# Marko Živić: Meet the bottleneck.

> Control engineer by degree, ten years in software. GitHub work via Akvelon and Experis, IBM QMF via Teracloud. 19 products, and what tripped them.

- Canonical page: https://inspectedbymarko.com/about/
- Site: Inspected by Marko (https://inspectedbymarko.com/)
- Last updated: 26 October 2026

Pen note beside the title: “on purpose.”

I build fast with AI. Then I slow down and check if it makes sense. Control engineer by degree, software engineer for ten years, founder since 2020.

This page is my record, written from my own notes. The parts that didn’t work are on it too.

## Datasheet

- **Name:** Marko Živić
- **Function:** Human in the loop for software built with AI
- **10** years in software
- **7** of them in senior or lead roles
- **Photo:** Marko Živić (Package: 1 person).
- **Checked against my notes:** 21 Oct 2026, from 33 notes in my vault

### Features

- **GitHub Actions Team Lead, via Akvelon.** Six developers on GitHub’s setup actions.
- **GitHub Codespaces Tech Lead, via Experis.**
- **IBM QMF Product Owner through Teracloud.**
- **MSc, Automation and System Control, Niš.** Best master’s thesis of my generation.
- **19 products I started since 2016.** Most unsold. All on this page.

### Operating conditions

- **Base:** Zaječar, Serbia
- **Speaks:** English, Serbian
- **Hours:** CET, remote
- **Company:** OCTRA, since 2020

### Absolute maximum ratings

- Native mobile apps: not offered
- ML research, model training: not offered
- Petabyte-scale data: not offered
- Low-latency trading: not offered

Pen note beside the ratings: “limits first. saves us both a call.” Ordering: the inspection from $3,500, see Work with me (https://inspectedbymarko.com/work-with-me/).

## 01 The loop: I trained to close loops.

My degree is in automation and system control. The rule I never unlearned: a fast system with no feedback can overshoot, and when it drifts, nothing pulls it back. AI is the fastest motor I’ve ever had. I’m the controller, and my inspection is the sensor. (MSc, Automation and System Control · University of Niš.)

### Fig. 1 · How I work, drawn the way I was taught

1. What you need goes in.
2. I turn it into a spec, a scope and a taste call.
3. AI builds it with agents and my skills. It also adds noise: confident, clean-looking, wrong.
4. What it builds goes through inspection. What fails comes back to me, and the loop runs again.

The loop in control terms:
- r(t), the reference: what you need.
- C, the controller: Me (spec · scope · taste).
- G, the plant: AI (agents and my skills).
- d(t), the disturbance: confident, clean-looking, wrong.
- y(t), the output: what ships.
- H, the sensor: Inspection. Feedback: what fails comes back to me.

### Fig. 2 · Step response: what happens after you ask for something

A sketch of two responses over time. AI alone, the open loop, shoots past the spec, swings back and settles below it. AI and me, the closed loop, rises, overshoots a little and settles inside the spec. The numbered marks are the four readings below. (Sketch, not data · the four stories are real.)

| Reading | What it means | The story | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1. Rise time | How fast a first version exists. | Three weeks. A director with 20 years of coding had estimated four months. It launched and was promoted, then stopped with no results. Building got cheap. Selling didn’t. | [Circuit 13 on the panel · 2026](https://inspectedbymarko.com/about/#circuit-13) |
| 2. Overshoot | What AI gets confidently wrong. | AI called a product strategy of mine bulletproof. It missed the main competitor. | [Inspection log 01](https://inspectedbymarko.com/#inspection-log) |
| 3. Settling time | How long until it holds. | 90% of my SaaS rebuild was built in a week. The last 10% is two months of polish and tests, so far. | My SaaS · Oct 2026 |
| 4. Steady-state error | What stays wrong when nobody checks. | Two developers got my exact setup. Same skills, same vault. Slower, with gaps they couldn’t see. | A sample of two · told with their OK |

**The tools transferred. The judgment didn’t.**

What I read, and what I don’t:
- **The strategy.** AI designs it based on research and my feedback.
- **The feature list.** AI writes it. I rewrite it.
- **The database plan.** Every line, in full detail.
- **The design.** My design team manually reviews and instructs AI.

