About

Adam Kalamchi

I'm an AI transformation and data infrastructure operator. I go into messy, data-heavy industries and rebuild the systems underneath, so the data can finally be trusted and used. My work has spanned real estate, mortgage, insurance, and consumer credit.

My career has followed one thread: finding structural inefficiency in large markets and building technology to collapse it. At McKinsey, I learned how to measure businesses. At Mubadala, I helped manage $1.5B in semiconductor capacity expansion at GlobalFoundries and saw what happens when capital meets industrial-scale engineering. At Staircase and Elephant, I raised $33M from Bessemer Venture Partners, built an engineering team of 150 across four continents over six years, and built a vertically integrated data utility that proved out on Florida's 10.5M properties at 100x cheaper than incumbents.

I studied economics at Harvard (cum laude) and earned my MBA at Columbia Business School, where my team won the Venture Capital Investment Competition. I was a Rhodes Scholarship State Finalist. Before any of that, I was a varsity 400m runner who learned that the only scoreboard that matters is the one you can measure.

Today I'm interim Chief Data Officer at a Point72/Värde-backed specialty finance platform, where I rebuilt the platform, product, and data stack and took a $120M+ run-rate business from unprofitable to profitable. Lately I'm being pulled back toward deep tech and the physical sciences, where the hard part is the technology itself.

Timeline

2025–2026

Point72 / Värde-backed Specialty Finance Platform — Chief Data Officer (Interim)

Improved operating margins 1,000 bps in six months, taking a $120M+ run-rate business from unprofitable to profitable. Built ML pricing and valuation models with 40% lift over the historical baseline. Designed an agent-driven data exchange portal (self-serve onboarding in under a month). Deployed 50+ AI agents. Rebuilt portfolio projection curves and forecasting, unlocking 400 bps of cost-of-borrowing reduction via a new source of bank capital. Re-architected the core platform, product, and data stack.

2020–2025

Staircase (Co-Founder & CEO) & Elephant (Co-Founder)

Vertically integrated data utility that pulled property records straight from the county source, proven on Florida's 10.5M properties at 100x cheaper than incumbents, architected to scale to all 3,100 U.S. counties. Tokenized 10.5M properties onchain with real-time pricing and automated validation at $0.01 per property per year. Agent-first mortgage broker that automated extraction and underwriting of unstructured loan data, delivering 100 bps in consumer rate savings. Vendor orchestration engine for a top-3 national lender driving $10M annual savings. SOC 2-compliant enterprise APIs with 100+ integrations. Built an engineering team of 150 across four continents over six years. Raised $33M from Bessemer, RRE, and MetaProp.

2018–2019

BCG — Principal

Led 25-person team through 14-week Freddie Mac innovation sprint. Evaluated hundreds of concepts, narrowed to 5 finalists. Secured $15M internal funding. This work catalyzed Staircase.

2016–2017

Thrive Market — Director, Operations Strategy

Built operational bridge between corporate strategy and high-volume fulfillment. $4M investment case for automated sortation.

2014–2017

Brilliant Bicycles — Co-Founder & CEO

$2M seed from 50 angels. End-to-end global DTC supply chain. Sale to Priority Bicycles.

2013–2014

RRE Ventures — Entrepreneur in Residence

Fintech and consumer diligence. Portfolio: Bark, Payfone, DriverUp. Incubated Brilliant Bicycles.

2011–2013

Columbia Business School — MBA

1st Place, Columbia Venture Capital Investment Competition. President, InSITE.

2009–2011

Mubadala / ATIC — Portfolio Operations Associate

$10B equity invested in GlobalFoundries (team). Led $1.5B capacity expansion (Dresden, Germany). GlobalFoundries became #2 contract manufacturer worldwide. Portfolio management and integration for the GlobalFoundries + AMD manufacturing merger.

2005–2009

McKinsey & Company — Business Analyst

PE due diligence and consumer strategy. Proprietary econometric model isolating marketing ROI.

2001–2005

Harvard College — AB Economics, cum laude

Rhodes Scholarship State Finalist. Varsity Track & Field (400m). Kirkland House Service Award.