About

A small company with a number for a name.

5 9 K

59k GmbH was founded in Vienna by Ionut Cotoi and Alex Hritcu. The name is a radio signal report: readability 5, strength 9 — "I hear you loud and clear." Ionut is a radio operator; the name comes from there. It is also a quiet nod to 37signals, a small, opinionated company that also chose a number.

We build AI systems and we run one ourselves: cysec.watch, a NIS2 compliance service for the DACH mid-market. Running a product keeps our advice honest, because we have to live with the same trade-offs we recommend.

We stay small on purpose. Two founders, a handful of collaborators, and a preference for doing fewer things completely.

Founders

Founder photo (dark background preferred)

Ionut Cotoi

Co-founder

[One-line bio — placeholder. Radio operator; the 59 is his.]

Founder photo (dark background preferred)

Alex Hritcu

Co-founder

[One-line bio — placeholder.]

Mission

Turn the noise of AI into a signal companies can act on.

Mid-market companies in the DACH region are told to adopt AI and to comply with new law, usually in the same breath and rarely in plain language. Our job is to make both legible: what applies, what is worth doing, and how to do it without handing your data or your decisions to a black box.

Values

Plain language

If we cannot explain it to a managing director in one paragraph, we do not understand it yet.

Decisions stay human

Models propose. Rules and people decide. We design that boundary in, not on.

European by default

EU hosting, EU law, EU working hours. Not as a marketing badge — as the constraint we design within.

Fewer things, finished

We would rather ship one system that holds than three that need babysitting.