[ chris dover · operating leader · ai-native companies ]
Operating leader for AI-native companies.
Founder & CEO with multi-cycle experience across AI, fintech, and high-stakes operations. Built Pollinate Trading to $250K+ ARR. Prior 500 Startups exit. Earlier: directed 5,000+ personnel across multinational programs. Currently building MAKO.
Open to VP / Director / Chief AI roles at AI-native and established companies where builder fluency, operating discipline, and market depth are the unlock.
At a glance
- ARR built
- $250K+ · Pollinate Trading · founder & CEO
- Personnel directed
- 5,000+ across multinational operations
- U.S. govt equipment
- $100M managed across Iraq · Haiti · Israel
- 500 Startups
- Alum · prior exit via acquisition
- Markets
- 26+ years · multi-cycle operator · equities, futures, FX, crypto, bonds
- Public builds
- 25+ shipped · github.com/chrisdover
- Based
- Scottsdale, AZ · remote
- Contact
- chris@pollinatetrading.com
About
Founder & CEO with multi-cycle operating experience across AI, fintech, and high-stakes physical operations. I lead by building — agentic systems, trading infrastructure, AI-native businesses — and have run organizations from solo startups to multinational programs with thousands of personnel.
Built Pollinate Trading to $250K+ ARR as founder, owning product, P&L, customer base, and infrastructure end to end. Now founding MAKO at Pollinate Research: an x402 trust layer for the agent economy — verifier, pulse, pricing, and reputation endpoints for autonomous agent commerce, callable as paid APIs and MCP tools.
Prior 500 Startups founder with exit via acquisition. Decade in crypto / web3 / DeFi, including operating a hedge fund across multiple market cycles. Earlier career: directed 5,000+ personnel and $100M in U.S. government equipment across protective operations in Iraq, Haiti, and Israel. State Department high-threat certifications; CPP through ASIS International; USMC infantry leader.
Now — recent shipping log
Operating focus
-
AI strategy + deployment.
Turning AI capability into business outcomes. The work that sits between research breakthroughs and revenue — capability mapping, deployment architecture, change management, measurement frameworks, and the operational discipline to ship AI into production environments where it actually moves the P&L.
-
AI-native operations.
Building organizations where AI is a first-class operator. Designing teams, workflows, and infrastructure that assume agents in the loop from day one — reorganizing how decisions get made, how work gets routed, and how humans and AI systems share responsibility for outcomes.
Selected work
| Project | What it is | Stack | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| MAKO | Trust layer for agent commerce on Base — Verifier, Pulse, Pricing Index, Reputation, all callable as paid x402 endpoints. Drop-in MCP server for Claude Desktop, Cline, any MCP-native agent. | TS · Base · x402 · MCP | live · 2026 |
| Pollinate Trading | Solo-built fintech platform for systematic traders. Market-regime analysis, signal systems, risk dashboards, automated alerts, backtesting, subscriber workflows. $250K+ ARR. | Python · Next.js · Postgres · AWS | live · 2022— |
| AI Build Lab | Community of systematic traders shipping AI-built strategies 2× per week. Public /builds feed: regime filters, Monte Carlo prompts, scanners, position sizers, model bake-offs. | Claude · Codex · Slack | live · 2025— |
| Outlive Engine | Open-source longevity protocol platform. Your health data, your models, your hardware — no SaaS in the loop on your biology. | Python · OSS | live · 2024— |
| Silo | Super-light, session-locked AI coding terminal. One project. One tool. No drift. | JavaScript · Terminal | live · 2026 |
| Visible Edge | Pitch microsite for a CMMC compliance lead-generation system targeting defense contractors. End-to-end: copy, design, deploy. | TS · Next.js | live · 2026 |
| 608 Years | Interactive family genealogy site — 608+ years, 83 ancestors, 6 countries. Built to learn the data-viz stack I'd been avoiding. | TS · D3 · SSG | live · 2026 |
| Predictions 2026 | Live tracker for "10 Predictions for 2026 That Nobody Is Pricing In." Public scorecard, updated as the year plays out. | HTML | live · 2026 |
| Centinela Intel | ~95% automation of OSINT intelligence gathering for LATAM-focused corporate security and EP teams. Noisy open-source signals → structured reports. | AI agents · OSINT | private |
| Geniusly | Predictive risk analytics for transportation. Selected for 500 Startups; exited via acquisition of the technology and team. | Predictive analytics | acquired · 2014 |
Trading systems
26+ years in markets. Systems designed, coded, and live-traded across equities, futures, FX, crypto, and bonds. Same signals shared into the Pollinate Trading community of paying subscribers.
