A study does not hire anybody.
Most economic development ends in a report. I research what a place can genuinely support, then build the companies that employ people there — designed to still be hiring long after the announcement.
Three kinds of towns call.
Protecting what works
A strong town is one employer away from a different story. The work is diversification — adding industry that fits the character already there, so prosperity does not rest on a single payroll.
Momentum with somewhere to go
Something has already turned. What is missing is the next employer to make the recovery hold, and the sequencing to keep it from stalling.
A plant closed. A highway moved.
The population that left will not be argued back. It has to be given a reason, and that reason is a payroll rather than a campaign.
Different starting points, one question: what will this specific place support, and who is going to build it.
How an engagement works.
Call or video
Start here. A conversation about the town: what it has, what it lost, and what it keeps asking for. No fee, no obligation, no deck. If there is nothing here, I will say so on that call rather than sell you a visit.
On site
Time in the town, not a site visit. Council, business owners, and residents, over meals and in the places people actually meet. The work covers first-pass market research, workforce and logistics analysis, and the opportunity made concrete, and it ends in a written read on what this town can support, which the town keeps. This is the work, and it carries a fee. A formal feasibility study, where an idea needs one, is a separate piece of work, scoped and quoted after the visit.
Building
Where something real is found, I stay. The company gets built and operated rather than handed back as a recommendation. Where one of my own companies fits, it can land in town to support diversification, and some can start immediately. I also come as an investor, putting capital into small towns for community development. Ownership and structure are set per engagement.
The visit has a published fee, set out in full under What it costs.
What gets built, and what it owes the town.
Jobs a family can live on. Work that pays enough to raise children, buy a house on the street you grew up on, and stay. That is the measure, not headcount at a ribbon cutting.
And built to last. A company designed for a fifteen-year horizon makes different decisions from one designed to open: in what it buys, whom it hires, and what it commits to locally.
A business of the town, not merely in it. The practical, visible things: the jerseys on the little league team, the outfield sign at the high school field, the sponsorship of whatever the community already turns out for.
Small commitments, but they are how residents decide whether an employer is theirs. A company that will not put its name on the local scoreboard was never planning to stay.
What it costs.
The first call is free. A visit is priced by the days I am in the town and the specialists who come with me. Three days is the usual starting point.
| Visit | Best for | Me alone | With two specialists | With three specialists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 days | One town. Two or three ideas tested in depth. | $15,000 | $29,400 | $36,600 |
| 5 days | Several industries or sites, plus meetings with lenders and utilities. | $27,500 | $51,500 | $63,500 |
| 7 days | A larger town, or a question that spans more than one site. | $42,500 | $76,100 | $92,900 |
| 2 to 4 weeks | A town that has found something real and wants me there while it is built. Scoped after the visit. | Monthly fee | Monthly fee | Monthly fee |
Each additional day costs more than the one before, because time committed to one town is not available to another. Each specialist adds $2,400 per day. Travel, lodging, and meals are billed at cost. Every visit ends with a written read on what the town can support, which the town keeps.
Why build, not bid.
Three examples shape how I work. None is mine; each can be checked.
Source: Timothy J. Bartik, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, “But For” Percentages for Economic Development Incentives.
Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review, “Grow Your Own,” citing the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Denver and U.S. bars show the ratios stated there.
Source: Jenna Temkin, National Main Street Center, Brookings, August 1, 2019. The investment figure covers the whole downtown district, not the competition alone.
That is why I build the companies instead of delivering a study, and why I come as an investor, not only an adviser.
Process.
The call
A mayor, council member, economic development office, or community group reaches out. Phone or video. No charge.
The visit
On the ground. Whoever should be in the room, over a good meal, in a relaxed setting. No presentation, no pressure.
Listening
Ideas gathered rather than sold. The people who live there know things no dataset contains.
Research
Market data, workforce, logistics, existing employers, and what the surrounding region already supports.
Visualization
The opportunity made concrete — the company, the site, the jobs, the timeline. Something a council can see rather than imagine.
Crystallization
Some ideas are accepted on the spot. Others need a formal feasibility study first, scoped and quoted separately and only for the ideas that warrant one. Nothing gets rushed into being wrong.
The build
The company gets built and operated. Where the opportunity warrants it, the stay extends.
The capability behind it.
A town does not need one company. It needs the things around a company that let it survive — capital, systems, trades, a reason to come downtown. Those already exist across the Proselyte Holdings portfolio and can be brought to bear together. Companies from it can land in town to support diversification, and some can start immediately.
Acquiring or restructuring an existing local business is often a faster path than founding a new one. Both are on the table.
Approach.
I started in autobody, customizing cars. Now I customize companies to fit specific markets.
Autobody and custom paint teach something useful: the difference between a repair that looks right and one that is right shows up later, always, and never conveniently.
The same instinct runs through the rest of it. Identify the part that was designed to fail. Replace it with something built to a higher standard. Do it once.
Applied to a town, it means the same thing. A campaign that looks like progress is not progress. A payroll is.
I build and operate companies structured for control, durability, and long-term independence — as founder of Proselyte Holdings, overseeing automotive, security, media, event operations, and infrastructure systems. The systems behind them are designed the same way: self-hosted, zero-trust, and fully owned rather than rented.
Before Proselyte, I led an international team based across London, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Italy, Spain, Las Vegas, New Zealand, and Los Angeles. Many more people contributed than the final documents name. The Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development invited us to present a Strip-scale motorsport and hospitality concept: a hotel-integrated race circuit with a Formula 1–style pitstop and retail experience. Years later, Formula 1 arrived on the Las Vegas Strip. The full account, with the original documents →
I build deliberately. I scale selectively.
The habit is to over-deliver and under-sell. If anything here reads as understated, that is deliberate.
Start with a call.
Phone or video, no charge, no obligation. A few questions first so the conversation starts somewhere useful.
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