## 02 The route: I quit my first software job because I didn’t have the vocabulary.

So I taught myself ASP.NET Core while freelancing. Seven years later I led the AI-integration design for IBM’s QMF rebuild. No rich connections, no mentors. Every lesson paid for myself.

| Start | Role | Where | What | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2012 | **BSc and MSc, Automation and System Control** | University of Niš · Faculty of Electrical Engineering | Best student in my class. Best master’s thesis of my generation. | Stamp: Passed, 2017 |
| 2016 | **Electrical Engineer** | SENIS AG · Switzerland | LabVIEW, robotic eddy-current mappers, electrical device design. I left to move into software. |  |
| 2016 | **Junior .NET Developer** | Atomia | Cloud hosting on ASP.NET MVC, domain purchasing, e-commerce for a Dutch client. My first software job. I quit it. | Pen: quit. then taught myself ASP.NET Core while freelancing. |
| 2018 | **Independent Full-Stack Developer** | Freelance · mostly Upwork | 15+ e-commerce and full-stack builds since: storefronts, marketplaces, payment, shipping and inventory. | 15+ builds |
| 2018 (Oct) | **.NET Developer, promoted to Tech Lead** | EXLRT South · for a US healthcare provider | Led five developers on a real-time ER intake and patient-routing platform: WebSocket processing, the routing database schema, a legacy WebForms system rebuilt in ASP.NET Core. | Pen: tech lead within months. the US stakeholder promoted me. |
| 2019 | **Senior .NET Developer, promoted to Tech Lead** | Crayon · Sweden | Tech lead on a greenfield ASP.NET Zero platform for global software-license distribution, on Azure microservices, with OAuth and RBAC APIs and reporting dashboards. | Pen: promoted again. strong development, clear communication. |
| 2020 (20 Apr) | **Founder and Principal Engineer** | OCTRA · OneCodeToRuleAll d.o.o. · Zaječar | My company. Everything I build of my own runs through it, this channel included. | Stamp: Founded, 20 Apr 2020 |
| 2021 | **Senior Full-Stack Developer** | IM Republic · US | Sole developer, later with one junior, on a cognitive-testing e-commerce product in .NET and JavaScript. |  |
| 2022 (Jan) | **GitHub Actions Team Lead, via Akvelon** | GitHub · vendor contract · team of six | Led the team that owned GitHub’s setup actions: setup-node, setup-python, setup-dotnet, setup-go, setup-java. Community issues against SLAs, planning, code review, technical interviews. Version deprecations shipped with notices. No significant incidents. | Postmark: Via Akvelon, Jan 2022, to GitHub |
| 2022 | **Senior .NET Developer** | RokoLabs · for a major asset manager | Frontend-heavy fintech, DevOps tasks and a Node.js project. |  |
| 2023 (May) | **Senior .NET Developer and Architect, via Gerniks** | A European exchange operator · live-streaming platform | Reading streams was hard-coded: one project per vendor version. I led the replacement and designed a multi-provider adapter. A new vendor or version is now configuration, not a new project. Modular monolith on DDD with RabbitMQ. | Postmark: Via Gerniks, May 2023, to Exchange |
| 2024 (Apr) | **GitHub Codespaces Tech Lead, via Experis** | GitHub · vendor contract · TypeScript and Azure | I led the pipeline where AI agents converted environment templates to EC2 templates, validated them and gated every dependency and license. OIDC federation and Managed Identity replaced stored secrets. Bicep for provisioning. My manager won me six more months past GitHub’s 18-month cap. | Postmark: Via Experis, Apr 2024, to GitHub · Pen: github ended the akvelon deal. my manager moved me to a new vendor to keep me. |
| 2025 (May) | **IBM QMF Product Owner through Teracloud** | IBM · team of nine across Serbia, Greece and Egypt | Led the AI-integration design for the QMF rebuild over a Fortune 500 economic-data database. Agents inside the client’s firewall, so the data never left the building. Tables that explain every table in plain words, so AI could write the custom reports IBM had called impossible. | Postmark: Via Teracloud, May 2025, to IBM · Pen: the intro came from an engineer i backed on my github team. |
| 2026 (Now) | **Building with AI, and checking it** | OCTRA · Zaječar | My SaaS, this channel and inspections for founders. My current contract stays unnamed, by my own rule. |  |

