One works on two things: products that change a company, and places that change a community.
A small consulting practice led by a founder who has done both — built companies on the customer's side, and developed hospitality and mixed-use places. Strategy, judgment, and the work that holds up after the pitch, in fintech, real estate, consumer software, B2B, and the communities they grow in.
Products, strategy and founder advisory for companies that want to change their industry's terms — the way Zero did in banking and Landian did in brokerage.
What we do →Hospitality and mixed-use places for communities in transition: what a town wants, learned before a project is public; an anchor defined, budgeted and backed by a developer who can build it; an independent voice through approval and construction.
Talk about a place →Banking assumed fees, so Zero built a bank without them. Brokerage assumed a percentage, so Landian built one around a flat fee. Development assumes the developer sets the terms and the neighbors react — and that is the next assumption worth breaking.
Small, senior engagements. A handful of companies and communities at a time — founders, operators, and the towns and developers who need a partner who has done it before.
From the messy whiteboard stage through public launch. We've shipped consumer apps with millions of users and B2B products with single-digit pilot customers — the playbook is different, the discipline is the same.
For operators whose offer has stopped fitting the market: re-founding it around the customer, the way Zero and Landian were built — product, pricing, positioning, and AI where it actually earns its place.
Where to invest, what to kill, how to talk about it. Particularly useful when a foundation-model release rewrites your roadmap every six weeks — which it does now.
For founders who've raised, hired, and started building — and want a senior operator in the room who has actually launched something and lived with the consequences. Ongoing or per-engagement.
For towns in transition and the developers building in them: what the place wants, learned before a project is public, and an independent voice through approval and construction.
Talk about a place →A community asset — a small hotel, a town center, cabins at a lake — defined, budgeted and backed by a developer who can build it. The Amala side of the practice.
Amala →Companies the principal has founded, led product at, or advised — and the real estate group where he underwrote the places. The full track record lives on the about page.
Flat-fee, AI-driven realtor service. Buy a home in the US or Canada without paying a 3.0% buyer's-agent commission — the savings stay with the buyer.
Boutique hospitality: Casa Monteflores in San Juan and Macchiato in Toronto operating today, lakeside A-frame cabins in planning — and community-first places around them next.
Pioneered the “debit-style credit card” — a debit card that paid up to 3% cashback while keeping the overspending guardrails of debit. Acquired by Avant in 2021.
Decision-platform infrastructure for fintech credit and fraud teams. Operator-side advisory on credit-risk and fraud-risk product — what actually ships, what governance looks like in production, and where the platform should bend toward the user.
Consumer-credit fintech that acquired Zero in 2021. Continuing advisory across credit and fraud-risk product — the same problem space, larger scale, with the operator lens an exited founder brings to a roadmap.
Led competitive leaderboards, community matchmaking, and the launch of “New Words With Friends” — the franchise refresh that pushed the title back to the top of the App Store charts.
NYC-based mobile trivia game. Built, scaled, and exited — the diversity-of-portfolio exercise that taught the live-ops lessons every consumer founder eventually learns.
Underwrote and modeled JV-equity, preferred-equity and participating-debt investments across a $1B value-add fund in hotel, mixed-use, office, apartment and condominium development — including National Harbor on the Potomac and Centennial Towers in South San Francisco.
A 30-minute call. If we can help, we'll tell you how. If we can't, we'll tell you who can.
hello@talktoone.com →