Product engineer · interim product lead · Prague, remote
I take products from idea to paying customers.
Ten years of building and running products: a Czech B2B SaaS used by 1,100+ people and freelancers, product and AI leadership at an RFID/AI startup, AI systems for manufacturers, and my own companies in data centers, e-commerce and web development. I work with founders and owners who need a product built and shipped — and who are looking for a partner they can trust.
- 1,100+ people and freelancers use Copybot, a SaaS I designed and built
- I led AI at the startup Buylo (RFID and AI for logistics and retail)
- 10+ years in business running my own companies and projects — some succeeded, others ended in losses and hard-won experience.
What I do
Ways to work with me.
Implementing AI into your existing infrastructure
For: business owners and entrepreneurs who want to bring AI into their work but don't know where to start.
You get: a map of the processes where AI saves the most time, a proposed solution with an estimate of costs and benefits, and then its implementation into your existing systems.
based on project scope
Product build
For: founders and owners with a clear idea and no team.
You get: an application, portal or internal tool in production within weeks. Fixed price, fixed date; code, documentation and infrastructure are yours.
based on project scope
Project rescue
For: projects that stalled, went over budget, or are stuck between a client and a supplier.
You get: a diagnosis and a plan you can hand to anyone. Together we can find a way to move the project forward. I can also offer project mediation (negotiation in case of problems and crisis management).
based on project scope
For larger implementations, teams and complex projects I work with a team. → sorbus.capital
Selected work
What I built, and what it did.
Copybot
AI copywriting SaaS for Copykiller s.r.o. — designed, built and operated end-to-end through an AI-agent pipeline.
Buylo
Product Manager & Head of AI at an RFID/AI startup: implementations for manufacturing and logistics companies, applied R&D.
Konstruo
Site diary and billing app for construction companies in Germany and Czechia; product owner and technology partner.
Smart Order
AI document processing for a manufacturer of filtration units: staff review instead of retyping.
How I work
I have built and I have lost. Both shaped how I run a project.
I come from business, not only from software. Before I built products for others I ran my own: a web agency (Sorbus Media), e-commerce stores, and a company inside a crypto-mining syndicate operating data centers worth hundreds of millions of crowns. Some of it worked. Some of it did not: a failed crowdfunding campaign, an e-commerce store in the US, a bad investment in a construction company. Those cost me roughly seven million crowns and taught me more than anything that went well.
So I don't spend money before it is clear what it buys. The first version is the cheapest one that can be sold; big spending comes after the first customers, not before. I do only what moves the product toward paying customers and I say no to work that merely looks like work.
I take the whole product, not a slice of it: discovery, priorities, architecture, delivery, operations. I build with AI coding agents, but under strict engineering control — domain models, tests, observability — so the result is fast to build and still maintainable in two years.
Interpersonal communication is one of my strengths too. When a project is in crisis, the problem is usually the people, not the code — and that calls for de-escalation and the right communication approach. I have experience with mediation and facilitation on projects: leading a team through tense negotiations.
And I tell owners the truth about their project, including when the right move is to stop. That is the part most suppliers skip, and it is the part I was paid the most to learn.
Live products I own or co-own. Numbers change; I update them monthly.
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Konstruo — site diary, work reports and invoicing for construction companies (DE/CZ); product owner.
Status: in daily use at the first company, sales starting in Czechia
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Youniqe — AI social-media content platform with the agency SocialKings; product and technology.
Status: in build
I'm building a brand on Instagram (@jirik.jan).
Background
Where I have been.
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2025 – 2026
Buylo — Product Manager & Head of AI; RFID + AI for warehouses, production and retail companies.
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2025 – 2026
Biomaxa — initial product management team of a marketplace connecting heating plants with biomass suppliers.
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2020 – now
Sorbus Capital — the parent company under which I have run my projects since 2020; today software and AI implementation.
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since 2020
Sorbus Technology — member company of a crypto-mining syndicate (Starmine; data-center hardware worth hundreds of millions CZK); strategy and investor relations.
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2020 to 2023
Sorbus Media — web agency and own e-commerce stores; one of the successful projects was www.symario.cz.
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Education
Bc. International Business, Metropolitan University Prague (2020) · Applied Economics and Statistics, Unicorn College
Toolbox
Product: discovery, pricing, roadmaps, metrics, owner and investor communication, fixed-price delivery, project rescue · Experienced with these technologies: TypeScript, Python, domain-driven design, PostgreSQL, the Google Cloud ecosystem, Terraform, CI/CD, observability · AI: LangGraph, Mastra AI, Google ADK, LLM gateways and evals (Langfuse), RAG, reinforcement learning (Gymnasium), MLflow, Metaflow, AI coding agents with test gates · Domains: manufacturing and production planning, RFID and logistics, construction, B2B SaaS, e-commerce, data-center operations
Now
Contact
Tell me what you are building, or what got stuck.
Thirty minutes is enough to say whether I am the right person and what the first step would be. No deck, no obligation.