Start dates shown · several contracts ran in parallel · some clients stay unnamed until their NDA is checked. Titles exactly as my CV rules set them.

## 03 The panel: Nineteen circuits. The wiring was never the fault.

What tripped them was the selling: left to someone else, left to no one, or priced above what the buyer already spent. The exception is the one I sold before it existed.

Panel M · every product I started, 2016 to now: 2 on, 10 off, 7 tripped. Off: switched off or on hold · Tripped: it failed.

| No. | Product | Started | State | Fault | Seller | What it was | What happened |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 01 | Learnify Tutorials | 2016 | Off | C | Nobody | Serbian HTML and CSS lessons on YouTube. | Stopped for freelancing and my master’s. |
| 02 | Zaječar Noću | Before 2020 | Off | A | A partner | My town’s guide: places, reviews, photos. | I ended it. |
| 03 | Srbija Online | Before 2020 | Tripped | A | A friend | The national version of No. 02. | He quit mid-build. The build stopped. |
| 04 | Savour Experience | 2020 | Tripped | C | Affiliate links and the community | 25,000+ perfumes with reviews, on an affiliate model. | Peaked near 500 daily users. Never monetized. |
| 05 | Glam Makeup Academy | 2021 | Tripped | A | A partner running Meta ads | 23 hours of lessons on my own LMS, with tests and certificates. | It had customers. Then the ad account was hacked and lost. |
| 06 | RustIng | 2022 | Off | C | Nobody | About 30 Rust videos and a course site. | Stopped: no time, no money. |
| 07 | WorkoutsHQ | 2023 | Tripped | A | The 35 influencers I onboarded | Balkan fitness influencers sell programs and coaching. | 1 of 35 marketed or sold. |
| 08 | Marko Code Academy | 2024 | Off | C | Nobody | About 50 videos on senior JavaScript and .NET. | Stopped for lack of time. |
| 09 | MES | 2024 | Tripped | B | A hired cold-caller, then me | Production software wired straight to PLCs. Two demo builds. | About 200 companies, 15 real talks, 5 site visits, 0 sales. Price was the main reason in at least 4 of the 5 visits. |
| 10 | Hotel software | 2024 | Off | B | Me | Reception, room service, state integration, invoicing, stock, kitchen. | The buyer was 80% happy with a cheap incumbent. I walked away from the market. |
| 11 | Construction software | 2025 | Tripped | B | Me, to the firm’s director | A custom system for a construction firm in Zaječar. | He went silent, then hired others. It grew into No. 18. |
| 12 | Penny Planner | 2025 | Tripped | A | Influencer partners | Personal finance, built from my own spreadsheets. Fully built. | They never came. It never sold. |
| 13 | Manager’s Cabinet | 2026 | Off | A | A partner | Fantasy Premier League career dossiers. Built with AI in three weeks. | Launched and promoted. No results. The site is still up. |
| 14 | Studio, name withheld (sold first) | 2024 | On | None | Me | Technical video, then editing for YouTube creators. | Software companies: about 230 LinkedIn threads, 0 calls. YouTube creators: 25 personal emails, 6 said yes. The one thing I sold before I built it. Inbound only since August 2026. |
| 15 | EditWise | 2025 | On | None | Me, on founder calls | Operations software for video editing agencies. v1.1 rebuilt with AI. | I sell it myself, on founder calls. This panel will show how that goes. |
| 16 | AI security, name withheld | 2026 | Off | None | Its own channel and blog | AI security education: a channel and a blog. | Fully planned, never published. I closed it: the prep and recording load was all mine. |
| 17 | parenting channel, name withheld | 2026 | Off | None | Its host. I built core for it, automated it and made it simple to run. | Evidence-based parenting on YouTube. | Name withheld for now. |
| 18 | construction, name withheld | 2026 | Off | None | Owner introductions, then me | A site ledger for Serbian construction firms. Grew out of No. 11. | On hold. Demo built, nothing signed. |
| 19 | Dental platform | 2026 | Off | None | My 50/50 partner, a dentist | Practice software for Serbian dentists. | On hold. Demo built, partner does selling. |

