Stay close to the work.
Ivan owns strategy, technical review, and the client relationship. The person you meet in the first conversation stays involved in the decisions that matter.
The people behind the work
A builder’s mindset.
An owner’s commitment.
I’m Ivan. I started Smirnov Labs to help companies close the gap between what technology could do for their business and what it actually delivers.
Directly with Ivan · Free · No obligation
Ivan Smirnov Founder, Smirnov Labs
How we show up
You own the code.
We own the delivery.
Build for the business.
The useful question is what gets you to the next meaningful outcome. We make technical choices around the business, the team, and the constraints.
Leave you stronger.
You own the IP. We build internal capability through documentation, mentoring, and a practical handoff. The work should keep paying off after we leave.
Experience behind the judgment
From Google-scale systems
to the first thing that ships.
- Google
Five years in engineering across Search, Assistant, Ads backend, and Google Cloud.
- Elude → Going
Co-founder and CTO of a venture-backed travel startup, later acquired by Going.
- Safe Health
VP of Technical Infrastructure at Safe Health Systems.
- Smirnov Labs
Founded in 2024. Eleven fractional CTO roles, alongside custom software delivery and hands-on AI training.
- Quantic MBA
An MBA from Quantic brings a business lens to technical decisions: where to invest, what to prioritize, and how to help a company grow.
- UC Berkeley
A foundation in computer science and cognitive science.
A small core. A proven bench.
The team grows
with the work.
An in-house developer. A partner engineering agency in Croatia that Ivan has worked with since Elude. A bench of vetted contract engineers matched to your needs.
We run our own production Kubernetes cluster and agentic tooling, including an AI architecture-review bot that gates pull requests. We live with the systems and practices we recommend.
Meet your next engineering partnerA real conversation. A concrete next step.
Let’s make your
next move count.
Tell Ivan what you’re building, what’s stuck, or where AI could help. We’ll find the right place to start.
Book a 30-min call Free · Directly with Ivan · No obligation Prefer to write? Send a brief