| System | What it does | Style | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| VoltAIc | Machine-learning market-regime classifier. Rotates between TQQQ, SQQQ, and gold based on real-time regime detection — long when risk-on, inverse when it flips, gold when it sees defense. | ML · regime | live |
| TrendLock | Three engines, one system. TrendLock momentum captures sustained trends, Monthly Flip exploits calendar effects, Crisis Hunter buys panic. Stacked uncorrelated edges. | Momentum · multi-engine | live |
| SwingHunter | Multi-asset mean-reversion across 23 3× leveraged ETFs. Hunts statistically extreme dislocations and fades them with strict position sizing and stop discipline. | Mean reversion | live |
| Crypto Momentum | Systematic momentum across the major-coin universe. Trend-following with regime-aware sizing, built to survive crypto winters and capture the spikes when they come. | Crypto · momentum | live |
Built end-to-end alone: data ingest, backtest engine, signal generator, risk dashboards, alert pipeline. Trading involves substantial risk; nothing here is investment advice.
Public repositories · github.com/chrisdover
| Repo | Description | Lang | Stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| mako-verifier | Trust layer for agent commerce on Base. Verifier + Pulse + Pricing Index + Reputation, all callable as paid x402 endpoints. | TypeScript | ★ 0 |
| mako-mcp-server | MAKO's paid x402 endpoints as installable MCP tools. Drop-in for Claude Desktop, Cline, any MCP-native agent. | TypeScript | ★ 0 |
| outlive-engine | Open-source longevity protocol platform. Your health data, your models, your hardware. | Python | ★ 10 |
| Silo | Super-light session-locked AI coding terminal. One project. One tool. No drift. | JavaScript | ★ 0 |
| visible-edge | Pitch microsite for a CMMC compliance lead-generation system. | TypeScript | ★ 0 |
| geneology-site | Interactive family genealogy website — 608+ years, 83 ancestors, 6 countries. | TypeScript | ★ 0 |
| predictions-2026 | Live tracker for 10 Predictions for 2026 That Nobody Is Pricing In. | HTML | ★ 0 |
| pollinate-lab-mlcourse | Using machine learning to build a predictive stock trading model. | — | ★ 0 |
| ChrisDover | GitHub profile readme. | — | ★ 0 |
| alien | Early experiment from 2014. | — | ★ 0 |
Career
- 2026 — now
- Founder · Pollinate Research · Remote. Building MAKO and x402 payment-agent workflows on crypto-native rails. Agent primitives for tool orchestration, API integrations, workflow state, payment logic, guardrails, observability, eval.
- 2022 — now
- Founder & Developer · Pollinate Trading · Remote. Solo-built fintech platform for systematic traders to $250K+ ARR. Product, frontend, backend, data, infra, backtesting, deployment, customer workflows — all owned.
- 2014 — now
- Security Management Consultant · Enfocado Capital · Remote. EP strategy and program builds for Fortune 500 CEOs and families — zero security incidents. Custom software for security ops. Operated a crypto hedge fund across multiple cycles.
- 2013 — 14
- Founder · Geniusly · 500 Startups · San Francisco. Predictive risk analytics for transportation. Selected for 500 Startups; exited via acquisition of the technology and team.
- 2011 — 13
- VP, Security Operations · Logistics Latin America · Colombia / Mexico. Built the Enterprise Security Plan from inception. Operations, budgets, government relations, SOPs for high-risk-environment work across LATAM.
- 2004 — 11
- Regional Operations Manager → Deputy PM · Triple Canopy · Iraq / Haiti / Israel. Directed multinational operations across the Middle East: 5,000+ personnel, $100M in U.S. government equipment, 24/7 tactical operations centers. Close protection for U.S. Embassy personnel, DoD facilities, and the President of Haiti during election transition.
- 1995 — 99
- Infantry Corporal, Stack Leader · United States Marine Corps · 3rd Bn 1st Marines. Maritime Special Purpose Force, security element for MEU(SOC) Direct Action Platoon. Squad Leader, Security Forces, Guantanamo Bay.
Credentials
Contact
Building MAKO. Open to VP / Director / Chief AI roles at AI-native and established companies. Inbound on advisory, partnership, or "this looks broken" all reach me directly.
- chris@pollinatetrading.com
- GitHub
- github.com/chrisdover
- X
- x.com/chrisdmacro
- linkedin.com/in/chrisdmacro
- Web
- pollinateresearch.com · pollinatetrading.com
- Based
- Scottsdale, AZ · remote