{ "schemaVersion": "1.0.0", "meta": { "exportedAt": "2026-09-06T00:00:00Z", "owner": "juha@ristolainen.eu", "sourceOfTruth": "Personal canonical CV + memory ledger (Alpaca / Upvest / Wise / Futurice)", "notes": "Driver dataset for the personal website at www.juharistolainen.com." }, "person": { "fullName": "Juha Ristolainen", "preferredName": "Juha", "title": "CPTO", "pronouns": "he/him", "location": { "city": "Helsinki", "country": "Finland", "countryCode": "FI", "timezone": "Europe/Helsinki" }, "contact": { "email": "juha@ristolainen.eu", "publicEmail": "juha.ristolainen@iki.fi", "phone": "+358 45 845 0515", "website": "https://ristolainen.eu", "calendar": "https://calendar.app.google/Aea5jZaST9iFzXoX8" }, "social": [ { "platform": "linkedin", "handle": "juharistolainen", "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/juharistolainen/", "primary": true } ], "photo": { "src": "/media/headshot.jpg", "alt": "Juha Ristolainen", "width": 800, "height": 800 }, "avatar": { "src": "/media/avatar.png", "alt": "Juha Ristolainen avatar", "width": 430, "height": 430 }, "biographyShort": "Juha Ristolainen is a Helsinki-based scale-up CTO with 15 years in executive leadership and 26 in shipping software. He has scaled engineering organisations from 5 to 250 across three FinTech platforms — Wise, Upvest, and Alpaca — building B2B API infrastructure that powers banks, neobanks, and brokers across Europe and the US.", "biographyLong": "Juha Ristolainen is a Helsinki-based scale-up CTO who has spent the last fifteen years building regulated B2B FinTech infrastructure at scale. As CTO at Alpaca he scaled engineering from 80 to 130 with a roadmap to 250, and shipped one of the first external MCP servers to put algotrading workflows in reach of LLM-driven users. As co-founder and CTO at Upvest he built a BaFin-licensed investment-infrastructure API from scratch, growing the team from 5 to 120+ and the platform to €50M ARR powering investment offerings inside Revolut, N26, Bunq, and Raisin. Before that, as CTO of Wise's B2B division, he led 80 people across six global sites, drove the strategic shift from app-first to API-first, and grew the division ~75% YoY. Earlier, he spent over a decade at Futurice — joining as the sixth employee and progressing through five technical leadership roles to become its first Technology Director — before going on to head innovation labs at TUI, Jaguar Land Rover (InMotion Ventures), and Daimler Fleetboard. He is a board member at Sustashift and an active angel investor through FIBAN and Greencode Ventures." }, "headline": "Scale-up CTO. FinTech APIs. From 5 to 250 FTE.", "summary": "CPTO at BUX, ABN AMRO's European neobroker, with 15 years in executive leadership. Fifteen years building regulated FinTech platforms — B2B API infrastructure at Wise, Upvest, and Alpaca, now a customer-facing wealth-building platform at BUX. Scaled engineering organisations from 5 to 130.", "narrative": "I build the engineering organisations that turn FinTech ambitions into regulated, production-grade platforms.\n\nFor twenty-six years I have been writing, shipping, and leading software — starting as a hands-on engineer building a Symbian GPU driver that shipped on hundreds of millions of Nokia devices, and going on to lead technology at four of Europe's most-watched FinTech platforms.\n\nWhat threads through it all is the same instinct: pick the meaningful technical bets, build the org that can deliver them, and stay close enough to the work that I know whether the platform actually does what we say it does.