Steve Mark

I've spent 30 years building products, leading technology teams, and making high-stakes calls where business meets engineering. The pattern across all of it: I get handed the messy thing and make it work. These days I run an AI-first consulting and product studio on governed agentic systems, where AI agents do real product and operations work, end-to-end. The fastest way to show what that means is to show what I've shipped.

Live and in use

Lurch: A Custom AI Business Operating System
Agentic system for running businesses
2026 · In production

You rang? Lurch is the custom AI business operating system that runs the businesses below, with a staff of AI agents in real company roles and a human gate at every stage. See what Lurch runs, and how it is built.

FunParrots.com
Automated local events platform
2026 · Live

Idea to live in two days. Consolidates 600+ events from 95+ venues nightly, fully automated end-to-end. Built with an optimized hybrid of AI and Python, and FunParrots.com runs and maintains itself.

Life Architect
AI-assisted personal planning
2026 · Live

A complete planning tool built on an AI-guided interview and analysis engine. Life Architect walks a person through a structured process and produces a detailed, personal plan. In use with real users today.

WordsGetCustomers.com
Done-for-you B2B lead generation
2026 · Live

Research-driven email sequences, newsletters, and social content that turn readers into customers. Built once, yours to keep, working for years. Produced AI-first on Lurch.

BigWorldExplorers.com
Travel and adventure venture
Live

BigWorldExplorers.com is a travel and adventure venture, co-founded and run with a partner, built to get people out exploring real places. Live and operating today.

The short version

Senior Product Manager at First American Financial (Fortune 500, $9B revenue). Served four months as acting Director, turned around a low-performing 10-person team in under three months, and directed a multi-year initiative behind a product serving 50,000 customers a month.

Director of Account Management at Zest.ai (AI/ML credit scoring). Co-led the team that won a multi-year, seven-figure international client.

Roles held along the way: Director of Engineering, Director of Account Management, Head of Product, Head of Technology, Senior Product Manager, Senior Systems Architect. Founder of four startups.

UC Berkeley, B.A. Applied Math. PMP, CSPO, CSM. Earlier roles at Taboola, GE Money, Coopers & Lybrand, and others.

Why AI consulting, and how I work

I came to AI consulting the way I come to everything, by doing it first. The last two years I've been deep in AI, and not the slideware version: building agentic systems, testing tools, breaking things, and learning what actually works for real businesses. My rule for AI is simple: partner with it to sharpen your thinking and move faster, while the decisions that matter stay human. Get smarter, not lazier.

I don't sell software and I don't take vendor commissions, so my only job is the right answer for your situation.

I work with a few clients at a time, by design, so you get my full attention. Most have a clear direction within weeks. And I'm direct: if something won't work, I'll say so before it becomes a line item. Based in Pasadena, CA.

Currently running at SMA:

Claude / Cowork ChatGPT / Codex OpenClaw

Ready to talk?

No pitch deck. No pressure. Just a conversation about where you are and what makes sense next.