// about

İsmail Günaydın, the person responsible if ToolGenX breaks

Software engineer and digital entrepreneur with 15+ years building SEO-driven products. Founder of ModernWebSEO and ToolGenX. Focused on developer experience, web performance, and making technical content accessible. Builds customer-generating digital infrastructure through SEO, AEO, and GEO strategies.

Istanbul · 2026

// company

The company behind the shop

no photo

Melike Günaydın

Software Engineer · Owner

ToolGenX is the trading name of Melike Günaydın, a sole proprietorship registered in Ümraniye, İstanbul on 1 June 2026 (Alemdağ Tax Office). She owns the business and this website; İsmail — the person this page is about — is the software engineer who builds and maintains everything on it. Two engineers, two roles, one shop.

Full seller identity, including tax ID and registered address, is on the distance sales agreement.

// timeline

The shipped and the embarrassing

I include the failures on purpose. If you only ever read about wins, you cannot tell whether someone learned anything along the way.

2010
First freelance build — a wedding photographer site
shipped
PHP and a shared host. Took two months to write what would now take a weekend. Charged 200 lira. Learned more than from any course.
2014
Tried to build an SEO SaaS for agencies
failed
Got two customers, both refunded within a week. The product was an answer to a question nobody was asking. Closed after seven months.
2017
TabelaTR — local-SEO play for sign makers in Turkey
shipped
Programmatic SEO across 81 provinces. Still earns. The first thing I built that paid rent without me touching it daily.
2020
A "viral" YouTube channel I quietly buried
failed
Three months of daily uploads. Best video did 12k views, worst did 30. The lesson — owning distribution is hard, and content alone is not a moat.
2022
ModernWebSEO — agency for technical SEO
shipped
Stopped doing one-off freelance and put a name on it. Eight engagements that year, two of them are still clients.
2024
First version of ToolGenX (Gumroad redirect)
shipped
19 digital products, conversion was awful. One verified sale in the first 90 days. The site looked fine; the trust signals did not.
2026
ToolGenX v2 — direct payment, owned trust, smaller scope
shipped
You are reading the rebuild. The bet is that "owned everything" beats "marketplace convenience" once you can deliver.

// featured work

Featured work

Externally hosted artifacts — decks, docs, sheets, maps — that reference work behind ToolGenX. Open in a new tab; some require a Google account to view.