Resume
About Paul Ogutu
Co-Founder & CEO, Stratnovo | Software Engineer & Builder
Personal Infos
My Skills
Technical Skills
Next.js · React · TypeScript · Tailwind CSS · Zustand · React Query
FastAPI · PostgreSQL · Supabase · Redis · Django
Vercel · Cloudflare R2 · GitHub · CI/CD
LangChain · pgvector · RAG pipelines · AI integration
Expo / React Native (active learning)
Non-Technical Skills
Program Leadership · Business Development & Sales · Curriculum Design & Teaching · Content Strategy & Copywriting · Operational Management
Experience & Education
Co-Founder & CEO / Stratnovo
Co-founded Stratnovo with my brother Joseph, a digital growth company with two arms: a services arm targeting NGOs and foreign companies (digital marketing, content creation, web development), and a startups arm building equity products. Leading company strategy, client acquisition, and operations.
Founder / Hostel Hunting (formerly Rumia)
Rebranded Rumia to Hostel Hunting, a lead generation platform connecting DeKUT students with verified hostel agents. Built on a sharper pain point: students struggle to find hostels, not manage them. Third iteration of this product. Stack: Next.js, Supabase, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript, Cloudflare R2.
Software Engineer / The Flying Decksman
Built and currently maintain The Flying Decksman (theflyingdecksman.com), a premium music streaming platform and digital store for independent electronic music. Features human-curated mixes, true track ownership with no subscriptions, and an 80% artist revenue model. Built together with my brother Joseph.
Product Builder / Rumia v1 — Hostel Management SaaS
Built the original Rumia as a hostel management SaaS then expanded the vision to rental management (bigger market, easier to pitch). Iterated through two product directions before rebranding to Hostel Hunting in June 2026. The kills were strategic, not failures.
BSc. Computer Science / Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT)
Core areas: Data Structures, Algorithms, Operating Systems, Databases, Networking. Applying academic theory directly into production-level product work.
Freelance Developer / Software Engineering
Professional freelance work started March 2025. Delivering AI chatbots, automation tools, and full-stack client platforms. Also founded Prime, a structured developer training program at DeKUT building engineers who won't need employment after graduating.
Self-Taught Software Developer
Got serious about software in May 2023, dropping earlier explorations into cybersecurity and data science to go all-in on building. Started even earlier in 2021 with HTML/CSS through my brothers (all in tech), explored networking and data science, then returned to software with full commitment. Self-learning has run in parallel with everything since.
KCSE / Homabay High School
Completed Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in December 2024. Started learning tech alongside school from 2021.