\n\nI am now CPTO at BUX, ABN AMRO's Amsterdam-based neobroker \u2014 the same regulated-platform engineering, pointed at end customers rather than at other companies' APIs.", "playbook": [ { "id": "scale-up-org-design", "title": "Scale-up org design", "description": "Team Topologies, OKRs, empowered and autonomous distributed teams. Proven from 5 to 250 FTE across three FinTech platforms.", "tags": ["org-design", "leadership", "scale"], "evidence": ["alpaca-cto", "upvest-cto-cofounder", "wise-cto-b2b", "futurice-tech-director"] }, { "id": "regulated-fintech-architecture", "title": "Regulated FinTech architecture", "description": "BaFin and FCA platforms, event-driven microservices, CQRS, cloud-native infrastructure, DevSecOps. Compliance-by-design baked into the SDLC.", "tags": ["architecture", "fintech", "regulation"], "evidence": ["alpaca-cto", "upvest-cto-cofounder", "wise-cto-b2b"] }, { "id": "ai-native-engineering", "title": "AI-native engineering", "description": "First-mover MCP server deployment, agentic operations, agentic SDLC and software factories. Compounding velocity rather than swapping headcount for tools.", "tags": ["ai", "developer-experience", "ops"], "evidence": ["alpaca-cto", "upvest-cto-cofounder"] }, { "id": "api-first-platforms", "title": "API-first platform strategy", "description": "Turning consumer FinTechs into platforms — partner integrations, embedded finance, developer experience as a first-class product surface.", "tags": ["platform", "api", "partnerships"], "evidence": ["wise-cto-b2b", "upvest-cto-cofounder", "alpaca-cto"] } ], "experience": [ { "id": "bux-cpto", "type": "full-time", "company": { "name": "BUX", "displayName": "BUX (ABN AMRO)", "url": "https://getbux.com", "stage": "subsidiary", "parent": "ABN AMRO", "industry": "Financial Services" }, "titles": [ { "title": "Chief Product & Technology Officer", "from": "2026-08", "to": "present" } ], "period": { "start": "2026-08", "end": "present", "current": true }, "location": { "city": "Amsterdam", "country": "Netherlands", "countryCode": "NL" }, "remote": "hybrid", "industry": "Financial Services", "context": "European neobroker, wholly owned by ABN AMRO · Amsterdam · consumer wealth platform", "mandate": "Carry the B2B FinTech platform playbook across to the customer-facing side: build BUX into a wealth-building platform for retail investors, and migrate the savings customers of a second ABN AMRO acquisition onto it \u2014 taking the platform to 4\u00d7 end users and 10\u00d7 assets under management.", "summary": "First product-and-technology mandate combining both functions. The through-line from Wise, Upvest, and Alpaca is the same regulated-platform engineering, pointed at end customers rather than at other companies' APIs: turning a neobroker into a wealth-building platform, and absorbing the savings book of another ABN AMRO acquisition onto it.", "tags": ["neobroker", "wealth", "consumer-fintech", "platform-migration", "regulated"], "visibility": "featured" }, { "id": "alpaca-cto", "type": "full-time", "company": { "name": "Alpaca", "url": "https://alpaca.markets", "stage": "Series D", "valuation": { "amount": 1.15, "currency": "USD", "scale": "billion", "asOf": "2025", "label": "$1.15B (Series D, $150M)" }, "industry": "Financial Services" }, "titles": [{ "title": "Chief Technology Officer", "from": "2025-08", "to": "2026-08" }], "period": { "start": "2025-08", "end": "2026-08" }, "location": { "city": "Remote", "country": "Global" }, "remote": "remote", "industry": "Financial Services", "context": "$1.15B valuation (Series D, $150M) · $10B AUC · $130M run-rate revenue · 400+ partners", "mandate": "Apply the Upvest API-first investment-infrastructure playbook at global scale. Engineering execution against the company's 2.5× AUC growth target.", "summary": "Scaled engineering for Alpaca's broker-dealer and investment-infrastructure API at global scale, growing the organisation from 80 to 130 engineers against the company's 2.5× AUC growth target.", "scope": { "headcountStart": 80, "headcountEnd": 130, "geographies": ["Global", "US", "Europe", "Asia"], "reportingLine": "CEO" }, "metrics": [ { "label": "Valuation", "value": 1.15, "unit": "USD", "format": "currency", "asOf": "2025", "highlight": true }, { "label": "Run-rate revenue", "value": 