Find the right opportunity
Learn the business quickly, work directly with leadership, and focus on the few AI opportunities worth pursuing.
AI transformation · Product building · Founder experience
I work between the executive decision and the product that ships.
I help leaders find where AI can change the business, translate the opportunity into a path the company can act on, and stay close enough to product and engineering that value reaches the real world.
How I got here
At nativ.ly, I helped emerging platforms including GIPHY, Medium, Nextdoor, The Ringer, and The Players' Tribune turn new audience behavior into advertising products brands could buy. I built the Midwest into the company's highest-earning region, personally drove more than 60% of revenue at peak, and learned how to define a new product, build demand for it, and close its first customers at the same time.
Then I co-founded PAKT. We raised $2.5 million, built the product, onboarding, regulatory infrastructure, and distribution model from zero, delivered 15× benchmark click-to-apply performance, and ultimately sold the business. It did not become the company we had imagined—the insurance market hardened at exactly the wrong moment—but it proved I could raise capital, recruit the team, build through adversity, and ultimately sell the business.
I later helped launch advertising partnerships for Sherwood Media inside Robinhood. Today, through Ai Architechs, I advise leadership teams on AI strategy, product development, adoption, and measurement. Cosmo gives those teams better evidence about how AI is being used and where to invest next. Steady and Boardroom are independent products I conceived, designed, and built end to end.
Klein Ventures brings that work together: current AI engagements and products, supported by a track record of company building, commercial leadership, and hands-on delivery.
How I work
From business problem to working product.
Mobilize delivery
Turn the opportunity into clear product direction and bring the right business, product, and engineering partners together.
Measure and expand
Track adoption and results, strengthen internal capability, and use what the team learns to guide the next investment.
Selected experience
Company building, product commercialization, and executive partnerships.
The current AI work draws on years of building companies, commercializing new products, and leading complex client relationships.
$2.5Mventure funding raised
Raised $2.5M. Built the product. Sold the company.
Sam co-founded PAKT during COVID and led the business from concept through sale—product, fundraising, regulatory infrastructure, team, partnerships, and go-to-market. PAKT developed a custom insurance product for the Texas market and an end-to-end platform that let publishers and community brands become licensed distribution partners and earn recurring commission. It proved a new model in one of personal auto insurance's hardest underwriting cycles.
- 15× click-to-apply versus the industry benchmark
- Custom Texas insurance product + end-to-end onboarding
- Embedded distribution for publishers + community brands
- Company founded and sold
nativ.ly
60%+of company revenue personally driven at peak
Built and sold early advertising products for emerging platforms.
As nativ.ly's third partner, Sam built the Midwest into its highest-earning region and led platform-and-brand partnerships during the company's formative growth. The team helped emerging platforms design, price, and sell first-generation native ad products; Sam personally drove more than 60% of company revenue at peak.
- Early ad products for GIPHY, Medium, The Ringer, and others
- Sam sold the first GIPHY + Ringer partnerships to State Farm
- GIForade earned Cannes Bronze + Clio Gold
Sherwood Media / Robinhood
Launchearly advertiser partnerships
Helped launch advertising partnerships for Sherwood Media.
Sam helped translate Sherwood's editorial proposition and Robinhood's audience scale into an executive partnership story, commercial products, and an advertiser launch process across leadership, editorial, product, and revenue.
- Early brand-partnership pipeline
- Executive narrative + go-to-market plan
- Built across editorial, product + revenue
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