mobile development
  • Salsa
  • Prioritization
  • Agile
  • Macroscope
  • MCP
  • RabbitMQ
  • Grafana
  • English
  • Clerk
  • Gemini
  • Cursor
  • Session Management
  • Bubble.io
  • Polish
  • GitHub Actions
  • OpenAI
  • Strategic Negotiation
  • a11y
  • Excel
  • Markdown
  • Supabase
  • Hermes
  • GitHub
  • Sprint planning
  • CI/CD
  • V0
  • Vercel
  • Machine Learning
  • Kanban
  • BullMQ
  • Team Leadership
  • TDD
  • LogTo
  • Stakeholder updates
  • Process Automation
  • Sales Engineering
  • Requirements
  • M2M Authentication
  • Kafka
  • Growth Strategy

University of Bradford

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

Bradford, England

Colorado Mesa University

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (Exchange Program)

Colorado, USA