130, "unit": "USD", "format": "currency", "asOf": "2026-04", "highlight": true }, { "label": "Assets under custody", "value": 10, "unit": "USD", "format": "currency", "highlight": true }, { "label": "Partners", "value": 400, "unit": "partners", "format": "number" }, { "label": "Engineering headcount", "value": "80 → 130 (roadmap to 250)", "unit": "FTE", "format": "range", "highlight": true } ], "achievements": [ { "title": "Scaled engineering organisation 80 → 130 FTE in first year, on track to 250 by year-end", "category": "org-design", "visibility": "featured" }, { "title": "Redesigned org structure for multi-product, multi-market delivery across time zones without sacrificing velocity or culture", "category": "org-design" }, { "title": "Embedded compliance-by-design into the product engineering lifecycle, replacing reactive compliance checks with pre-baked regulatory guardrails", "category": "regulatory" }, { "title": "Overhauled incident management — structured IR, RCA, post-incident review — to meet the reliability bar required by banking and FinTech partners", "category": "reliability" }, { "title": "Leading technical strategy across concurrent product launches and new asset-class expansion, evolving platform architecture to carry market-specific regulatory requirements", "category": "platform" }, { "title": "Led AI adoption across internal operations and developer experience — AI-augmented code assistance and review, agentic workflows in ops and support — compounding engineering velocity", "category": "AI", "visibility": "featured" }, { "title": "Launched an external MCP server for Alpaca's API, enabling LLM-driven algotrading workflows and extending the platform's reach into the AI-native algotrader and developer community", "category": "AI", "visibility": "featured" } ], "tags": ["fintech", "broker-dealer", "api", "ai-native", "investment-infrastructure"], "visibility": "featured" }, { "id": "upvest-cto-cofounder", "type": "founder", "company": { "name": "Upvest", "url": "https://upvest.co", "stage": "Series C", "valuation": { "amount": 640, "currency": "EUR", "scale": "million", "label": "€640M most recent valuation" }, "industry": "Financial Services" }, "titles": [{ "title": "CTO & Co-founder", "from": "2020-06", "to": "2025-08" }], "period": { "start": "2020-06", "end": "2025-08" }, "location": { "city": "Berlin", "country": "Germany", "countryCode": "DE" }, "remote": "hybrid", "industry": "Financial Services", "context": "Regulated B2B investment-infrastructure API · €180M raised (Series A–C) · €640M most recent valuation", "mandate": "Co-found and build a regulated B2B investment-infrastructure API from scratch, drawing on lessons from leading Wise's B2B platform.", "summary": "Built Upvest from zero to a market-leading European investment-infrastructure platform powering Revolut, N26, Bunq, and Raisin. Scaled through two distinct phases — zero-to-one foundation building, then scaling to market leadership.", "phases": [ { "title": "Zero-to-one — Building the foundation", "subtitle": "2020–2022", "period": { "start": "2020-06", "end": "2022-12" }, "achievements": [ { "title": "Secured one of Germany's first BaFin Crypto Custody bank licenses; later drove the strategic pivot from crypto custody to a comprehensive investment-infrastructure API (ETFs, mutual funds, stocks, crypto)", "category": "regulatory", "visibility": "featured" }, { "title": "Architected the cloud-native platform from the ground up and hired the first engineering team, growing 5 → 30 engineers in the first 18 months", "category": "platform" }, { "title": "Was the CPTO owning both product and engineering; seeded a dedicated Product organization and recruited the CPO, establishing the organizational architecture for the next phase", "category": "org-design" } ] }, { "title": "Scaling to market leadership", "subtitle": "2022–2025", "period": { "start": "2023-01", "end": "2025-08" }, "achievements": [ { "title": "Scaled engineering 30 → 120+ across Europe with autonomous team structures; introduced OKRs and the hiring, performance, and feedback frameworks that became central to Upvest's company-wide culture", "category": "org-design", "visibility": "featured" }, { "title": "Drove AI tooling adoption across internal processes — including AI-assisted responses to extensive enterprise RFPs — accelerating commercial cycle times", "category": "AI" }, { "title": "Platform came to power investment offerings for Revolut, N26, Bunq, and Raisin — serving 50M+ end-users, processing 1M+ trades/week at peak (100K+ in a single day), surpassing 20M trades in 2024 and €3B in assets under custody", "category": "platform", "visibility": "featured" }, { "title": "Grew revenue to €50M ARR with clear trajectory toward €100M ARR as enterprise clients onboarded", "category": "commercial", "visibility": "featured" }, { "title": "Played a key role in securing €180M across Series A–C from Earlybird, Notion Capital, HV Capital, Bessemer, Hedosophia, Sapphire Ventures, and a strategic investment from BlackRock; navigated BaFin regulation throughout both licensing processes", "category": "fundraising", "visibility": "featured" } ] } ], "scope": { "headcountStart": 5, "headcountEnd": 120, "geographies": ["Europe", "Germany", "UK", "Netherlands", "Spain"], "reportingLine": "CEO / Board" }, "metrics": [ { "label": "Valuation", "value": 640, "unit": "EUR", "format": "currency", "highlight": true }, { "label": "Capital raised", "value": 180, "unit": "EUR", "format": "currency", "highlight": true }, { "label": "ARR", "value": 50, "unit": "EUR", "format": "currency", "highlight": true }, { "label": "End-users", "value": 50, "unit": "million end-users", "format": "number", "highlight": true }, { "label": "Trades 2024", "value": 20, "unit": "million trades", "format": "number", "highlight": true }, { "label": "Assets under custody", "value": 3, "unit": "EUR", "format": "currency" }, { "label": "Engineering headcount", "value": "5 → 120+", "unit": "FTE", "format": "range", "highlight": true } ], "tags": [ "fintech", "investment-infrastructure", "regulated", "api", "bafin", "embedded-finance" ], "links": [{ "label": "upvest.co", "url": "https://upvest.co", "type": "other" }], "visibility": "featured" }, { "id": "wise-cto-b2b", "type": "full-time", "company": { "name": "Wise", "displayName": "Wise (formerly TransferWise)", "url": "https://wise.com", "stage": "public", "valuation": { "amount": 11, "currency": "USD", "scale": "billion", "label": "$11B market cap (public)" }, "industry": "Financial Services" }, "titles": [{ "title": "CTO TransferWise for Business", "from": "2018-05", "to": "2020-06" }], "period": { "start": "2018-05", "end": "2020-06" }, "location": { "city": "London", "country": "United Kingdom", "countryCode": "GB" }, "remote": "onsite", "industry": "Financial Services", "context": "B2B division (Wise for Business + Wise Platform) · £1B moved/week · 80 FTE across 6 global sites · B2B grew ~75% YoY", "mandate": "Shift Wise's entire B2B division from app-and-website thinking to platform-and-API-first thinking. Reported to the Group CTO.", "summary": "Led engineering for Wise's entire B2B division — Wise for Business and Wise Platform. Drove the strategic shift to API-first across the org while the division grew ~75% YoY, twice the rate of the consumer business.", "scope": { "totalHeadcount": 80, "geographies": ["UK", "Hungary", "Estonia", "US", "Singapore"], "sites": ["London", "Budapest", "Tallinn", "New York", "Tampa", "Singapore"], "reportingLine": "Group CTO" }, "metrics": [ { "label": "Money moved per week", "value": 1, "unit": "GBP", "format": "currency", "highlight": true }, { "label": "Bank fees saved annually", "value": 1, "unit": "GBP", "format": "currency", "highlight": true }, { "label": "Headcount", "value": 80, "unit": "FTE", "format": "number" }, { "label": "B2B division YoY growth", "value": 