About

I’ve been obsessed with what machines can do since before it was cool.

I’m Michael Petychakis — a technologist, entrepreneur, and builder from Athens, Greece. For the past two decades I’ve lived at the intersection of AI, software architecture, and the open web. I’ve gone from working on social humanoid robots in the UAE to scaling a global engineering organization to 700+ people and $50M+ ARR. I founded two of Athens’ biggest tech meetups, mentored dozens of startups, and I still get a rush every time a new paradigm shift shows up.

The story

It started in Athens. I studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, where I earned both my bachelor’s and MSc degrees. During my PhD research, I became fascinated by Application Programming Interfaces — not just as plumbing, but as the fundamental layer of how machines communicate, understand context, and create meaning on the web.

In 2009, a scholarship took me to the UAE, where I spent two years at the IRML (Interactive Robots and Media Lab) working on social humanoid robots. That was the moment everything clicked — seeing AI not as an abstraction but as something physical, interactive, and deeply human. From there I dove into a decade of academic research, exploring AI’s potential in web technologies, publishing 25+ research papers in top journals and conferences, and contributing to multiple W3C standards groups. The work was deeply technical — linked data, semantic web, API ecosystems — and it gave me a front-row seat to the foundations of what we now call the agentic web.

But I’m not someone who can just research and theorize. I need to build things. In 2012 I founded my first startup, Moodeet, and I’ve been in startup-mode ever since — 20 years of building companies, scaling engineering teams, and shipping products that actually work at scale. Along the way I founded the API Athens meetup and the AWS User Group Greece — two of Athens’ most active tech communities.

The biggest chapter so far was ORFIUM. I joined as CTO in 2015 when it was a freshly established startup. Over the next nine years, I built the entire technology department from scratch — establishing the Athens engineering hub of 200+ people, setting up HR, brand, PR, and operations from zero. We grew the company to 700+ people with offices in LA, London, Dublin, Athens, Tokyo, Sofia, and Sri Lanka. We executed two major acquisitions (Breaker in Japan in 2021 and Soundmouse in 2023), and grew revenue from zero to over $50 million ARR. Orfium became the global technology leader in digital music and broadcast rights management.

In 2020 I completed executive MBA training at Stanford University, which sharpened my thinking on the business side of technology leadership. At the start of 2025, I took on a new challenge as CTO of Dialectica, bringing everything I’ve learned to a new domain.

And then there’s BadCop.tech — my own creation. An AI-powered technical due diligence platform that I built from the ground up. It’s the distillation of everything I know about evaluating technology, engineering teams, and code quality. It’s the tool I wish I’d had in every boardroom I’ve ever walked into.

Career timeline

Research & publications

My academic work spans 25+ publications in international journals and conferences, focused on APIs, web technologies, the semantic web, and AI applications. I’ve contributed to multiple W3C working groups and standards, helping shape the protocols that underpin today’s interconnected web. I participated in nearly 10 EU-funded R&D projects, working on everything from linked data ecosystems to intelligent web services.

This research laid the groundwork for what I now build in the real world — and it’s why I saw the agentic web coming a decade before anyone was talking about it.

Awards & recognition

I’ve been recognized for the work I love doing. I received the First National Young Enterprise Award from Elevate Greece for Orfium, and I’ve been featured on Fortune Greece’s 40 Under 40 list for five consecutive years. I’ve spoken twice at the Greek Economic Forum, appeared on multiple podcasts, and been featured widely in the press. I’m an active member of Endeavor Greece and the Entrepreneurs’ Organization — communities of builders who are serious about making things happen.

BadCop.tech

After years of evaluating tech stacks, engineering teams, and codebases — both as a CTO and as an advisor — I built the tool I always wanted. BadCop.tech is an AI-powered technical due diligence platform that automates the kind of deep analysis that used to take weeks of manual review. It’s brutal, it’s honest, and it’s exactly what investors and CTOs need before making critical technology decisions.

Beyond work

I spend a big chunk of my time giving back to the community. I mentor startups and aspiring founders pro bono, help people break into the tech industry, and regularly present at conferences and events across Europe. I’ve tutored robotics at schools — introducing kids to the same kind of hands-on engineering that got me hooked in the first place. If someone’s trying to build something or learn something, I’ll always make time.

I’ve also been instrumental in several charitable efforts in Greece, and for the past 4 years I’ve been supporting SWIFTSS (Surgical Teams Working in Africa Together), where I created and lead the technology platform enabling safer surgery across multiple African countries. Technology should make things better for everyone, not just the people building it.

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