Today we’d like to introduce you to Arbri Hamzallari.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I studied Computer Engineering at Epoka University, graduating in June 2026, but the honest truth is I never saw myself as someone who’d be happy just writing code for a paycheck. I picked software engineering because it was a calculated move, it opened doors, but business has always been the real pull for me, and that pull goes back further than university.
In high school, I started three music promotional agencies on Instagram that grew to a combined 200K followers. I wasn’t just posting content, I was hiring people to help run them. That was my first real taste of building something from nothing and being responsible for other people’s work, and it hooked me on the idea of building things rather than just working for someone else.
That mindset followed me into university. Instead of waiting until graduation to “start my career,” I started building things on the side. I built EasyHost.pro, a platform that helps Airbnb and hotel hosts sell extras to guests through QR codes, and Hap, an AI Telegram bot meant to act like a co-founder for Albanian entrepreneurs. Neither of those turned into a runaway success, and that’s the part people don’t like to talk about. I shipped things, watched them not get traction, took them apart to figure out why, and moved on to the next idea instead of treating the failure as a verdict.
That pattern led me to found Codrix Systems, an AI automation consultancy helping local businesses like hotels adopt WhatsApp automation, and Prago, which manages short-term rental properties across multiple cities in Albania. I also picked up smaller ventures along the way, like TapReview, reselling NFC review stands to small businesses.
Where I am today is running two companies while still job hunting for developer roles. Not because I think I’m above the work, but because I want to be someone who understands both the code and the business decisions behind it. That only comes from staying in the arena on both sides, not picking one and calling it a career.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, not smooth at all, and I don’t think it’s supposed to be. The biggest struggle has been running multiple ventures at the same time while still being a student, and now while job hunting. There’s never enough hours in the day, so I’ve had to get ruthless about what actually matters and let go of the idea that I need to do everything myself.
Failure has been a constant. With EasyHost.pro and Hap, I built full products, real platforms with real functionality, and they didn’t take off the way I hoped. That’s a hard thing to sit with when you’ve put months into something. But I never let a failed product convince me I was on the wrong path overall. Each one taught me something specific: what people actually pay for, what “nice to have” looks like versus what solves a real pain point, how to talk to users instead of just building in isolation.
Being different-minded has also been its own obstacle. Most of my peers were focused on getting one degree, one internship, one clear path into a stable job. I was running companies on the side, which meant I didn’t always fit the mold people expected of a computer engineering student. That comes with its own friction, people questioning why you’re spreading yourself across so many things instead of picking one lane.
Building Codrix Systems came with a very specific version of this problem. AI automation is still a hard sell in Albania. A lot of business owners are skeptical of it, some don’t trust it, some don’t understand it, and some assume it’s a gimmick or too complicated for their business to actually use. Convincing hotel owners to integrate WhatsApp AI automation meant I had to build trust from scratch, in a market that had very few reference points for what I was offering. That meant a lot of educating before I could even get to selling.
The financial and legal side of running businesses in Albania has been another real challenge, figuring out registration, tax structure, and how to operate legitimately as I scaled Prago, for example. None of that is taught in school. I had to learn it by doing it, getting things wrong, and fixing them.
And honestly, one of the hardest struggles has been internal. There’s a constant hunger in me to make more money, to grow faster, to do more, and that hunger doesn’t just go away when I hit a goal. It’s a battle with myself as much as it is with the market, learning when to push harder and when to slow down and be patient with the process instead of chasing every opportunity at once.
If there’s a common thread, it’s that I’ve never expected the result to show up quickly. I expect to fail first, learn fast, and get a little better each time until something works.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Codrix Systems is an AI automation consultancy. We help local businesses, mainly hotels and hospitality brands right now, integrate AI into how they operate, starting with WhatsApp automation that handles guest communication, inquiries, and bookings without needing a person glued to the phone 24/7.
What we specialize in is bridging a gap that most Albanian businesses don’t know how to cross on their own: they know AI exists, they’ve heard the hype, but they don’t know how to actually apply it to their specific business in a way that’s practical and not just a buzzword. That’s where we come in. We build the automation, but just as much of the job is educating clients on what AI can realistically do for them and what it can’t.
What sets us apart is that I’m not selling something I don’t understand. I have a Computer Engineering background, so when I tell a client an automation will save them time or money, I’ve actually built it, tested it, and know its limits. A lot of the “AI consultants” in this space are more sales than substance. We’re the opposite.
What I care about more than being early is being useful. Actually solving a real operational headache for a hotel owner instead of selling them a buzzword. If I’ve done that consistently, the recognition is a side effect, not the goal.
Alongside Codrix, I also run Prago, a short-term rental property management company operating properties on Airbnb and Booking.com across multiple cities in Albania. Between the two, I get to work both the tech side and the hands-on operations side of business, which keeps me sharp on what actually matters to a business owner, not just what sounds good in theory.
There’s also something new coming out of Codrix that I’m not ready to fully unveil yet, called Biseda AI. It’s a standalone product: a unified inbox that pulls WhatsApp, Instagram, and other channels into one place, with an automation layer built on top. The idea came directly from doing custom Codrix builds for hotels and noticing the same problem everywhere: businesses drowning in messages across five apps with no system tying it together. Instead of building that one client at a time, we’re turning it into something any business can plug into. More on this soon.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday is one I come back to often. It’s easy to let early wins, or even just ambition itself, inflate your sense of where you are. That book keeps me grounded in the idea that the work matters more than how it makes me look, especially when I’m juggling multiple ventures at once.
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Machiavelli’s The Prince have both shaped how I think about strategy, leverage, and reading people and situations correctly. Running a consultancy where I have to convince skeptical clients to trust something new, or negotiating property deals for Prago, means understanding incentives and positioning, not just having a good product. Those books gave me a framework for thinking a few steps ahead instead of reacting to whatever’s in front of me.
Beyond books, I lean on a mix of practical tools daily, things that help me build faster and manage the operational load of running two businesses while job hunting, since time is the resource I have the least of.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://codrixwebsite.vercel.app/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codrix.al/?hl=en
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arbri-hamzallari-492b1b2a5