75, "unit": "%", "format": "percent", "highlight": true } ], "achievements": [ { "title": "Managed a cross-functional department of 80 across London, Budapest, Tallinn, New York, Tampa, and Singapore — transferring £1B of customers' money per week and saving them £1B+ annually in bank fees", "category": "scale", "visibility": "featured" }, { "title": "Drove the strategic shift from app-first to API-first across the entire B2B engineering org; B2B division grew ~75% YoY during my tenure, twice the rate of Wise's consumer business", "category": "platform", "visibility": "featured" }, { "title": "Owned API strategy and all integration partnerships end-to-end; scaled the partner ecosystem across banks (Monzo, N26, Bunq, BPCE) and connected apps", "category": "partnerships" }, { "title": "Opened new geographies by signing bank partners in the US (Stanford Credit Union, Novo), Canada (Eq), Australia (Up), and Portugal (Activo)", "category": "commercial" }, { "title": "Launched the first connected-app partnership — Xero Pay with TransferWise — embedding cross-border payments into Xero's SME customer base; followed by the GoCardless integration", "category": "platform" } ], "tags": ["fintech", "b2b", "api", "cross-border-payments", "platform"], "visibility": "featured" }, { "id": "daimler-fleetboard-cto", "type": "full-time", "company": { "name": "Daimler Fleetboard", "displayName": "Daimler Fleetboard — Innovation Hub", "stage": "corporate", "industry": "Logistics / Innovation Hub" }, "titles": [{ "title": "CTO, Innovation Hub", "from": "2017-05", "to": "2018-05" }], "period": { "start": "2017-05", "end": "2018-05" }, "location": { "city": "Berlin", "country": "Germany", "countryCode": "DE" }, "remote": "onsite", "industry": "Logistics / Innovation Hub", "context": "Daimler Trucks' logistics innovation lab", "mandate": "Lead technology strategy for Daimler Trucks' logistics innovation lab — identifying, validating, and building new digital business models.", "summary": "Operated as a startup CTO within a corporate context — running rapid PoC and MVP cycles using Lean Startup and Design Thinking to kill bad bets early and accelerate the good ones. Evaluated and implemented blockchain solutions for fragmented multi-party supply chains and IoT-based logistics tracking, assessing both public and private chain architectures against real-world logistics constraints. Delivered technically viable prototypes that directly supported Fleetboard's strategic roadmap for next-generation logistics services.", "tags": ["logistics", "blockchain", "iot", "innovation", "lean-startup"], "visibility": "default" }, { "id": "inmotion-jlr-cto", "type": "full-time", "company": { "name": "InMotion Ventures (Jaguar Land Rover)", "stage": "corporate-vc", "industry": "Incubator / Investment Arm" }, "titles": [{ "title": "CTO, InMotion Ventures", "from": "2016-10", "to": "2017-05" }], "period": { "start": "2016-10", "end": "2017-05" }, "location": { "city": "London", "country": "United Kingdom", "countryCode": "GB" }, "remote": "onsite", "industry": "Incubator / Investment Arm", "mandate": "Technology lead for Jaguar Land Rover's mobility startup incubator and investment arm.", "summary": "Acted as fractional CTO across the portfolio — conducting technical due diligence on investment candidates, providing architectural guidance to portfolio companies, and helping early-stage teams recruit their first technical founders and engineering hires. Key engagement: Dovu, where I shaped the technical strategy for a blockchain-based platform enabling individuals to monetize their personal mobility data.", "tags": ["mobility", "corporate-vc", "due-diligence", "blockchain"], "visibility": "default" }, { "id": "officeserve-svp", "type": "full-time", "company": { "name": "OfficeServe", "stage": "early", "industry": "B2B Food Catering & Delivery" }, "titles": [{ "title": "SVP of