DeGuard

Serbia
Website

DeGuard merges privacy and Web3 by turning VPN access into NFT subscriptions and distributing through Telegram mini-apps.

Traction:

  • 350,000+ monthly active users
  • 15,000+ NFT subscription plans minted across 8+ chains
  • $5K–20K monthly revenue | 23+ countries

Founding Team

Egor Upolovnev, CEO & Co-Founder

  • Egor has over 6 years of professional experience, moving from integrations and support into product design and leadership; for the last 2 years he’s been Co-Founder & CEO at DeGuard, leading a Web3 VPN product and go-to-market.
  • Before DeGuard, he spent almost 5 years building fintech/crypto products as Head of Product at Riobet, Lead Product Designer at Chainspot, Product Designer at Indacoin, and as an Integration Specialist at ChronoPay—showing a steady progression from hands-on delivery to full product ownership.

Mikhail Lezhnev, CTO & Co-Founder

  • 6+ yrs software dev: built DeGuard’s VPN core using VLESS/Trojan/Shadowsocks, layered obfuscation & dynamic routing; modular, self-hostable, DePIN-ready.
  • Backend & systems (Python): owns end-to-end architecture—VPN, Web3 auth/blockchain, infra automation - with a focus on reliability, security, and DPI-resilience.