Alex Merutka

Craftsman+

We built CRAFTSMAN+ to solve a very real, very overlooked problem: creative at scale.

Performance marketing doesn’t fail from bad media buying, it fails from stale creative. CRAFTSMAN+ is a creative tech company engineered to close that gap. We developed a proprietary content engine that automates high-impact, data-backed playable and interactive ads. Built for speed, scale, and measurable performance.

Our platform helps top mobile brands (and their growth teams) scale creative output across channels like Meta, Google, TikTok, and programmatic, without sacrificing quality or insights.

Partners include category leaders in gaming, fintech, and commerce. Deloitte Fast 500 (#330), Inc. 5000, and trusted by the best because we don’t just make ads—we make performance scale.

CEO | Founder

Node Ventures

Node Ventures backs early-stage companies where we can be a growth weapon, not just a check.

We specialize in companies where digital marketing is the unlock. With deep operating experience across user acquisition, creative automation, and adtech infrastructure, we help founders move faster, scale smarter, and build the systems that drive real traction.

Node isn’t a traditional VC, we're a strategic partner with execution DNA. If we invest, we’re in the trenches with you.

Founder

Node Media

Odin Stem Cells

Odin delivers regenerative stem cell treatments. Clinically backed, nationally scaled, and optimized for long-term health outcomes.

We’re building the future of regenerative medicine by making advanced stem cell therapy accessible across the U.S. Odin operates at the intersection of science, performance, and wellness. Helping patients repair, recover, and optimize from the inside out.

→ Nationwide delivery. Clinical precision. Life-changing results.

Chairman & Co-Founder

Member

Forbes

Forbes 30 under 30 

AppLovin

Strategic Consultant

Helped scale AppLovin from early-stage startup to $29B IPO—leading $2B+ in performance media across mobile, programmatic, and creative.

Joined as one of the first employees. Built and led the user acquisition and programmatic teams during a period of hypergrowth—managing global campaigns for top mobile titles and partners. Owned media strategy and creative performance at scale.

Played a critical role in AppLovin’s growth trajectory from Seed stage through its final private round (led by KKR), culminating in a $29B IPO.

→ Specialized in building systems that connect performance data with growth strategy—at billion-dollar scale.

Head of Programmatic

Director of Sales

Conversant (formerly Greystripe)

Acquired by Alliance Data Systems (ADS) for $2.3 billion in 2014. 

Provided digital media solutions ranging from desktop, mobile, cross-device, video, lead generation, and retargeting.

Account Executive

BrightEdge

Enterprise Business Representative

I build companies that move markets. Right now, that’s CRAFTSMAN+—a creative technology platform powering high-performance ads for the world’s biggest mobile brands.

We’re not just shipping more creatives—we’re rewriting how performance teams scale. Backed by partnerships with Meta, Google, and TikTok, we’ve engineered a platform that turns friction-heavy creative workflows into data-backed, scalable growth engines. It’s the reason we landed on Forbes 30 Under 30, Deloitte Fast 500 (#330), and Inc. 5000—and why top brands trust us to accelerate what actually moves the needle.

Before CRAFTSMAN+, I led user acquisition and programmatic at AppLovin—managing $2B+ in ad spend and helping scale the company from Seed to $29B IPO. I also founded Node Ventures, a startup studio backing breakout ideas with speed and unfair distribution.

Contributor to Bloomberg, Business Insider, and FoxNews. Member of YPO. Always building, always optimizing.

Storyteq

Lead UX/UI Designer

Userpilot

Senior Product Designer

Unleash Your Creative Potential

- First permanent and full-time Product Designer (Principal)

- Assembled wireframe and mockup design systems, based on Atomic Design principles; including establishing product (CRAFTSMAN Studio) brand with the Creative Director and Marketing

- From the ground up, revamped product user journey to for ease of use and collaboration

- Responsible for overhauling the entire visual interface of the product

- Established efficient, intelligent and iterative solutions to new and existing functions or features, within the platform modules, to ensure an elegant, disruptive and native experience

- Responsible for developing Product Design team processes

- Mentored junior designer

- Contributed to the transfer to of company website to an alternative software service


ACHIEVEMENTS

CRAFTSMAN PLAY migration mockups reviewed by the Design Team at Apple, who loved the new user interface

CRAFTSMAN PLAY included in King Street Venture’s CMO’s Innovation Wishlist 2024    https://www.linkedin.com/posts/craftsmanplus_form-activity-7127422177250828288-JK2L?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Product (UX/UI) Designer

Do IT

Connect, Do, Be - a social network for real life.

Our role as the company’s first Product (UI/UX) Designer was to improve upon the first iteration of the doit.life platform, prior to the migration of users from company’s old domain - doit.org. This included leading UX sessions to define new features, feature requirements and user workflows; answering the question “What is the problem we are trying to solve” while putting the user at the heart of every decision, creating high-fidelity wireframes / prototypes to outline user journey, prepare supporting documentation, and attend client meetings to lead feature demos, obtain feedback and user insight.

Product (UI/UX) Designer

Independent Clinical Services

Specialising in recruitment and workforce solutions within the Healthcare and Life Sciences sectors, our responsibility as the company’s first UX/UI Designer was to assist in the digital transformation initiative across the organisation’s 26 sub-brands and associated mobile applications. This included researching, conceiving, sketching, wireframing and mocking up user interfaces/experiences for all of the digital platforms.

In addition to our main responsibilities, we also were mentoring colleagues in the fundamentals of product design.

