Hello dear reader!

You are currently viewing my first blog post. It serves as an introduction to me as an up-and-coming programmer, some more information about my journey and what to expect from future blog posts.

For the sake of authenticity, I won't be using any AI tool to improve my blogs so enjoy some raw experiences.

👨‍💻 About me

I am Stamatis Tsagkliotis born in Piraeus, Greece on January 20 2005.

I started programming way back, sometime in 2015.

I finished high school in June 2023 with a grade of 19/20.

I am not the type of person to share this much about me online. That is why you will never see me posting over on Linkedin.

This blog is the only place where you will see me opening up.

❓ How did I start?

This is the most common question I get: How did you start so young?

The answer is pretty simple and, in all honesty, is not as interesting as people think it is.

🚀 The start of my journey

Imagine this: it's 2015.

Every single teenager is hopping on Discord to play with their friends. I am wondering how I could build on top of that outstanding audience. Then, I figured out there was a publicly available API in Python named discord.py that enables the creation of bots on the platform.

That moment is the first spark of my coding career.

All I had was a crappy laptop from 2005, a phone with 2 cores, hopes and some dreams.

Obviously, my first few Python bots were bad to say the least but I loved the creativity that was required in order to come up with new commands and functionalities.

That's why I keep creating platforms from scratch instead of using [insert AI platform] to develop most of them. Programming is a creative process for me and I would not replace that for any amount of € on my Stripe dashboard.

Also, I never really watched Youtube tutorials after my 1st year of programming. I found them to be a waste of time. In most cases, just DOING something ON YOUR OWN is time way-better-spent.

All in all, these bots didn't ultimately lead to the traction I expected, but I now had way bigger plans in mind...

😎 This seems cool..

With a few Python scripts under my belt, several .env files exposed on Github and no idea as to where this will lead me, I got interested in creating mobile apps.

First, I used Sketchware, which back in 2017 was a drag-n-drop mobile-only app. It allowed you to create Android apps right from your phone, with the ability to inject custom Java code in a Scratch-like environment.

After some failures I moved on to Android Studio, and around 50 crashes later (on 4GB RAM) I made my first app. When I finally ran it on my phone, the feeling was extravagant and set me up for a lot more eventful coding adventures.

Around that time I was playing a game called Growtopia. I started making mod menus for it with Java and JNI bindings (C++). After releasing a Youtube series on that tool, I gathered over half a million views.

Around 2020 I got tired of recreating the same mod menus for every update. My next move was C++ projects such as Dabgine, aimed at recreating Godot with only a few months of experience.

I soon realised C++ isn't my thing, so I started wondering what I should do next...

🔧 It's getting serious

I spent some time away thinking about what I want to do with my newly acquired skills. I went through every hoop including open source, startups and corporate companies.

Here's a timeline.

April 2021 - Jun 2021: I started contributing to Linux Mint's Welcome Screen while actively using it as my main OS.

Jun 2021 - Aug 2021: I founded a startup with 3 of my online buddies (Michal, Otterlord, KittyBorgX) and worked as a Lead Fullstack Developer. The project was focused on making a realtime MMO Godot game with APIs for TypeScript, Python and Rust.

Oct 2021 - Apr 2024: I founded Fronvo and worked as a Lead Fullstack Developer with a team of 8 developers of varying level (4 frontend, 4 backend). Fronvo was a private social media app merging core features from top platforms such as Instagram, Discord, Snapchat and Twitter. It ultimately scaled to 5,000+ users before it reached EOL so I consider it a widely successful first startup. I architected the real-time backends with Socket.IO and PM2 for load-balancing connections between different server shards. I also coded the Fronvo APIs in Rust, Python, and TypeScript.

Apr 2024 - Jun 2024: Contracted by FindEnergy as a Fullstack Developer to build a Spintax no-code editor and responsive admin dashboards using SvelteKit and shadcn.

Apr 2024 - Apr 2025: Started a year-long contract at Stoy Solutions as a Fullstack Developer. Worked end-to-end on a SvelteKit-based stack, set up CI/CD with GitHub Actions, and optimized CDN delivery across continents.

Jul 2024 - Aug 2024: Joined Tynker AI on a 2-month contract as a Frontend Developer. Built real-time collaboration on the plugin pages + added lots of settings with WebSockets + Firebase, using SvelteKit and SSR.

Jul 2024 - Sep 2024: Took on a parallel contract with e-restaurants as a Senior Fullstack Developer, delivering interactive dashboards and mobile-optimized UIs using SvelteKit + Tailwind.

Oct 2024 - Dec 2024: Led frontend development on a contract at Cryptify AI as a Senior Frontend Developer, shipping financial dashboards with Highcharts and fast-performing UIs using Tailwind + shadcn.

May 2025 - Present: I founded DevPair, a platform that helps devs match based on stack, level, and goals. Hit Top 30 on ProductHunt. Built with Next.js, Socket.IO, and Supabase, with Stripe-powered subscriptions and AWS-accelerated media.

Jun 2025 - Present: Joined Netcompany full-time as a Mid Level Fullstack Engineer. Contributing to Greece's national healthcare system (EOPYY), supporting millions of citizens with Java, Spring Boot, React, and Keycloak across a hybrid cloud infrastructure.

🎯 What is my end goal?

With my documented career path, I hope I inspire the new generations of Greek citizens (and other countries) to pursue programming at a high level without focusing on the beaten path.

I really wish the best for all self-taught and degree-based developers because studying by yourself is a must either way, and that takes skill.

I will keep posting on this personal blog so check back often for new tips & tricks from an average greek guy trying to make the tech space a little more accessible to people who lack a programming role model.

PS: Think you are ready to level up as a young builder like me? Add me on Discord: stam.tsag

Stam