null2.one

null2.one is a hardware engineering studio based in Riga, Latvia, founded and led by Karlis Akis, who describes himself as a founder and hardware CTO. The practice is built around a single operating principle — "CTO on every program, engineer on every bench" — meaning the person who makes the technical decisions is also the person doing hands-on work such as board bring-up, prototyping, and design-for-manufacturing (DFM) review. Rather than acting as a project manager translating between disciplines or a body-shop engineer executing someone else's specification, null2.one positions itself as the accountable technical owner of a hardware program, covering architecture, mechanical, electrical, embedded, firmware, and application decisions across the whole product. The studio's core offering is fractional or interim CTO work for founders and teams building serious embedded, robotics, or industrial hardware. Engagements are structured as fixed-scope phases with defined deliverables and agreed prices rather than hourly billing. The stated phases run from product definition and architecture — producing a system architecture specification, a risk map with validation strategy, component selection and supplier shortlist, scope definition, and a cost model with preliminary bill of materials — through prototype and validation, and on to production. The studio emphasizes that the transition from prototype to production is where most hardware programs stall, and it designs for manufacturing from day one, including factory selection, DFM, deployment, and long-term support. According to its own materials, null2.one's work has reached products deployed inside Lockheed Martin, BMW, NextEra, Vestas, GE Vernova, Enel, Siemens Gamesa, FDNY, and more than 25 other operator and OEM environments across 30 countries, with Akis acting as CTO or CTO-in-residence on most of them. A flagship case study is Aerones, the robotic wind turbine maintenance and inspection company, where null2.one led the infrastructure function — custom battery packs replacing diesel generators, a migration from Raspberry Pi to Beckhoff industrial control, Starlink and LTE connectivity for remote field operations, and AI-driven lightning protection system (LPS) pre-screening. The Aerones robots have serviced over 10,000 turbines and 30,000+ blades across 27 countries. Beyond client work, Akis builds and sells his own product, XV Tuner, a motorcycle ECU on the market since 2008. The studio also reports defence-sector work. null2.one deliberately takes on only a handful of programs at a time, stating a preference to turn work away rather than take on more than it can technically own. The business is privately held and owner-operated, based in Riga, Latvia, and reachable directly by email, phone, and LinkedIn.

null2.one is a hardware engineering studio based in Riga, Latvia, founded and led by Karlis Akis. The studio's public materials describe Akis as having spent over a decade as the technical owner of hardware programs — covering architecture, engineering, manufacturing, and certification — with products that now deploy inside Lockheed Martin, BMW, NextEra, Vestas, GE Vernova, Enel, Siemens Gamesa, FDNY, and more than 25 other operator and OEM environments across 30 countries. He states that he acted as CTO or CTO-in-residence on most of those programs. Akis founded null2.one because, in his account, most hardware programs die at the same handoff point: when technical ownership passes from the person who scoped the problem to a subcontracted team that was not in the room when the constraint was defined. The studio is designed so that this handoff does not happen — the same person who makes the technical call is the person doing the hands-on work, including board bring-up, prototyping, and DFM review. A central chapter in the studio's history is its work with Aerones, described as the world's leading robotic wind turbine maintenance and inspection service provider. Aerones' robots climb turbine towers, traverse blade surfaces, and perform inspection, cleaning, coating, and repair operations that would otherwise require rope-access technicians working at 80–150 meters in wind, rain, and sub-zero temperatures. By the time of null2.one's engagement, Aerones had proven the core concept — robotic blade maintenance was working commercially and scaling fast, with revenue nearly tripling in 2023 — but the infrastructure underneath the robots had not kept pace. The company was running field-critical systems on consumer-grade hardware, connectivity was fragile, and power systems relied on diesel generators that added cost, logistics complexity, and carbon to every deployment. The Lightning Protection System (LPS) inspection business needed a complete rethink of both technical approach and commercial model, and the next wave of speed and cost improvements required AI-driven automation that did not yet exist. null2.one led the Infrastructure function to address all of this together rather than one subsystem at a time. The work included custom battery packs replacing diesel generators, a migration from Raspberry Pi to Beckhoff industrial control, Starlink and LTE connectivity for remote field operations, and AI-driven LPS pre-screening. The Aerones robots have since serviced over 10,000 turbines and 30,000+ blades across 27 countries, with clients representing over 50% of global wind power capacity, including NextEra, GE Vernova, Vestas, Enel, and Siemens Gamesa. Alongside client work, Akis builds and sells his own product: XV Tuner, a motorcycle ECU on the market since 2008 and still running on bikes. The studio also reports defence-sector work, where, in its words, "close enough" is not an option. null2.one operates on a deliberately limited capacity model, taking on a handful of programs at a time and stating a preference to turn work away rather than take on more than it can technically own. The business is privately held and owner-operated, based in Riga, Latvia.

• 2023

  Aerones revenue nearly triples as robotic blade maintenance scales commercially.

• 2008

  XV Tuner, Akis's own motorcycle ECU product, enters the market and remains in use on bikes.

• null2.one leads the Infrastructure function at Aerones, delivering custom battery packs, a Raspberry Pi to Beckhoff control migration, Starlink + LTE connectivity, and AI-driven LPS pre-screening.

• Aerones robots reach over 10,000 turbines serviced and 30,000+ blades maintained across 27 countries.

A single accountable technical owner for hardware programs — "CTO on every program, engineer on every bench" — selling fixed-scope engineering outcomes rather than time, and taking on only a handful of programs at a time.

• Fractional / interim CTO engagement

  Technical ownership of a hardware program — architecture, engineering, manufacturing, and certification — for founders and teams building embedded, robotics, or industrial hardware.

• Product Definition & Architecture phase

  Fixed-scope phase delivering a system architecture specification, risk map with validation strategy, component selection and supplier shortlist, scope definition with phase boundaries, and a cost model with preliminary BOM. Typically 4–8 weeks.

• Prototype & Validation phase

  Building the right prototype rather than just any prototype, to validate the technical path before committing to production.

• Production partner services

  Design for manufacturing from day one: factory selection, DFM, deployment, and long-term support.

• XV Tuner

  A motorcycle ECU built and sold by Akis, on the market since 2008.

1. 1null2.one — Hardware Prototype to Productionnull2.one
2. 2About — null2.onenull2.one
3. 3Services — Hardware Prototype to Production — null2.onenull2.one
4. 4Aerones — null2.onenull2.one
5. 5Wikidata Q140644017wikidata.org