UX/UI Designer

Shearwater Systems

Specialising in the development of native web and mobile systems, for use in the Healthcare Industry, our initial responsibility as the principal designer was to contribute to the strategic design and user-experience decisions relating to the core product (Rapport). This included researching, conceiving, sketching, mapping of the information architecture and mocking up user interfaces/experiences for all digital environments. Additionally, as part of this start-up company and an original member of the Shearwater team, we had the opportunity to influence the direction of the company brand. 

Our role evolved into conceiving efficient, intelligent iterative solutions to new and existing functions or features within Rapport to ensure an elegant, disruptive and native user interface and experience. As part our duties, we were required to come together with team members, stakeholders, partners, customers and end-users to understand the details of their requirements and devise a user experience, which will not only met the requestor’s needs and vision, but exceed their expectations. From time to time, we identified design issues and devised elegant solutions to resolve them. We also worked with our alliance partners at Graphnet, System C and Careflow, shepherding visual improvements and championing new ideas by prototyping potential user interfaces and experiences, while respecting the product’s core functionality and the partner’s brand identity.

 In addition to our main responsibilities, we began advocating cross-partner relationships; particularly around creating common elements (typography, iconography, layout) between applications. We also had the privilege to assist with work placement mentoring.

ACHIEVEMENTS

myCareCentric Epilepsy nominated for a 2017 Patient Safety Award

myCareCentric Epilepsy submitted for a 2017 HSJ Award

myCareCentric Epilepsy shortlisted and winner of a 2017 EHI Award

UX Designer

Freelance

Through referrals, we provided organisations with a mixture of design and development services. This ranged from maintaining monthly e-mail newsletters to full website design and build. By engaging with our clients, and understanding their business, we are able to create clean-cut destinations which provide a greater return of investment.

Additional projects we were involved with included sponsor banner ad design, mobile application user interface design, marketing and seo implementation, photo editing, content management system patching, and technical query resolution.

CLIENTS
 
White Horse Rare Books
Sevenoaks District Partnership Group
Bass Lake Campground
CampingRoadTrip LLC
Melcrum Publishing Ltd
Sabercom Ltd
Parish of St. Peter and St. Paul, Tonbridge

ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Camp Finder, designed for iPhone and Android, mentioned in both The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The New York Times quoted it was the "the best of the paid camping apps I tried".
 
Sabercom website, within a year of launch, ranked in the first two pages of Google and began generating an overall hit rate of 300 to 500 hits per month, throughout the recession. This continues to be a source of new business opportunities for the company.

Digital Designer

Starbucks

The position primarily focussed on creating quality, customised, hand-crafted beverages and connecting with customers "to inspire and nurture the human spirit - one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time." Equally important is the Health, Safety and Quality Assurance of the store, which we assisted one of the supervisors and the manageress oversee when we joined the company.

Our position as Barista, however, went beyond "just" customer service and making great tasting coffee. With our understanding of the principles of Point of Sale design, applying our design abilities to various aspects to the role and focussing on key elements of current campaigns, we have generated an increase of sales for the store. For example, when restocking the pre-packaged food and merchandise cases to the Siren's Eye, the guide set out by the company, we ensure that labels are always right side up, visible, straight and easily accessible to the customer by being close to the edge of the shelf. When laying out the pastries for the day, we stack the pastries in different geometric formations to catch the eye of the customers as they are queuing.

After a year and three months with the company, our role has evolved to include bespoke print design for the store. When the "My Starbucks Rewards" program was relaunched in January 2012, the company also updated the iOS app to include mobile payments. However, there was no promotional material to sell the service. We designed a till display to promote mobile payments which increased the store's customer enrolment (a fellow partner activated a total of 13 cards in one day) and the take up of sales on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Barista

Plasmanet UK Ltd

Part of our role was to design and develop the Adobe Flash components, which formed part of the final solution for implementation. Sometimes this involved working with external digital creative agencies to create assets for the client.

Internally, we were responsible for developing Sales & Marketing material, particularly the USB presentation for the 2007 and 2008 call centre exhibitions. Prior to its rebranding, we were responsible for troubleshooting the company website, after the launch of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, and working the Sales & Marketing team to implement goal conversion tracking, within Google Analytics. After the website was redesigned, externally, we were involved in the user acceptance testing, which included checking cross-browser compatibility.

CLIENTS

Accenture
BP
City of Westminster College
Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd
G4S
Health Professions Council
London Metal Exchange
Novartis
Sainsbury's
St. Francis Xavier 6th Form College
Southend United
Total
Vanquis Bank
Victoria & Albert Museum

Team Member - Operation and Technical Support

CLIENTS

Thermaltec Ltd
Dry Hill House Rest Home

Technical Support

“Being a Designer is about telling the users’ story. That story results in the production of applications which create a harmonious engagement between product and user. An experience which is remembered, seen, heard, touched and leaves a lasting statement.”

I am a forward-thinking, highly-motivated and down-to-earth Product (UI/UX) Designer, with an eye for detail, an appreciation of the benefits and a buzz for collaborating with others and a passion for all media platforms and other areas of design, technology and innovation. I have applied skills in user story generation, researching, conceptualising, sketching, wireframing, prototyping and mocking up user interfaces/experiences to deliver complete native, disruptive and user-centred digital solutions for iOS, Android and Web, which not only meet the client’s vision of their product, but exceed their expectations; while respecting the client’s brand (including large blue chip organisations in call centres, corporate communications and healthcare sectors). I have worked in fast-paced internal agencies (client-side) to aggressive project deadlines, as well as being involved in projects of a longer duration.

taplio

The Battle

Alex Merutka

Sean Rogers

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