Mark Curchin

Mark Curchin is a co-founder and Partner at Holdex, where he leads product, design, and technology across the studio's portfolio. Two decades of building — from consumer apps and enterprise software to DeFi protocols, options markets, and AI infrastructure.

Before Holdex, he ran his own software and design studio and built top-rated Apple ecosystem applications for the music industry. That's where he first worked alongside Vadim Zolotokrylin — and where the founding partnership behind Holdex began.

Holdex started as a fundraising platform for blockchain startups, helping 40+ projects through token sales and DeFi protocol designs, before pivoting to a venture studio when it became clear that the founders they were helping needed a real technical partner embedded in their team, not just capital access.

What he has shipped

Proof points matter. At Clearpool, Mark drove the product from concept to nearly $1 billion in lending volume. At Truflation, he built the infrastructure that unlocked enterprise client expansion and recurring revenue. At Ithaca, he took an on-chain options platform from zero across the full product and technical stack.

On AI, he works at the layer most founders struggle with — turning prototypes into production systems. His work on Truflation, TRUF.NETWORK, and the Holdex Wizard covers MPC server architecture, workflow layers, harvesting pipelines, and evals. He is also a product and technology advisor to Naemon, a neobank in the Holdex portfolio.

How he works

Mark's starting point is always clarity. Before a line of code gets written, he runs stakeholder interviews to cut through the noise, define what matters, and produce a lean backlog every item of which is justified. The output isn't a requirements document — it's a roadmap founders can execute.

He works lean, moves fast between UX depth and strategic decisions, and keeps the focus on the fastest path to a real answer. For the founders Holdex works with, that typically means compressing months of early uncertainty into weeks.

On AI

The gap isn't access — everyone has the same models. The gap is knowing how to use them. Prompting is the skill most builders are underestimating, and the compounding advantage hiding in plain sight. You can even ask AI to help you construct the prompt itself — a shortcut most people are ignoring entirely.

AI is a multiplier, not a replacement for skill. In the right hands it is extraordinary. In the wrong hands it produces the obvious, generic output that gives it away immediately. The people who win this era treat prompting the way a previous generation treated knowing how to search.