Technology", "from": "2016-03", "to": "2016-10" }], "period": { "start": "2016-03", "end": "2016-10" }, "location": { "city": "London", "country": "United Kingdom", "countryCode": "GB" }, "industry": "B2B Food Catering & Delivery", "mandate": "First technical executive — build the technology function from scratch.", "summary": "Built the tech department from scratch (15 people), architected a cloud-native microservices platform, and delivered the complete MVP within 9 months from zero to launch.", "scope": { "totalHeadcount": 15 }, "tags": ["mvp", "cloud-native", "b2b"], "visibility": "default" }, { "id": "tui-mobility-hub", "type": "full-time", "company": { "name": "TUI Group Mobility Hub", "stage": "corporate", "industry": "Travel and Hospitality" }, "titles": [{ "title": "Head of Delivery", "from": "2015-03", "to": "2016-03" }], "period": { "start": "2015-03", "end": "2016-03" }, "location": { "city": "London", "country": "United Kingdom", "countryCode": "GB" }, "industry": "Travel and Hospitality", "summary": "Led 40+ cross-functional team reporting to Group CIO, managing mobile app experiences across ~300 global brands. Reduced contractor dependency from 70% to under 30%.", "scope": { "totalHeadcount": 40, "reportingLine": "Group CIO" }, "tags": ["mobile", "travel", "delivery"], "visibility": "default" }, { "id": "codemancers-founder", "type": "founder", "company": { "name": "Codemancers", "stage": "consultancy", "industry": "Software Consultancy" }, "titles": [{ "title": "Founder & Chairman", "from": "2009-06", "to": "2016-06" }], "period": { "start": "2009-06", "end": "2016-06" }, "location": { "city": "Tampere", "country": "Finland", "countryCode": "FI" }, "industry": "Software Consultancy", "summary": "Co-founded and ran a boutique software consultancy alongside full-time employment for 7 years. Served as chairman of the board.", "tags": ["consulting", "side-venture"], "visibility": "compact" }, { "id": "futurice-tech-director", "type": "full-time", "company": { "name": "Futurice", "url": "https://futurice.com", "stage": "consultancy", "industry": "Software Consultancy / Lean Service Creation" }, "titles": [ { "title": "Software Engineer", "from": "2008-12", "to": "2010" }, { "title": "Senior Specialist", "from": "2010", "to": "2012" }, { "title": "Architect", "from": "2012", "to": "2013" }, { "title": "Chief Architect", "from": "2013", "to": "2014" }, { "title": "Technology Director", "from": "2014", "to": "2015-03" } ], "period": { "start": "2008-12", "end": "2015-03" }, "location": { "city": "London / Berlin / Tampere", "country": "Multi-country" }, "industry": "Software Consultancy", "mandate": "Joined as the 6th employee. Grew with the company through five technical leadership roles to become Futurice's first Technology Director overseeing 500+ developers across Finland, Germany, and the UK.", "summary": "Instrumental in scaling the company from a Tampere startup to an international consultancy of several hundred people, including establishing the Berlin and London offices. Led delivery for global enterprise clients including Microsoft, Nokia, and Samsung across a wide range of technologies and problem domains. Notable deliveries include the Windows 8 HERE Maps application, the Samsung Goal+ World Cup app across mobile and Smart TV platforms, and the Nokia N-series music player that shipped on hundreds of millions of devices worldwide.", "scope": { "totalHeadcount": 500, "geographies": ["Finland", "Germany", "UK"], "sites": ["Tampere", "Helsinki", "Berlin", "London"] }, "achievements": [ { "title": "Joined as 6th employee, grew with the company through five technical leadership roles to first Technology Director overseeing 500+ developers", "category": "career-arc", "visibility": "featured" }, { "title": "Helped establish Futurice's Berlin and London offices", "category": "international-expansion" }, { "title": "Led delivery for Microsoft, Nokia, and Samsung — Windows 8 HERE Maps, Samsung Goal+ World