Kar Martirosyan
Founder of Tidepool Labs Inc.
San Francisco Bay Area
Overview
Work Experience
Director of Engineering
2023 - Current
• Transitioned to Tendo after MDsave’s acquisition, marking the culmination of my 10-year journey at MDsave from early-stage growth to a successful exit. • Led the onboarding of Tendo engineers to the Marketplace team, integrating them into Scrum workflows, PR processes, and training programs. • Drove data engineering initiatives, learning Databricks and contributing as an individual contributor (IC) to accelerate Quality Ratings MVP due to resource constraints. • Established process improvements, including Databricks IDE plugin, Asset Bundles, automated testing, and a shared SDK vision, setting new engineering standards. • Managed the Tidepool team restructuring, ensuring minimal velocity impact while selecting key developers for retention and negotiating terms. • Facilitated cross-functional collaboration, working with TechOps, Data Insights, Sales, and Marketing to improve integrations and align engineering with business objectives. Key Achievements • Played a key role in the MDsave acquisition, successfully transitioning technical leadership to Tendo. • Drove strategic process improvements, onboarding engineers, refining workflows, and establishing best practices. • Led cost-cutting efforts and tech optimization, improving efficiency while maintaining development velocity. • Stepped into a more strategic leadership role, balancing IC work with mentoring, cross-team collaboration, and executive alignment.
Tendo's mission is to become the trusted connection between patients, clinicians, and caregivers by creating software.
Raised $187,552,860.00 from Lux Capital and General Catalyst.
Co-Founder
2023
Transitioned from CTO to an advisory role after MDsave’s acquisition by Tendo in October 2023.
Co-Founder & CTO
2017 - 2023
Co-founded Tidepool Labs, a startup studio that helped early-stage companies turn ideas into scalable products. Led engineering across multiple startups, balancing technical leadership and hands-on architecture while ensuring SOC2 and HIPAA compliance. Key Responsibilities • Defined technical strategy, selected technologies, and built scalable architectures. • Led engineering teams, hiring and mentoring developers across various projects. • Ensured SOC2 (96%) and HIPAA (93%) compliance using Vanta. • Established CI/CD, code reviews, and engineering best practices across startups. • Managed technical due diligence, preparing startups for fundraising rounds. • Reduced engineering costs by $100K/year, shifting expenses from Tidepool to startups. • Secured partnerships with AWS, Vanta, and NewRelic for startup benefits. Key Projects • Vigilant Biosciences – Developed infrastructure for an oral cancer detection device, built with Next.js, NestJS, PostgreSQL, and ML for image-based diagnostics. • Chalkboard – Led compliance & tech due diligence, built BI pipelines in BigQuery, and streamlined communication between Armenian teams and founders. • LearnToWin – Led engineering transition, helped hire the first Director of Engineering, and guided the company through its first institutional funding round. • Tidepool Internal Tool – Created an automated app provisioning system to accelerate startup launches with prebuilt frontend, backend, CI/CD, and monitoring. Career Growth & Impact • Gained multi-startup leadership experience, managing engineering across various industries. • Scaled engineering teams, optimized infrastructure, and ensured compliance. • Balanced hands-on development and leadership, driving technical excellence and efficiency.
Hands-On Advisor, Engineering
2020 - 2023
• Part-time role while serving as CTO at Tidepool Labs, which also provided engineering services to MDsave. • Provided technical advisory and hands-on contributions during a key growth phase leading up to MDsave’s acquisition by Tendo. • Designed and implemented critical infrastructure improvements, ensuring system scalability and security. • Led technical architecture decisions, optimizing APIs, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure. • Supported engineering team mentorship, ensuring best practices in CI/CD, DevOps, and system reliability. • Worked cross-functionally with product, data, and leadership teams to align engineering efforts with business goals. Key Achievements: • Ensured a smooth tech transition for MDsave’s acquisition by optimizing system performance and security. • Played a key role in system modernization efforts, improving reliability and scalability. • Balanced technical execution with high-level advisory, guiding engineering while contributing hands-on.
Vice President Of Engineering
2019 - 2020
• Led a team of 26 engineers, overseeing frontend, backend, and DevOps while ensuring smooth collaboration between U.S.-based leadership and the Armenian engineering team. • Drove critical infrastructure improvements, introducing GraphQL, RabbitMQ, and Redis to modernize the platform. • Led the migration from Angular to React, establishing the foundation while balancing feature development and infrastructure upgrades. • Designed and built the first version of MDsave API, a GraphQL-based microservice with authentication, which remains in use today. • Implemented reverse proxy using CloudFront, improving security and scalability. • Ensured system reliability and scalability, implementing caching solutions to support a 2 million-email campaign request in 4-5 hours without system degradation. • Built and enforced TDD, CI/CD, and structured code review processes, ensuring a high standard of engineering quality. Key Achievements • Gained deep expertise in scalable API architecture and high-performance engineering. • Developed strong technical leadership skills, driving adoption of GraphQL, Redis, and RabbitMQ. • Strengthened ability to balance hands-on work with managing a growing team. • Built experience in cross-team collaboration, working closely with U.S. leadership and an international engineering team. • Gained real-world experience in system reliability & caching strategies for large-scale API workloads.