- **Fault A** (6 circuits): Someone else was meant to sell it.
- **Fault B** (3 circuits): I sold it myself, priced above what the buyer already spent.
- **Fault C** (4 circuits): No one was assigned to sell it. I built it and waited.

Pen note under the panel: “no. 20 stays empty until three pilots pay. kill line in writing first.”

## 04 The pen: Things I’m not allowed to say about myself.

My CV, my profiles and this page follow one file of rules in my vault. AI writes from it. So do I. These are the lines it forbids, and what’s true instead.

From Career - CV Rules.md · 06 Founder/Career, updated 13 Oct 2026.

### Titles to use everywhere · and what I write instead

| No. | Not allowed | True instead |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 01 | “Former GitHub employee.” | two vendor contracts: akvelon, then experis. |

### Claims to avoid

| No. | Not allowed | True instead |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 02 | “Hired my team at GitHub.” | i ran the technical interviews. akvelon decided. |
| 03 | “Sole architect of an exchange’s streaming platform.” | led the replacement, designed the adapter. with a team. |
| 04 | “9+ years in software.” | it’s ten. too small is wrong too. |
| 05 | “.NET Developer at Atomia, 2017.” | junior .net developer, from 2016. |
| 06 | “AI agents that fix production on their own.” | designed, not built yet. real up to the action gate. |
| 07 | “Years of production Postgres.” | two weeks from near zero to a strong CTO round. |
| 08 | “Node.js expertise.” | one node project. that isn’t expertise. |

8 claims cut · 0 added back. Stamp: Inspected · By Marko.

### Why this is on the page: Your report gets the same pen.

An inspection only says what I can defend. If a finding can’t survive a second look, it doesn’t go in.

The rule my audit skill runs on:

> A pattern match is a lead. A finding is a claim you can defend.

How the inspection works: https://inspectedbymarko.com/work-with-me/#method

## 05 Your turn: You’ve inspected me. Your turn.

Send me one app or repository. You get a written report pack in five working days, at a price set before I start.

- **The inspection:** from $3,500 (USD · starting price). One app or repository · report pack in 5 working days. See what the inspection covers: https://inspectedbymarko.com/work-with-me/#scope
- **Builds:** Quoted on a call. MVP builds · rebuilds · fix sprints after an inspection. Ask about a build: https://inspectedbymarko.com/call/?need=build#pick-a-time
- **Request a 20-minute call:** Free, 20 minutes, no code access. For apps with paying users. I read every request myself. https://inspectedbymarko.com/call/
- **Not ready? Inspect your own repo:** https://inspectedbymarko.com/skills/pre-raise-self-check/

---

Provider and data controller: OneCodeToRuleAll d.o.o. (OCTRA) · Seat: Sinđelićeva 6, 19000 Zaječar, Serbia · Registered with the Serbian Business Registers Agency, no. 21564516 · Tax ID (PIB) 111898813 · marko@inspectedbymarko.com