Andrei Dunca
CTO
Experience
CTO
Cargo
Cargo was a video-first shopping experience focused on indie fashion.
Board Member
Endeavor Romania
Endeavor is a mission-driven, global organization leading the high-impact entrepreneurship movement. Endeavor was founded on the belief that job creation, innovation, and overall prosperity flourish where there is robust support for high-impact entrepreneurs.
Engineering Manager
- Managed engineering teams of various scopes and sizes, in the Ads, Local, and Video organizations
- Most comprehensive role was in Ads, coordinating a team of ~80 engineers and engineering managers across two offices
- Drove major organizational and strategic initiatives—new products and product integrations, pivots, go-to-market strategies
- Coordinated several successful internal reorganizations, leading structural updates across multiple functions and offices
- Collaborated cross-functionally with partners from Product, Design, and Data Science teams to define product strategy, set goals and coordinate execution
- Supported senior engineers and engineering managers via direct management, coaching, and mentorship based on individual strengths and career goals
Co-Founder | CTO
LiveRail
At the time of acquisition (2014, Facebook, ~$500M), LiveRail was the leading publisher monetization platform for video.
- Contributed executive vision, team leadership, and technological guidance while developing the Engineering and Product organizations
- Coordinated the implementation of a robust infrastructure capable of supporting a massive scale product
- Envisioned and developed several major products and features, including the advertising industry's first real-time reporting and analytics product
- Coordinated product design, technical infrastructure decisions, and go-to-market strategy
- Built relationships and partnerships to facilitate technical integrations into publishing platforms and online video publishers
- Coordinated extensive audits into LiveRail's technology, operations and practices for industry-specific certifications and accreditations
- Participated in industry-wide organizations and working groups, such as the IAB, tasked with implementing new standards and best practices in the online advertising space
Co-Founder | CTO
Trilulilu
- Led the engineering team as co-founder for a Romanian multimedia UGC platform
- Developed software architecture capable of rapid scaling to accommodate steep growth rates and availability needs
- Trilulilu was the first internet startup success in Romania, growing to become the #1 website in the country and being acquired in ~18 months
Investor
Seed-stage investor in several technology start-ups in the US and EU. The most notable are:
- Ezra (since 2019): Company dedicated to providing early cancer detection for everyone by combining advanced medical imaging technology and Artificial Intelligence
- Electric Era (since 2020): Enabling rapid and affordable electrification of mobilities power supply with high power energy storage for DC fast charging stations
- change:WATER Labs (since 2021): Developing disruptive technologies to expand safe and dignified sanitation to poor and vulnerable non-sewered households and communities
- RacketPal (since 2021): Free mobile app that helps racket sports players of any level find local partners in minutes, covering tennis, badminton, table tennis, squash and padel
Summary
Throughout my career, I have built several start-up companies. Most notably, I was the CTO and co-founder of LiveRail, which at the time of acquisition by Facebook in 2014, was the leading video advertising platform for online publishers. After acquisition, I transitioned into an Engineering Management role at Facebook, supporting products in the Ads, Local, and Video organizations.
Most recently, I was the CTO of a video-first e-commerce platform, Cargo. The e-commerce space is very crowded and competitive, and the video-first approach was not a sufficient differentiator to penetrate this market; after several pivots, we could not find strong product-market fit and decided to wind down the company.
I am also an angel investor, and advisor to several start-ups, helping out on technology, organizational management, culture, and business strategy. Outside work, I've been engaged with non-profit organizations focused on LGBT rights, healthcare, education, and the arts, both globally and in my home country Romania.
Languages
Education
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
B.Sc. · Computer Science and Engineering · Cluj-Napoca, Romania
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