Michael Jelen.

Ekho is the direct-to-fan music economy, turning devotion into revenue.

• The problem: a million streams pays an artist about $3,000. Artists are told to sell merch, tickets, and experiences instead, but the superfans who would buy them are invisible, because no streaming or social platform will share who they are.
• The fan side: the fan who bought every album and every shirt still loses the ticket queue to bots and pays a reseller five to ten times face value. None of that reaches the artist.
• What we build: artists get permanent ownership of their fan data, meaning who their real superfans are, what they have done, and how to reach them, and the money moves directly from fan to artist.
• What fans earn: first access to new music, exclusive merch, experiences, and better tickets, earned through demonstrated devotion rather than bought.
• What I own: vision, product and platform architecture, the fan identity and rights data model, artist acquisition, regulatory and blockchain structure, fundraising, and hiring.
• Compliant by design: Ekho's architecture is built against the SEC's proposed Regulation Crypto Assets framework.

Digital asset and AI advisory practice working with founders, funds, and creative teams on engagement-based mandates.

• Token design and economics: emissions and supply schedules, offering structuring, airdrops, vesting and lockup architecture, and governance design.
• Regulatory positioning under the SEC's proposed Regulation Crypto Assets (File No. S7-2026-27): covered investment contract analysis, startup and fundraising exemption mechanics, Rule 400 safe harbor readiness, and disclosure discipline under Rule 103(a).
• Digital asset treasury strategy for corporates and funds.
• Expert and litigation support in digital asset, regulatory, and data integrity matters, in either a consulting or testifying capacity.
• Designed, built, and shipped VestCrow, an on-chain vesting and escrow protocol, and TriviAgent, an AI-powered multiplayer trivia game that reached the top 15 on Base.
• Client work across Web3, DeFi, media, entertainment, tokenized loyalty, and creator economy infrastructure, covering fundraising materials, go-to-market, partnerships, and product strategy.

Replay is the blockchain protocol powering RewardedTV, a streaming platform built to make video monetization transparent and creator-aligned.

• Scaled RewardedTV past one million users across connected TV and digital platforms, including Amazon Fire TV and Roku.
• Built on-chain engagement measurement and creator revenue sharing, with rights tracking and payment routing that showed creators exactly what they earned and why.
• Operated across the full streaming monetization stack: SVOD, AVOD, FAST, and CTV advertising economics.
• Led company strategy, product, partnerships with film, television, and digital creators, fundraising, and team.
• The direct precedent for Ekho: the same structural problem, audiences generating value they cannot see and creators paid opaquely, in the adjacent medium.

Privately held algorithmic digital asset trading firm running the Bevy Fund.

• Raised a $1.2M seed round from leading DeFi venture investors.
• Built and ran a portfolio of uncorrelated trading strategies designed to generate return with reduced volatility in digital asset markets.
• Selected and built the full technology stack: exchange connectivity, risk management systems, and the analytics portal.
• Hired and managed a team of ten.

Global consulting firm in disputes and investigations, corporate finance, and performance improvement. It grew from 500 to 1,000 employees during my tenure.

• Authored expert reports in disputes and investigations engagements involving large-scale financial and transactional data.
• Co-authored Abu Dhabi's blockchain adoption strategy and policy. This was my entry into digital assets, at sovereign level.
• Co-founded BRG's Global Applied Technology practice.
• Architected the firm's B2B SaaS platform, using machine learning to scale the delivery of expert analytics and consulting services.
• Led AI and machine learning programs to improve government services in Abu Dhabi.
• Managed a $5M P&L and a team of twenty.

Publicly traded global business advisory firm. It grew from 400 to 4,000 employees during my tenure. I started as an intern and was promoted seven times to Managing Director.

• Testifying expert: tendered two expert reports and gave expert testimony in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on the data integrity of a Chinese e-commerce company.
• Authored expert reports on data integrity and software code across multiple matters.
• Analyzed large-scale data during the Global Financial Crisis on high-profile engagements including the Madoff investigation and the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, in a non-testifying analytical capacity.
• Built software and analytics solutions for major European banks during OFAC investigations covering anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
• Co-led the technology team overseeing elimination of illegal U.S. jurisdiction online gameplay, developing algorithms across play history, hardware, and IP geolocation data to identify fraudulent players.
• Opened FTI's Munich office and stood up the team, then transferred to London to lead the EMEA Financial Enterprise Data Analytics team.
• Ran system audits, compliance reviews, business process optimization, and systems integration for a car rental client across 60 locations in 17 countries.