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
Rebuilt OyLab from once-a-season startup battles into an 8-week accelerator with founder-led mentorship and expert guidance, including mentors from unicorn companies for high school students.
Secured 10+ sponsor and organization partnerships, increased the prize pool 4x, and built a structured curriculum and evaluation rubric for demo day readiness.
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.
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.
Higgsfield AI
Incoming Summer Intern
Selected from 900+ applicants in the AIESEC x Higgsfield Case Competition to join Kazakhstan’s first unicorn (Google Next Top 25 startups worldwide, 70M+ ARR, 1.6B+ total reach).
Supporting product execution and scaling by turning creator workflows into repeatable templates, camera moves, and effect presets inside the platform.
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.
nFactorial
Mentor/Speaker