Zhenya Luchinin

Product leader · generative AI · founder.
The long version is at genue.me.

Zhenya Luchinin

genue.luben@gmail.com · +34 687 673 757 · linkedin.com/in/genue

Barcelona, Spain — open to relocating to SF or NYC

Summary

Repeat founder and product leader who takes a model capability from research to a shipped, paying product. Everything below was designed, built and launched solo: four iOS apps in ten months, plus a frontier-model benchmark and an agent prototype — no engineering team. Aya Photo went from idea to App Store in one month and reached roughly 10,000 downloads, a 4.7 rating, 8.43% paid conversion and $2,170 MRR at peak. Twenty years in digital product before that, including a design studio grown to 40+ people, ranked top-6 in Russia and top-1 for UX and research, delivering with cross-functional engineering teams at Mindbox, Yango and Mappable.

What I do

0-to-1
Concept, prototype, build, launch, monetisation — the whole cycle, solo.
research → product
Evaluate a capability that just became possible, then build the smallest real thing on top of it and put it in front of users.
evaluation
Frontier-model benchmarking; capability testing before committing to a build.
prototyping
React Native / Expo, Supabase, fal.ai, Replicate, frontier model APIs.
growth
UGC-led acquisition, paywall and subscription funnels, conversion optimisation.
leadership
Ran a 40-person studio; delivered with enterprise engineering teams.
languages
Russian (native), English (fluent).

AI products and research prototypes

Tuzik2026, in progress
tuzik.vercel.app — AI for kids
Voice, computer vision, fast image models, live camera
Aya PhotoApp Store, Dec 2025
aya.photo — generative photoshoot app
React Native / Expo, Supabase, fal.ai, Replicate, Gemini
Meracl2026, in progress
meracl.app — creative intelligence for mobile apps
App store and social scraping at scale, first-frame fingerprinting, generative video and image models
Aigma2025
aigma.co — capability benchmark, then a tool
HTML, canvas UI, frontier model APIs, CLI
Dear JournalApp Store, 2025
Ezra: AI chat journal — minimal journaling with an AI companion
React Native / Expo, Supabase, LLM APIs
Oval AI Skin Analyzer · Cellr Cell Tower Map · Watumean2025–2026
React Native / Expo, Supabase edge functions, WhatsApp Business API

Experience

Independent AI products2025 — present
Founder — product, design and engineering · Barcelona
Genue / Looch2011 — 2025
Founder & CEO, design studio · Russia · behance.net/looch-studio
TheLocals2011 — 2019
Founder, majority owner (51%) · Moscow & Saint Petersburg
Tasty2008 — 2011
Co-founder (50%), product · Russia
Yandex · Habr · Bookmate · Look At Media · LiveJournal2003 — 2010
Art director, lead designer, web designer · Russia

Education

M.Eng., Electrical Engineering2000 — 2005
Vyatka State University — and never worked a day as an engineer