Hi. I'm Eugene @mentar 🤟

About

Short Bio

YC Founder with 20+ years building at the intersection of AI and embodied systems (robotics, AR/VR, haptics). I've led teams from zero-to-one through pilots and shipping immersive products, and now work as a fractional CTO helping fast-moving companies turn emerging AI and sensing technology into shipped products.

Career

I've built and led products in immersive computing and AI-driven consumer experiences, and I'm now applying that stack across emerging ventures as a fractional CTO.

At Vi, I led end-to-end development of Vibe—turning a phone into a fitness gaming console and bringing immersive, interactive workouts to consumers.

Before that, I was CEO & co-founder of Plexus (YC W18), building high-performance AR/VR haptic gloves and earning early traction in the VR community. You can find more about the launch on my Reddit post.

Today I run Fraction Foundry, an AI-powered fractional CTO practice where I partner with fast-moving teams to take ambitious products from concept to deployment—most recently engineering an end-to-end system for capturing scientific laboratory protocols using egocentric video capture and voice control.

Work Experience

  • Fraction Foundry Logo
    Jan 2025 · Present
    Fractional CTO / Co-Founder
    Fraction Foundry
    AI-powered fractional CTO consulting for fast-moving, future-facing companies.
    Notable Projects
    • Engineered an end-to-end system for capturing scientific laboratory protocol execution through synchronized video capture and voice control.
    • Began with a native iOS app built in Swift; after user testing, pivoted to a wearable, egocentric video-capture solution pairing a native Kotlin app on video glasses with a companion Android tablet app.
    • Prototyped structured-light and stereo video-capture modules to evaluate depth-aware capture approaches.
    • Partnered with live customers (research labs) to debug restrictive connectivity environments and minimize dependency on client network infrastructure.
  • Vi Logo
    Jun 2023 · Nov 2024
    CTO / Co-Founder
    Vi
    Led the development of immersive fitness products using AI. Oversaw technical leadership, architecture, and development for the Vibe fitness gaming console.
  • CAD It App Logo
    Jul 2019 · Sep 2023
    CEO / Co-Founder
    CAD It App
    Drove technical leadership and business strategy for a SaaS platform focused on CAD solutions.
  • Plexus Logo
    Sep 2015 · Jul 2019
    CEO / Co-Founder
    Plexus Immersive Corp
    Spearheaded business development and strategy for a Y Combinator-backed AR/VR startup. Led the development of high-performance haptic gloves for VR applications.
  • Morgan Stanley Logo
    Dec 2006 · Feb 2009
    Associate IT System Engineer
    Morgan Stanley
    Engineered and maintained Linux web farms. Integrated Splunk into Morgan Stanley’s infrastructure, co-developed a log aggregation tool (Flume), and advocated for streamlined documentation practices.

Education

  • Y Combinator Logo
    2018 · W18
    Startup Accelerator
    Y Combinator
    Selected for the Winter 2018 batch with Plexus, sharpening product, fundraising, and go-to-market strategy for high-performance AR/VR haptic gloves.
  • The University of Manchester Logo
    2002 · 2006
    MEng, Computer Science
    The University of Manchester
    Focused on object-oriented programming, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, networks and security, robotics, and embedded systems. Served as an International Student Orientation tutor from 2003–2005, progressing to head team leader.

Let's Connect

I'm excited to connect with others via LinkedIn to chat about projects and ideas.