Cristian Făgărășan — Product & Growth Leader
I build systems, lead product teams & scale ideas into real-world platforms.
10+ years across product, growth, and delivery in fintech and marketplaces. I build growth systems, not one-off wins — and I ship with AI: my platforms are built almost entirely by AI agents. Now building Firmoscop and BONO, researching software delivery on the side.
PhD researcher
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
- 10+
- Years in product, growth & delivery
- 4
- M&A product integrations led
- 13
- Agile squads scaled at Toptal
- 255+
- Research citations
Selected work
Products I’m building
Platforms for the Romanian market and the systems behind them — each with a full case study.
Firmoscop
Business verification & payment-risk platform for the Romanian market
BONO
ActiveFully digital accounting, invoicing, and company-setup platform for Romanian SRLs
J — an AI engineering agent fleet
ActiveA multi-agent system that takes a need in plain language to a shipped, monitored product
Track record
Platforms I’ve shipped on
Live products I’ve contributed to across a decade — plus the highlights behind them.
Toptal
2021 — 2024Scaled Growth Product from 6 to 13 squads and integrated four acquisitions into the platform.
Essentra Components
2019 — 2021eCommerce platform launched across 20+ markets, delivered with Tremend (Publicis Groupe).
Thrive Themes
2016 — 2018Four WordPress plugins shipped for the Thrive suite, delivered with BitStone.
Led 4 M&A integrations
Directed end-to-end M&A integration processes, from technical migrations to operational alignment, unifying workflows.
Scaled Growth Product teams
Scaled Toptal’s Growth Product function from 6 to 13 agile squads and served as Interim VP of Growth Product.
Launched the BONO platform
Led the design and development of an automated platform that simplifies company incorporation, enabling entrepreneurs to start businesses in minutes.
Delivered AI infrastructure
Coordinated the planning and execution of AI infrastructure setup, integrating machine learning capabilities.
Launched HireGlobal
Delivered a global workforce management platform allowing clients to onboard, manage, and pay international talent.
Created a UGC platform
Developed a content automation system enabling direct publishing to the company’s website, boosting SEO performance.
Trusted by leaders
What people say
From LinkedIn recommendations written by leaders I’ve worked with.
“I had the pleasure of working closely with Chris, and I can confidently say that his work ethic is second to none. He constantly pushes his team and himself to exceed expectations. In addition to his focus on delivery, he pays attention to details and focuses on outcomes rather than outputs.”
Sameer Lalji
CPO & CTO · Managed Chris directly
“Chris stands out as one of the most adaptable, dedicated, and hardworking professionals I’ve encountered. He has a remarkable ability to navigate projects and roles with a high level of complexity and ambiguity. I highly recommend him for any opportunity that demands a strong sense of ownership combined with a results-oriented mindset.”
Luiz Baia
VP of Marketing Strategy, Toptal · Managed Chris directly
“Chris’ adaptability to a rapidly changing work environment, calmness under pressure and natural team-working skills are rare and powerful assets.”
Jack Adams
VP, Audience · Worked with Chris
“Chris is an exceptional professional who can adapt to almost any role… Chris is like a Swiss knife — he does it all and exceptionally well.”
Aleksandar Đurić
Brand & Product Design Lead · Worked with Chris
Work with me
Not technical? Bring the idea — I’ll bring the build.
I partner with founders and operators who want to build — from a website that finally sells you properly to a full platform. We pair weekly; my agent fleet ships daily; you own everything.
Research
Peer-reviewed work
PhD research on delivery performance in agile and hybrid software organisations — frameworks at scale, metrics, and leadership.
- 255+
- Citations
- 6
- h-index
- 12
- Papers
with O. Popa, A. Pisla, C. Cristea · IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1169 · 2021
with C. Cristea, M. Cristea, O. Popa, A. Pisla · Sustainability 15(17) · 2023
with M. Cristea, R. A. Tirnovan, C. Cristea · Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 53 · 2022
Notebook
Latest writing
My corner of the internet — notes on products, delivery, and AI-assisted engineering.
Write the documentation your agents will read
Once machines do most of the building, documentation stops being a courtesy to future colleagues and becomes load-bearing — and has to be written differently.
How to kill a feature
Teams get taught how to ship and never how to remove. The result: a product nobody can explain, and a codebase where every change costs more than the last.
Pricing a product where nobody pays in dollars
SaaS pricing advice assumes a market with ten times the willingness to pay. What survives translation to a small European market, and what gets thrown out.