Product leader

Konstantin Khalyushev

17+ years in technology · 12+ years in product

I find the constraint holding a product back, and build the system that removes it.

I have led search and recommendation products inside a 45M+ MAU media ecosystem, rebuilt monetization and international growth for a B2C mobile portfolio, and led the operating turnaround of an all-in-one AI platform. Today I work close to the product: prototyping, building early versions myself, and validating with real users before committing an engineering cycle.

Evidence

Every number below belongs to the company it sits under.

Three constraints, three systems built to remove them.

HyperSpace

All-in-one AI platform · turnaround · CPO, 2024–2025

Production was unstable, delivery chaotic and spend uncontrolled, so monetization could not improve until the company became operable.

retention-curve AUC with Energy, web A/B test: ~2×
documented non-payroll operating costs: −74%

Ray / ReactivePhone

International driving-theory apps · CPO, International, 2021–2023

The international apps earned mostly from advertising, so paid acquisition could not become a reliable growth engine.

international revenue, Q1 2022 → Q1 2023: ~8×
UK share of international revenue, Apr 2023: ~73%
purchase conversion, Poland, YoY: ~12×

Rambler&Co

Public search product inside a 45M+ MAU media ecosystem · 2013–2017

Search made money but was barely being developed, and its team was two developers and a half-time administrator.

search revenue, YoY: +95%

Ways to work together

Two ways in. Same person, different level of involvement.

Join a team

I have held CPO and founder titles. I am deliberately looking for work closer to the product, the users and the execution — not further from it.

Senior and Lead Product roles
Senior hands-on IC product work
AI, growth and B2C product teams

See my career

Work with me

For teams that need senior product judgment without adding a full-time executive, or that want an outside read on where the real constraint is.

Fractional product leadership
Part-time senior product work
Advisory and selected consulting

See how I can help

Second opinion

Would I actually be useful to you?

Do not take my word for it. Give my site to the AI that already knows your context, and ask it.

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Grok, Gemini and DeepSeek can't take a prompt from a link. Those three copy it to your clipboard and open a new chat — paste it there.

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The prompt

I am considering talking to Konstantin Khalyushev about a product problem.

Based on what you know about my work, company, product, team and current priorities, and the information available on his website, assess whether talking to him would actually be useful.

Please:
1. identify which of my current problems he is likely to be useful for;
2. explain where his experience appears particularly relevant;
3. identify where he is probably not the right person;
4. suggest what I should ask him if we talk;
5. assess whether a one-off consultation, a longer advisory engagement, or neither seems appropriate.

Be critical. Do not recommend him just because I asked. If there is not enough evidence that his experience is relevant to my situation, say so.

His website:
https://khalyushev.com/en

Your conversation stays between you and your assistant. I never see it.

How I work now

I build the first version myself.

Over the last few years my work has moved closer to implementation. The reason is speed of learning: a working prototype answers questions that a document cannot, and it answers them before a team commits a full engineering cycle.

01Rapid prototyping: Building an early working version to test the idea against real behaviour rather than opinion.
02AI coding agents: Using coding agents to move from a product hypothesis to something runnable in hours.
03LLM APIs and RAG: Designing and wiring retrieval and generation directly, so the product constraints are understood first-hand.
04Evaluations: Building evals so AI quality is measured against real tasks instead of demo impressions.

This is where my founder products come from — they are the practice, not a side career.

Cases

Product, business and education experience, with each result attached to its context.

Selected cases.

Chief Product Officer

September 2024 — September 2025

HyperSpace

I joined HyperSpace as CPO to improve monetization and found a company that first had to become operable. I took control of spend, rebuilt how product and engineering worked, replaced engineering leadership and stabilised production, then used the new system to run experiments. The strongest, Energy, showed roughly 2× retention-curve AUC in a web A/B test.

Constraint: Production was unstable and hard to diagnose, delivery was chaotic and spend was uncontrolled, so no monetization experiment could be trusted
Outcome: ~2× retention-curve AUC with Energy in a web A/B test · documented non-payroll costs cut ~74%

Read the case

Chief Product Officer, International · Ray / ReactivePhone

September 2021 — May 2023

International Driving Theory at Ray

As CPO, International, I took over Ray's driving-theory apps outside its home market when their economics could not support growth. I rebuilt analytics and monetization, made paid acquisition work again and scaled the business, with the UK as its largest market.

Constraint: The international apps earned mostly from advertising, so paid acquisition could not become a reliable growth engine
Outcome: International revenue ~8× from Q1 2022 to Q1 2023 · UK ~73% of it by April 2023

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Product Manager · Rambler&Co Search

December 2013 — September 2017

Rambler Search

Search was already making money for Rambler but was barely being developed. I set up regular product work, built a cross-functional team and took on the results page, monetization and our own search technology.

Constraint: Search made money but was barely being developed, and its team was two developers and a half-time administrator
Outcome: +95% search revenue, year over year

Read the case

Founder cases

Founder / CPO

March 2026 — present

GatoK AI

An AI analytical layer for Mercado Libre sellers: from marketplace data to daily business decisions.

Web and mobile products built; first pilot customer onboarded.

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Founder / CPO

June 2023 — September 2024

Tomus

Music theory through short games: a native iOS product taken from zero to paying users.

Outcome: MVP in ~1 month; monetization work increased profit by 31%.

Still live on iOS; my founder involvement continues beyond the career period above.

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Founder and product builder

CelestiAI

A native iPhone app that turns personal context into a daily guidance experience.

Outcome: Shipped iPhone product, localized into six languages.

Released in the App Store; public website live. Cross-platform work is in development.

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Founder and product builder

AtajoPyme

Narrow, useful tools for the everyday calculations and paperwork of Argentine small businesses.

Live tools and resources at atajopyme.com.ar.

Read the case

Founder & CEO

Perpetuum Coaches

A two-sided coaching marketplace: building supply, connecting clients and coaches, and exiting the business.

Outcome: 85 certified coaches onboarded; revenue increased 300% year over year.

Exited: sold my stake to my business partner. She runs the business; I am no longer involved.

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All cases

Get in touch

Send a message and it reaches me directly. I read everything that is specific.

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