Cup app, Nokia N-series music player (shipped on hundreds of millions of devices)", "category": "delivery", "visibility": "featured" } ], "tags": ["consulting", "international-scale", "enterprise-delivery"], "visibility": "featured" }, { "id": "early-engineering-roles", "type": "full-time", "company": { "name": "Various", "industry": "Software Engineering" }, "titles": [ { "title": "University Research Assistant / Telecom Programmer / Software Engineer", "from": "2000-06", "to": "2008-12" } ], "period": { "start": "2000-06", "end": "2008-12" }, "location": { "country": "Finland", "countryCode": "FI" }, "industry": "Software Engineering", "summary": "Began career in hands-on technical roles — university research assistant, telecom operator programmer — before joining Futurice as a software engineer in 2004. During a one-year hiatus, pioneered the first Symbian GPU driver for the Broadcom IVE3 chip used in the Nokia N8, one of the first mobile phones with a dedicated GPU, implementing OpenVG and OpenGL ES at kernel level. Software that shipped on hundreds of millions of Nokia devices worldwide.", "achievements": [ { "title": "Pioneered the first Symbian GPU driver for the Broadcom IVE3 chip (Nokia N8) — OpenVG and OpenGL ES at kernel level. Shipped on hundreds of millions of devices.", "category": "engineering", "visibility": "featured" } ], "tags": ["embedded", "kernel", "graphics", "symbian"], "visibility": "compact" } ], "boards": [ { "id": "sustashift-ned", "type": "ned", "company": { "name": "Sustashift", "industry": "ESG / Climate Tech" }, "titles": [ { "title": "Non-Executive Director (Board Member)", "from": "2025-11", "to": "present" } ], "period": { "start": "2025-11", "end": "present", "current": true }, "location": { "city": "Helsinki", "country": "Finland", "countryCode": "FI" }, "industry": "ESG / Climate Tech", "summary": "NED and board member at Sustashift, which helps companies navigate the complexities of regulated CSRD reporting by automating the process using AI tooling.", "tags": ["esg", "csrd", "ai", "regtech"], "visibility": "default" }, { "id": "various-board-advisory-2009-2025", "type": "advisory", "company": { "name": "Various startups, non-profits, and SMEs", "industry": "Multiple" }, "titles": [{ "title": "Board Member, NED, Advisor", "from": "2009", "to": "2025" }], "period": { "start": "2009", "end": "2025" }, "summary": "Held various board, NED, and advisor roles in startups, non-profits, and SMEs — including advisory board roles at Sanako (EdTech, Finland), Blockchain & Climate Institute (London), and Track (logistics, Berlin, acquired by Transporeon 2022), and board positions at Vaana (healthcare, Helsinki) and Codemancers (own consultancy, Tampere).", "tags": ["advisory", "ned", "boards"], "visibility": "compact" } ], "investments": [ { "company": "FIBAN portfolio (multiple)", "role": "angel", "via": "FIBAN (Finnish Business Angel Network)", "outcome": "active", "notes": "Active angel investor — member of FIBAN." }, { "company": "Greencode Ventures portfolio (multiple)", "role": "advisor", "via": "Greencode Ventures", "outcome": "active", "notes": "Part of Greencode Ventures advisor network for deal sourcing and technical due diligence." } ], "education": [ { "institution": "Tampere University of Technology / Oulu University", "degree": "Master of Science", "field": "Computer Science", "period": { "start": "1996", "end": "2003" }, "location": { "country": "Finland", "countryCode": "FI" } } ], "skills": [ { "category": "Engineering Leadership", "items": [ "Scale-up org design", "Team Topologies", "OKRs", "Distributed teams", "Empowered teams", "Culture" ] }, { "category": "Architecture", "items": [ "Event-driven microservices", "CQRS", "Cloud-native", "API-first platforms", "DevSecOps" ] }, { "category": "FinTech", "items": [ "Investment infrastructure", "Cross-border payments", "Crypto custody", "BaFin", "FCA", "Compliance-by-design", "Embedded