About Me
I'm drawn to hard problems and the people willing to take them on.
Over the last fifteen years I've founded companies in AI healthcare and real estate, helped two startups reach exits (META → Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, VISR → SafeToNet), and advised more than thirty companies through Gallevin Consulting. The common thread isn't an industry — it's the shape of the work: something genuinely hard, something that matters if it works, and room to do it differently from how it's usually done.
The project I'm proudest of is probably the Westinghouse building — a 100-year-old heritage powerhouse in Hamilton that most people had written off as a teardown. We put $15M into restoring it. I'm a materials engineer by training, so an old industrial building wasn't decay to me; it was good bones and a problem worth solving.
The AI Builder Era
Since December 2025 I've been building production apps with AI coding agents — eighteen and counting, for clients and for myself, in under four months. What changed is the bottleneck. It's no longer "can you code?" It's "can you think clearly about what to build?" The typing got cheap; the judgment is the work.
The other half of my work now is consulting — helping companies figure out where AI actually fits in their business and how to move on it before the pace makes that harder. There's a lot of anxiety out there right now, and most of it is justified. The technology moves faster than any single team can track, and the gap between the companies adopting it well and the ones watching from the sidelines is widening fast. I help close that gap.
I also build tools for the way I work — like GrowEngine, which wires instrumentation, funnel analysis, and user research directly into the AI agent so a product keeps learning after it ships.
How I Think (the sauce code)
Convex Bets
When I'm convinced of something other people don't see yet, I'd rather concentrate than hedge. The other half matters just as much: when the evidence turns against a bet, I drop it. Conviction without the willingness to update is just stubbornness.
Systems Over Solutions
I think in systems, not fixes. Cynefin framework. Emergence. Why "best practices" fail in complex domains. The map is not the territory.
AI as Collaborator
I'm less interested in AI that replaces people than in AI that extends what one person can do. The interesting part is the interface — where human judgment meets the model's reach.
Ship, Then Iterate
Thinking is important. Shipping is more important. The best insights come from contact with reality, not from planning in isolation.
The Path
Payquad Solutions
Dec 2021 – PresentHead of Product and Growth
Led the evolution to MYPORTAL 2.0 — a next-generation redesign. 25% ARR growth, 15% churn reduction, 50% conversion lift.
Electric City Developments
2017 – 2021Founder & General Partner
Revived Hamilton's iconic 7-story Westinghouse building. Acquired for $2.6M. $15M restoration into 60,000 sq ft Class A office + 10,000 sq ft event venue. National Trust award. Proved them wrong.
Bridge7 Oncology
2017 – 2020Co-Founder & CEO
Built AI-powered radiotherapy treatment planning, trained on thousands of high quality radiation treatment plans from a world leading cancer center. $3M+ raised, 12 clinical sites. Won Falcons' Fortunes on World Cancer Day 2020.
VISR → SafeToNet
2015 – 2017Lead Product
Pioneered AI/ML to detect emotional distress in digital content, protecting children online. Instrumental in Horizon Ventures seed round; led product through acquisition.
META Inc. → CZI
2012 – 2015VP Operations & BD
Built the AI platform mapping 67M+ biomedical research interests. First-ever CZI acquisition. Team from 0 to 20+. $6M Series A.
Also:
Gallevin Consulting (2010–Present) — 30+ companies, $250K+ grants secured.
Part-time philosophy teacher at Torah High (2009–2015) — alongside everything else.
Korea AI Conference speaker (2018).
Education
MBA, Finance
Rotman School of Management
2017
Martin Ossip Scholarship
Creative Destruction Lab
AI/ML Specialization
2016–2019
AI investment frameworks
BASc, Materials Science & Engineering
University of Toronto
2010
Minor: Bioengineering
Personal
I'm based in Toronto. I have a daughter who keeps me grounded and reminds me what actually matters. When I'm not building, I'm moving — I love cycling, ice hockey, soccer, tennis, and golf. I read obsessively on cognitive science, think the future is nuclear (SMRs), and wind down with a good sake and whatever's next on the reading list.
I write about AI, tech, and philosophy on Substack. I consult through Gallevin. I'm always happy to talk to interesting people about interesting problems.
Influences
Naval Ravikant
Wealth/happiness frameworks. The 4 types of luck. Building specific knowledge that can't be trained for.
Peter Thiel
Zero to One thinking. Monopoly vs. competition. The power of secrets — things that are true but few believe.
Vitalik Buterin
Convex/concave dispositions. When to concentrate vs. diversify. Systems thinking for decentralized coordination.
Dave Snowden
Cynefin framework. Why "best practices" fail in complex domains. The difference between complicated and complex.
Scott Aaronson
Computational complexity as a lens for everything. Rigorous thinking about quantum computing, AI, and what's actually hard.
Books
- History of Western Philosophy — Bertrand Russell
- Paradigms Lost — John L. Casti
- Thinking in Systems — Donella Meadows