A studio built around senior ownership of the work.
The practice is small on purpose. The person you meet in the first call is the person who does the work.
Michael Stanat, Founder
Michael Stanat helps fintech teams close the gap between insight and execution.
His work spans product, commercialization, partnerships, international expansion, ecosystem development, and AI-enabled operations.
Michael builds as well as advises. Prototypes, API integrations against provider sandboxes, MCP servers, and agent tooling are written by the same person who runs the commercial work, which is why the technical estimate and the commercial plan tend to agree.
Most of what gets called a technology gap is a packaging gap. What is left is settled by building the smallest working version and reading the result.
Fits when
- A specific commercial decision is blocked and needs someone senior to own it to a conclusion.
- The product works and the commercial story does not hold in a room yet.
- Product, GTM, or operating capacity is needed for a defined period rather than a permanent hire.
- A technical question is blocking a commercial decision and nobody has built against the API yet.
Does not fit when
- The need is production platform delivery, licensed infrastructure, or regulated operations. Prototypes and reference integrations are in scope; running your platform is not.
- The need is a permanent full-time executive, which is a hire rather than an engagement.
- The need is a report. Every engagement here ends in a decision and a plan.
The work itself is grouped into three practices across eight services. See all services.
Operating principles
How I work
The principles behind every engagement, from the first decision through delivery.
- 01
Commercial clarity before activity
Decide who the product is for and why they buy before spending a quarter of runway proving it the expensive way.
- 02
Global context, local specificity
Payment behavior, distribution, and partner economics differ by market. A plan that ignores that difference is a plan for one market.
- 03
Senior ownership of the work
The person in the discovery call is the person doing the work. No handoff to a junior team after the engagement starts.
- 04
Working documents over presentation theater
A roadmap your team runs on is worth more than a deck your team admires once.
- 05
Build the smallest version before arguing about the big one
Provider comparisons, integration estimates, and agent surfaces stop being opinions the moment someone makes real calls against the sandbox.
- 06
Human judgment built into AI-enabled workflows
Automation earns scope by proving it. Approval gates, evaluation criteria, and audit trails come first, not last.
Next step
Start with the problem, not a pitch.
Describe what you are trying to launch, enter, or scale. If it is not a fit, you will get a direct answer and, where possible, a better direction.