Building Athena — my Personal OS

SaaS CTO from the pre-AI era.

Now building the right hand I always needed: Athena, my Personal OS built around how I think, decide, and operate.

5+
Years as CTO
10+
Engineers hired
1
Personal OS
1
Battle-tested framework
// About

Regulated finance taught me rigour. Building a company taught me where things break.

Three years in Luxembourg's banking sector building audited, compliant systems. Then 5+ years as CTO of a venture-backed SaaS — sole developer to a team of 20+, a multi-module OS and an eSignature platform shipped simultaneously, the latter built in partnership with Luxembourg's national trust authority.

I've been every version of the CTO role: sole developer, architect, DevOps engineer, tech lead, project manager, product co-pilot, recruiter, QA lead, mentor, board member, firefighter. Each stage breaks differently. I know where.

Read full story
whoami
Julien
cat timeline.txt
2017 Regulated finance, Luxembourg
2020 Co-founded venture-backed SaaS
2021 Scaled 1 → 10+ engineers
2022 Shipped eSignature platform
2026 Building Athena & ITzWorking
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// Philosophy

What I believe

Production First

Code that works in demos is worthless. I build for real traffic, real edge cases, and real consequences — because that's the only environment I've ever worked in.

AI With Guardrails

AI is the most powerful tool we've ever had. But without architecture and constraints, it produces beautiful chaos. I spent a year finding the line. Most people haven't built anything big enough to see it.

Artisanal AI

Generic AI gives generic results. AI built on deep context — your business, your patterns, your decisions — becomes a weapon nothing else can match.

Patterns Over Hype

The architecture patterns that worked before AI still work. They're just faster to implement now. I don't chase trends — I build on what's proven.

// My Personal OS

Athena

The right hand I always needed — so I built it. Not a chatbot. Not an n8n workflow. A tailored operating system that runs on the same foundations I use to build production software.

One WhatsApp message. That's the interface for everything — from personal life to business operations.

CRM management — every interaction tracked automatically
Error detection & autonomous resolution on my apps
Bug fixes, change requests & feature dev on demand
DM & email filtering — surfaces what actually matters
Email drafting to eliminate wait time
Content scheduling & post suggestions

Built on ITzWorking

No third-party automation platforms. Every capability is real code, built on the same framework I use for production SaaS. That's why it works.

Self-extending

Need a new capability? Athena builds it herself — new tools, new APIs, new integrations. The possibilities are endless because the foundations are solid.

// Framework

ITzWorking

My methodology, packaged as code. Every architectural decision a SaaS will face. Already made. Battle-tested in production.

Learn more
01

Skip 90% of Infrastructure Work

Authentication, multi-tenancy, billing, compliance — already solved. Focus on what makes your product unique.

02

Production-Grade From Day One

No rewrites at month 6. Every pattern is battle-tested with real users and real money.

03

Multi-Tenant, Compliant, Scalable

Built for B2B SaaS that needs to handle enterprise requirements from the start.

04

TypeScript + AWS Serverless

Modern stack that scales to zero and handles millions of requests without ops headaches.

// ProjectsZ

Things Athena & I are building

Active

ITzWorking

My methodology, packaged as code. Used and improved by Athena.

TypeScriptAWSServerlessNext.js
Coming Soon

RoastMyApp.io

Athena will roast your app repository. Brutally honest code reviews.

AICode AnalysisITzWorking
Active

ITzJulien

This website and the backend powering Athena. She doesn't just run automations — she builds them.

AutomationAIITzWorking
See all projects
// Contact

This isn't for everyone.

I take on a handful of projects at a time. If what you've read resonates, reach out.