Privatoria s.r.o. was a global privacy and security platform – VPN with Tor integration, Encrypted Email, Secure Chat and Video Calls based on WebRTC, Anonymous Proxy, and Encrypted File storage. I Co-founded it, built it from a scratch to profitability, was replaced by investors, watched it decline, was invited back to lead its turnaround, and saw it through to a successful sale.
CompanyPrivatoria s.r.o., Prague, CZ
MARKETGlobal – US, EU, Middle East
ModelSaaS subscription, B2B + B2C
OutcomeCompany sold
20,000+
Users acquired in Phase 1
120x
Revenue growth in 11 months
60+
Countries served
30+
VPN server locations
Sold
Successful exit after turnaround
Covered by: EU Startups · The Hacker News · ProPrivacy · Newswire · PressRelease · Crunchbase
What This Engagement Demonstrates
🏗
Built a complete product and business from zero to self-sufficiency
Took the company from scratch to 20,000+ users and 120x monthly revenue in under 18 months – leading architecture, team hiring, market research, competitive positioning, and international expansion simultaneously. Revenue exceeded costs before I left.
🔐
Designed security architecture where trust is structural
Built communications infrastructure where even the operator had zero technical access to user data – not a policy, a design constraint. Open-source-only stack chosen specifically so every component could be independently audited. This distinction matters when the product’s credibility is the product.
🔄
Led a turnaround after the company had already failed under another team
Invited back after investors replaced the founding team and the company declined. Diagnosed what had degraded, restored security standards, reduced operational complexity, and rebuilt with a team that had not built the original system. The company was stabilized and sold.
🌍
Identified and entered a new international market
Led the research that identified the Arabic-speaking market (130M+ internet users, high government censorship, Skype blocked in several countries) as a high-priority target, built the case, and launched a localized product serving 30+ countries. Covered by The Hacker News and ProPrivacy as a market leader.
📋
Prepared the company for acquisition, and it sold
Phase 2 mandate was not just technical stabilization, it was making the platform evaluable by any external party. Operational clarity, security posture, and architectural documentation sufficient for due diligence. The company was successfully acquired.
The Story Behind It
2014 – 2015 · CTO & Co-Founder
Phase 1 – From zero to profitable
Joined before any product, team, or code existed. Led market research, competitive analysis, full technical architecture, and a distributed engineering team. In 18 months: 20,000+ users, 1,200+ paying subscribers, monthly revenue up 120x. Revenue exceeded costs. Investors replaced the team.
2015 – 2016 · Not involved
Investors take over – company declines
Within ~12 months the company was in serious trouble. Security-critical systems required contextual knowledge the replacement team lacked. Investors asked me to return.
2016 – 2017 · CTO & Co-Owner
Phase 2 – Turnaround and exit
Returned to stabilize, not to grow. Diagnosed degraded systems, restored security standards, reduced operational complexity, rebuilt team clarity. Platform stabilized and company sold.
CTO-Level Skills This Project Evidences
Technical turnaround & crisis leadership
Invited back after failure. Restored a degraded, security-critical system without the team that built it. Rare combination of diagnostic speed and execution discipline.
0-to-1 product and company building
Led from pre-product to profitable in 18 months – architecture, team, go-to-market, and revenue simultaneously. Not just engineering leadership: full co-founder ownership of outcomes.
Security-by-design architecture
Built systems where privacy is structurally enforced, not policy-dependent. Zero-knowledge design, open-source-only audit trail. Increasingly required in regulated industries and any product where trust is core.
Business-technology alignment
Led competitive analysis and market research alongside building. Phase 2 every technical decision was filtered through cost and sustainability. Technology as a business tool, not a separate discipline.
M&A readiness and exit preparation
Prepared a platform for acquisition – operational clarity, security posture, architectural documentation. Company sold after Phase 2. Growing in demand as more technology companies pursue acquisition exits.
Team building under pressure and in crisis
Built from zero in Phase 1. Rebuilt with a different team in Phase 2 – getting operational results from people who didn’t build the original system. Both require distinct leadership skills.
International market expansion
Led market entry into Arabic-speaking regions – research, product localization, and launch covering 24 countries. Navigated regulatory and infrastructure constraints with no established playbook.
Strategic prioritization under constraints
Phase 2 required deciding what to cut, not just what to build. Subtractive leadership – reducing services, simplifying operations, eliminating debt selectively – is as difficult as building and just as valuable.
Who This Is Relevant For
You’re a founder building something complex
You need a CTO who treats technical outcomes as their own responsibility, not a contractor executing your spec. This engagement is evidence of what that looks like: market research, architecture decisions, team formation, and revenue ownership.
Your technical situation has deteriorated
Security drift, accumulated technical debt, operational complexity that’s grown faster than the team. Or a leadership gap after a departure. The Phase 2 turnaround here is direct evidence of how I approach a system that has already gone wrong.
You’re preparing for investment or acquisition
Technical due diligence requires your platform to be evaluable by people who didn’t build it. That’s exactly what Phase 2 achieved here: a platform that could be understood, assessed, and acquired by an external party.
You need to scale into new markets
Not just “add servers in a new region”, but identify which markets are worth entering, build the business case, navigate local regulatory and infrastructure constraints, and ship. The Arabic market expansion here was a business decision before it was a technical one.
You have a team but no senior technical leadership
Engineers who are strong executors but need someone to set the architectural direction, represent technology at the board level, and make the decisions that nobody else can make. A CTO function without a full-time headcount.
The project is complex and the margin for error is low
Security, finance, healthcare, infrastructure, platforms where technical mistakes become business problems quickly. Experience in domains with zero tolerance for error transfers across industries – the discipline is the same, the context changes.