finance" ] }, { "category": "AI", "items": [ "MCP servers", "Agentic operations", "Agentic SDLC", "Software factories", "AI-assisted RFPs" ] }, { "category": "Product", "items": [ "Lean Startup", "Design Thinking", "Product/engineering integration", "MVP delivery" ] } ], "languages": [ { "language": "Finnish", "level": "native", "cefr": "C2" }, { "language": "English", "level": "fluent", "cefr": "C2" } ], "talks": [], "publications": [], "press": [], "testimonials": [], "achievements": [ { "id": "scaled-three-platforms", "title": "Scaled engineering across three regulated FinTech platforms", "description": "Wise B2B (80 FTE, 6 sites), Upvest (5 → 120+), Alpaca (80 → 130, roadmap to 250).", "category": "career", "visibility": "featured" }, { "id": "bafin-license", "title": "Secured one of Germany's first BaFin Crypto Custody bank licenses at Upvest", "category": "regulatory", "visibility": "featured" }, { "id": "180m-fundraise", "title": "Helped secure €180M across Series A–C at Upvest from Earlybird, Notion, HV, Bessemer, Hedosophia, Sapphire, and BlackRock", "category": "fundraising", "visibility": "featured" }, { "id": "first-mcp-server", "title": "Shipped one of the first external MCP servers for a regulated brokerage API (Alpaca)", "category": "AI", "visibility": "featured" }, { "id": "symbian-gpu-driver", "title": "Pioneered the first Symbian GPU driver — shipped on hundreds of millions of Nokia devices", "category": "engineering", "visibility": "default" } ], "values": [ { "title": "Builder first", "description": "I started as an engineer and stay close to the work. I lead organisations I would want to work in." }, { "title": "Compounding velocity", "description": "Every quarter the team should be faster than the last — through better people, better tooling, better architecture, and now AI." }, { "title": "Regulated by design", "description": "In FinTech, compliance is part of the platform, not a checkpoint at the end." }, { "title": "Distributed by default", "description": "I have run engineering across six time zones and three continents. Talent does not cluster geographically anymore — neither should the work." } ], "interests": [ { "label": "Angel investing", "description": "Active in FIBAN and Greencode Ventures networks", "icon": "trending-up" } ], "availability": { "status": "in-role", "headline": "CPTO at BUX (ABN AMRO) \u00b7 Amsterdam", "openTo": [ "Board and non-executive director seats", "Advisory work with growth-stage FinTech founders", "Angel investing via the networks below", "Comparing notes on regulated platform engineering" ], "notSeeking": "Not looking for a new executive mandate.", "preferredIndustries": [ "FinTech", "B2B SaaS", "Regulated platforms", "Embedded finance", "Investment infrastructure" ], "responseTime": "1-2 days", "ctaLabel": "Get in touch" }, "media": { "ogImage": { "src": "/media/portrait.jpg", "alt": "Juha Ristolainen — Scale-up CTO", "width": 720, "height": 720 }, "favicon": { "src": "/media/avatar.png" }, "hero": { "src": "/media/portrait.jpg", "alt": "Portrait of Juha Ristolainen" }, "logos": [] }, "siteHints": { "theme": { "mode": "system", "accent": "#0E7C66", "fontPair": "Inter + IBM Plex Mono" }, "voice": "Executive but plainspoken. No buzzword bingo. Quantified, specific, calmly confident.", "audience": [ "CEOs and boards hiring CTOs", "Executive search firms (Chief.fi, Compass HRG, Daversa)", "VCs and PE sponsors evaluating technical leadership", "Founders considering co-founder or advisory engagements" ], "sectionsOrder": [ "hero", "playbook", "experience", "boards", "achievements", "values", "availability", "contact" ], "primaryCTA": { "label": "Get in touch", "href": "mailto:juha@ristolainen.eu" } }, "extensions": { "internal": { "cvRevision": "Juha-Ristolainen-CV-2026-04", "lastEditedFromCV": "2026-04-23", "alpacaRevenueNote": "$130M run-rate is canonical (CV byline still shows $100M — to be updated next CV pass)" } } }