I'm Rares Serban. I've been building software for 10+ years and now I'm learning to sell it.
I'm a senior software engineer and solopreneur from Cluj-Napoca, Romania. I went from PHP to Rust and blockchain and then to AI products, and since 2025 I also build and sell my own products under BeyondFolder.
Key facts
- Based in
- Cluj-Napoca, Romania (EET)
- Experience
- 10+ years in production, 3+ of them as tech lead
- Languages
- TypeScript, Rust and PHP, plus working Go and Python
- Building
- Mailyond, Omniyond, the Distribution Framework, NuxtBeyond
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Babeș-Bolyai University
TypeScript
Rust
Node.js
Nuxt
Vue
React
Cloudflare Workers
AWS
Kubernetes
PostgreSQL
Redis
Go
Temporal
Claude Code
TypeScript
Rust
Node.js
Nuxt
Vue
React
Cloudflare Workers
AWS
Kubernetes
PostgreSQL
Redis
Go
Temporal
Claude Code
TypeScript
Rust
Node.js
Nuxt
Vue
React
Cloudflare Workers
AWS
Kubernetes
PostgreSQL
Redis
Go
Temporal
Claude Code
TypeScript
Rust
Node.js
Nuxt
Vue
React
Cloudflare Workers
AWS
Kubernetes
PostgreSQL
Redis
Go
Temporal
Claude Code
How I got here
The short version, newest first, from my own products back to the Minecraft server I ran as a teenager.
2026
4 products live, and a new job at RWS
In July I joined RWS as a Senior Engineer on Papercup, their AI dubbing platform, and I keep building my products on the side, about an hour a day. Mailyond, Omniyond, the Distribution Framework and NuxtBeyond are live, and in September I retired Docuyond.
2025
The blockchain work dried up, so I started building products
The contract stopped paying, so I started building AI products instead. The first (small) Stripe payment came in February 2026.
2023
Full-time Rust and blockchain at Buidly
I left the PHP job for Rust smart contracts, NestJS backends and cross-chain work on MultiversX, Axelar, Stacks and Sui. I also architected Surflux, a Rust indexer and streaming API that handles 1,000+ events per second in production.
2021
Tech lead, and Rust
I got promoted to tech lead, owning the architecture for web apps, REST APIs and microservices and mentoring 4+ developers. The same year I learned Rust for blockchain and started freelancing on Elrond (now MultiversX) projects, with Rust smart contracts, NFT and ESDT tokens and lottery-style dApps.
2020
Nickis, and DevOps
At Pitech+Plus I moved to Nickis, a marketplace for children's clothes, and from 2022 I also did the DevOps work for it.
2016 to 2024
Side projects I never sold
WriteHey came first in 2016, a social network like X with no algorithm. In 2017 I bought this domain and built a 4K video platform on it, and after that came YTReview, Tripalovsky, Caut Mesteri, xMemers and donations.fun. Each one started from a problem I had and was also how I learned a new stack, from Symfony and React to Vue and NestJS. They all had domains, and I never marketed any of them. The full list is on the homepage.
2015 to 2021
Freelance PHP on the side
First on Upwork, then directly with clients. I built the first version of what is now welpe.de, a German platform that connects dog owners with dog services, including Stripe marketplace payments, and around 3 Symfony and API Platform projects for another client.
2015
PHP at Pitech+Plus
I started as a full stack developer, writing PHP (Symfony) with React on the frontend, while I was doing my Computer Science degree at Babeș-Bolyai University. I stayed there for 8 years.
2014
Academy+PLUS, before university
In my last year of high school I learned C and algorithms at Academy+PLUS. That's how I got an internship at Pitech+Plus, which turned into a part-time job and then a full-time one.
2011
A Minecraft server, and later my own mods
From 2011 to 2014 I ran a Minecraft server, first vanilla and later modded, and managed its community of players. Around 2014 and 2015 I learned Java so I could write mods, one with a small team of 2 coders and 2 artists and one of my own. They're still on my open source page.
CV highlights
The parts of my work history I'd point to first. The full CV is on LinkedIn.
A Rust platform at 1,000+ events per second
Surflux is an indexer and streaming API for real-time trading data on Sui DeepBook, with sub-second latency in production. It uses Redis Streams for event distribution and SSE for streaming, with active/standby failover and usage tracking for credit-based billing.
Tech lead for 3+ years
I owned the architecture decisions on 5+ projects, led two developers on several of them, and mentored 4+ developers through code reviews, pair programming and workshops.
Cross-chain infrastructure
I designed the transfer infrastructure on Axelar for Stacks and MultiversX, with Rust contracts and services and a TypeScript NestJS relayer.
Kubernetes on AWS from scratch
At Pitech+Plus I set up and ran a production cluster with secrets, health probes and resource limits, plus the Docker and GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
50,000+ emails per campaign
I built the marketing email pipeline on AWS SQS. I also improved MySQL (Aurora) query performance by up to 200%, by reading the query plans and fixing the indexes.
Audio-only support at RWS, as the only developer
I shipped it end to end on Papercup, the AI dubbing platform of RWS, across the Go and Temporal workflows, the Node.js backend and the React frontend.
What I'm building now
All of them run on the same small stack, Nuxt and TypeScript on Cloudflare Workers. What I'm working on this month is on the /now page.
Outside of code
I have a family with a small baby, so most of my free time goes there. I still play guitar now and then (I played in a few bands when I was younger), and I like swimming, biking, movies and TV shows, and games (running a Minecraft server is how I ended up learning Java).
Outside roles
Next to my own products I take one role at a time, as a fractional CTO, tech lead or founding engineer for an early-stage product. What fits, and what I've built so far, is on the roles page.