Director of Engineering
2015 - 2019
• Led the expansion of the Armenian engineering team from 8 to 30+ engineers, significantly increasing the company’s development capacity. • Took ownership of technical architecture, making key decisions on database schemas, system workflows, and integrations with third-party platforms like CareCredit and Parasail. • Developed and implemented reconciliation reports, payment system/history tracking, and anonymization scripts to enhance system security and data privacy. • Worked closely with the CTO to implement TDD, CI/CD, PR review processes, and HIPAA-compliant infrastructure, ensuring engineering teams followed best practices. • Built logging, monitoring, and alerting systems, improving system reliability and issue detection. • Gained cross-functional experience by working with sales, accounting, account managers, and customer support teams to align engineering efforts with business needs. Key Achievements • Transitioned from a broad leadership role to a more structured engineering organization, adapting to work under a CTO while leading technical decision-making. • Deepened expertise in HIPAA compliance and secure infrastructure, contributing to scalability and system security. • Helped shape engineering culture improvements, ensuring teams adopted TDD, CI/CD, and structured code review processes.
Divisional Chief Technical Officer
2013 - 2014
• Transitioned from client-based consulting (BigBrain) to leading a dedicated product team with a long-term vision. • Scaled the engineering team from 2 to 8 developers, ensuring smooth collaboration and high-quality software development. • Led a co-located team of 8 engineers to build MDsave.com, a healthcare e-commerce platform that allowed hospitals to list procedures online and enabled patients to shop for medical services, while working with remote U.S.-based executives, bridging the gap between development and business needs. • Stayed hands-on as the lead software developer and main architect, designing and implementing the system’s core functionality. Key Achievements • Gained expertise in healthcare technology, e-commerce, and compliance (HIPAA, PHI). • Scaled the engineering team, laying the foundation for MDsave’s growth. • Developed deep experience in remote collaboration and cross-time-zone leadership. • This role paved the way for my Director of Engineering position in the U.S., where I took on broader leadership responsibilities while remaining deeply technical.
Founding Engineer
2012 - 2017
• Co-founded BigBrain, providing engineering services to help clients turn ideas into products by managing development from concept to launch. • Led product management, worked with designers, and guided engineering teams to implement scalable solutions. • Developed a Test Management System, a web-based tool (similar to Typeform) used by schools in Armenia to digitize student assessments. • Solved scalability challenges, ensuring the system could work offline and support 15 different question types. • Built applications using PHP, JavaScript, and jQuery, optimizing performance for high-traffic educational use. Key Achievements • Transitioned from engineering to product leadership, managing end-to-end software development. • Gained expertise in contract negotiation, cross-functional collaboration, and scaling web applications. • Successfully deployed a nationally-used educational tool, replacing traditional paper-based exams.
Senior Web Developer
2011 - 2012
• Led development of the “Pyunik” Information System, expanding nationwide support for persons with disabilities while maintaining “Manuk”. • Provided architectural guidance, designed database structures, and optimized system scalability. • Mentored junior engineers, improving development efficiency and best practices. • Automated and redesigned the reporting tool, ensuring reliable data tracking. • Introduced Git for version control, automated testing, and logging, improving code management and system stability. • Strengthened security practices, protecting government platforms from DDoS attacks, SQL injections, and web-based threats. Key Achievements • Transitioned into a technical leadership role, making key architectural decisions. • Gained expertise in scalable system design and security best practices. • Established modern development workflows, laying a foundation for future growth.
Web developer
2010 - 2011
• Worked on “Manuk” Information System, a nationwide platform used to register and track children in difficult life circumstances across all 10 provinces in Armenia (expanded from 3 during my tenure). • Maintained and enhanced the system using PHP, MySQL, JavaScript/jQuery, HTML/CSS to support a growing number of users and data entries. • Optimized database queries and improved system scalability to handle increased usage as more provinces joined the system. • Implemented UI/UX improvements to make the platform more user-friendly for social workers and administrative staff. • Enhanced data security by implementing access controls and encryption measures to protect sensitive child welfare records. • Built reporting tools from scratch, enabling government agencies to track child welfare statistics, and learned database functions and stored procedures in the process. • Improved system performance by optimizing database indexing, reducing load times, and ensuring smoother operations as the system scaled. • This role deepened my expertise in scalable web applications, security best practices, and backend database optimization, reinforcing my ability to build robust systems with real-world impact.
Instructor
2011 - 2011
1. Prepare and conduct technical training programs. 2. Assess training needs and certification requirements. 3. Deploy training to targeted personnel. 4. Prepare training material and classroom agenda. 5. Create instructor materials (course outlines, background material, instructional materials, and training aids). 6. Assist in design of computer-based and multimedia curriculum. 7. Continuously enhance technical instructional delivery and presentation skills. 8. Ensure the quality and consistency of course content throughout a course life cycle. 9. Plan and direct classroom training, multimedia programs, and other computer-aided instructional technologies, conferences and workshops.
Web Developer
2010 - 2010
• Developed and launched Toshiba.am, a full-featured website, from scratch within two months. • Worked extensively with PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, and a custom-written CMS, modifying it to fit project needs. • Faced challenges understanding and modifying the custom CMS, which was overly configurable and not well-structured, but successfully adapted to it. • Managed tight deadlines and overcame limitations of the CMS to deliver the project on time. • Gained client interaction experience by gathering feedback, implementing requested changes, and conducting demos. • This role laid the foundation for my career as a web developer, giving me confidence to build systems from scratch rather than relying on existing CMS tools.