Alex Fufaiev
Founder & CEO
20+ years building and operating software systems. Full business and engineering ownership — P&L, hiring, compliance. Registered municipal vendor. Government project experience (ITRC).
About Above Bits
Twenty Years of Building Software
Twenty Years of Building Software
and Still Learning.
Founded in 2006. Same core team ever since. Twenty years spent learning what happens to software after launch — and building so that part doesn't go wrong.
20+Years, since 2006
500+Projects delivered
10+Yr-old system still in production
How we got here
We Didn't Set Out to Be Selective. The Work Taught Us To Be.
Above Bits started in February 2006 as a small engineering team taking on whatever came through the door — websites, applications, integrations, fixes. Over twenty years, a pattern emerged.
The projects that mattered — the ones that turned into long relationships — were never the simple ones. They were the systems that had to keep running. The integrations nobody else wanted to touch. The platforms other teams had built badly and walked away from.
We kept getting called back for the hard parts. Eventually we stopped pretending the easy work was where our value was. Today we build the systems organizations can't afford to get wrong, and we say no to the rest.
How we work
Engineers Define the System.
Engineers Define the System.
Engineers Build It.
Most firms sell you a senior team and staff the project with juniors once the contract is signed. We don't. The people who scope your architecture are the people who write the code — no account manager translating between you and the engineers, no offshore team inheriting decisions they were never part of.
01
Same team, start to finish
The lead engineer on day one is the lead engineer at delivery. No bait-and-switch after the pitch.
02
Written over verbal
Architecture, decisions, and weekly updates in writing. You get a record — not status-meeting theater.
03
Honest scoping
We tell you upfront if your problem doesn't fit. We'd rather lose the deal than lose the relationship six months in.
Twenty years
Two Decades of Continuous Delivery.
2006
Founded
A small engineering team — building WordPress sites before WordPress was the mainstream choice.
2007
Commerce & infrastructure
osCommerce and its forks (Zen-Cart). The same year, we began offering DevOps — server configuration across FreeBSD, Linux, and Windows.
2008
Magento
A long run of Magento commerce platform builds.
2009
Frameworks & cloud
Added the Yii and CakePHP frameworks, and began configuring Amazon infrastructure (EC2, S3).
2010
Toward complex systems
Added the Fat-Free Framework — and the center of gravity shifted toward complex, long-lived systems.
2012
Laravel
Adopted Laravel for application work — still core to how we build today.
2016
Government-related work
Public-sector work begins, including ITRC. The compliance-driven environments that shape how we build now.
2026
Civic Kernel begins
Building Civic Kernel — a modular, API-first platform built as a modern alternative to legacy municipal systems like CivicPlus.
The team
Built and Run by the People
Built and Run by the People
Who Show Up to the Work.
Above Bits was founded in 2006 by engineers and is still operated the same way. The people defining the architecture are the same people building it.
Ethan Piliavin
Strategic Advisor & Partner
20+ years in enterprise technology strategy. Launched a $1B+ SaaS platform, cut operational costs by 40%, and scaled a consultancy to Fortune 500 level. Trusted C-suite advisor on infrastructure, compliance, and program delivery.
Artem Khmyz
Head of Architecture
10+ years designing SaaS platforms and complex systems from scratch. Leads platform design, module architecture, and long-term system decisions. End-to-end delivery of complex client projects.
Rahsaan Perry
Government Relations & Partnerships
A retired U.S. Army veteran with 20+ years of active-duty service and 15+ years in business, Rahsaan leads our government contracting partnerships. His experience on the government side of the table shapes how we approach bids, compliance, and long-term agency relationships.
Bruce Elliott
Head of Product
Bruce leads our projects and software products from concept through delivery. With 15+ years of product and project management across software and engineering — and a background as an electrical engineer (master's from Rochester Institute of Technology) — he applies Agile delivery to projects of every size, from $15K tools to $1M+ platforms.
On the record
Experience & Registrations.
Vendor status
Registered Municipal Vendor
City of Charlotte, NC. Vendor registration data available on request.
Procurement
RFP / RFQ Bidding
Experience preparing structured responses for public-sector solicitations.
State registration
North Carolina Registered Business
Above Bits LLC is registered with the North Carolina Secretary of State. View official record →
Volume
500+ Projects Delivered
Across industries, platforms, and system types.
We state what we are — not what sounds impressive. Where a credential is still in progress, we say so rather than imply scale we don't have.
Fit
The Right Call for Some Work —
The Right Call for Some Work —
and Honestly Not for Others.
Bring us in for
- Systems with real architectural depth
- Platforms expected to run for years
- Integrations where a silent failure is a real problem
- Legacy modernization done without a rip-and-replace
- Government and enterprise environments with rules attached
- Work where someone is accountable when it breaks
Look elsewhere for
- Brochure sites and landing pages
- One-off builds with no life after launch
- Cheapest-bid-wins engagements
- Demos and prototypes never meant to ship
Let's talk
If the Problem Is Complex,
If the Problem Is Complex,
We Want to Hear About It.
We work on systems with real timelines and real responsibility. If that's what you're building, let's talk — even if you're not yet sure it's a fit.
Start an Engagement
Or reach us directly: service@abovebits.com