Current: CTO @ GensureTech

Ali Gündoğdu

I build products, grow and lead teams, and still write code now and then. Here I share ideas from inside the work, the things I try, and whatever stays on my mind along the way.

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leadership

9 min · July 28, 2026

The Software You Depend On Has an Owner. Their Decision Never Shows Up on Any Spreadsheet.

The tool you rely on can double its price one morning, close its doors, or claw a feature back. That risk isn't written on any roadmap. So who puts it on the table?
leadership

10 min · July 23, 2026

Why Kings Wear Purple: The Color You Cannot Make by Saving the Day

Tyrian purple cost more than gold because it was a system, not a recipe. Why day-saving companies drift, and how a plan turns luck into opportunity.
leadership

10 min · July 16, 2026

RICE Will Not Make the Call for You. It Makes You Ask the Question You Are Avoiding.

For most people RICE is a corporate spreadsheet. Its real job is not to calculate a score, but to sit you down in front of the questions you are afraid to answer. Why I still come back to it, on a big team and as a team of one.
leadership

6 min · June 11, 2026

What Does a Founding Engineer Actually Do? The 'Founding' Is Misleading

Founding engineer is one of the most sought-after technical roles of 2025. But most people get it wrong: they are not a founder, and the job is not mostly writing code. Backed by industry data, here is what the role really involves.
leadership

17 min · June 6, 2026

Should a CTO Write Code? Stop Asking the Wrong Question

Should a CTO write code or not? The question itself is wrong. How the role changes with the company's stage, when to touch the keyboard, and when to stay away.
engineering

7 min · June 5, 2026

Is PHP Dead?

Taking the old "Is PHP dead?" question and walking it through PHP's history and its technical turns, this piece argues that it is still a living, growing language.

Selected work

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Seodisias

A weekend experiment that became a real SEO tool. Crawls, audits, and surfaces what matters.

GoSEO

GeoMagnet GitHub

A weekly tradition I share with my son: visiting ancient cities and historical sites, then marking each place, exporting a 3D terrain slice (STL), and printing it on a 3D printer.

3D PrintTinkerCadFamily

TerraSTL GitHub

Open-source tool that lets you select any region on a map and export it as an STL file, ready for 3D printing. Great for custom terrain models and topographic visualizations.

3D PrintMapTerrainSTL