THE DEFINITIVE JOURNEY
Every chapter built the next.
From international financial markets to enterprise technology, participation systems, sports experiences and AI: a founder story shaped by ideas, partnerships, opportunity and execution.
Begin at the beginning
2016—2022Play1998—2008
MARKETS
Learn the rhythm of risk, information and timing.
Sholom’s early professional foundation was in financial markets: currencies, commodities, alternative investments and international client relationships. The work built an enduring view of how information, incentives and timing shape consequential decisions.
The progression began in Prague at Rock Consulting Financial Services—first in sales management, then in international sales—and continued at Hemisphere Global Asset Management in Miami. Before the work moved into technology, it established a practical understanding of markets, capital and cross-border relationships.
2008—2011
SCALE
Sales became a system, not just a conversation.
At Truman Foreclosure Assistance, the focus expanded from individual client relationships to recruiting, training and managing an outside-sales organization. It was a chapter in repeatable commercial operations: aligning people, marketing and sales around a real execution model.
The lesson carried forward: an idea becomes useful only when a team can explain it, adopt it and deliver it consistently.
Selected career metrics from a privately reviewed résumé; the résumé itself is not published.
2011—2016
ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Technology earns its place by creating measurable value.
Panaya and VATBox brought Sholom into complex enterprise technology conversations: cloud software, SAP and Oracle environments, international business development and finance automation. The work made adoption concrete—large organizations change only when a system earns trust in the day-to-day work of a business.
This was the bridge from commercial strategy to technology operations: translating complexity into a credible value proposition for people responsible for risk, finance and delivery.
View the public professional recordTHE OBSERVATION
People do not want to be advertised to. People like to play, compete and win.
While working in enterprise technology and attending conferences, Sholom noticed a contradiction: companies spent heavily to gain executive attention, while people would willingly engage with a small game or a chance to win something useful. Prize-based experiences were proposed and repeated across conferences.
That commercial and behavioral insight—not a claim of sole invention—became a starting point for later gamification work: invite participation first, then create the relationship around it.
BRAND → AD → CUSTOMER
ParticipationCUSTOMER → GAME → REWARD → BRAND
2016—2019
A SHARED IDEA BECOMES NGAGE
Complementary perspectives, put into practice together.
When Sholom met the entrepreneur who became his NGAGE SPORTEK partner, they found they had independently been thinking about related questions around gaming, engagement and advertising. One direction came from commercial and behavioral observation; the other included related product and intellectual-property work.
The accurate story is collaboration: two founders combined complementary capabilities to test, develop and commercialize participation-driven ideas. Joint intellectual property is not presented as the work of one person alone.
THE STADIUM LABORATORY
Test the participation thesis where fans already care.
NGAGE SPORTEK brought the work into a live professional basketball environment with Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club. The question was direct: could games, rewards and timed participation turn sponsor advertising into an experience fans chose to engage with?
Mobile games, prizes, signed merchandise, drones and timed participation were used to explore that question. The product evolved through live use, including the practical need to start and stop gameplay around breaks rather than distract continuously from the game.
This public story intentionally excludes confidential customer letters, payment amounts, private performance metrics and non-public documents.
2021+
XMANNA
Turning advertising into participation.
XMANNA expanded the thesis through gamified advertising, loyalty, social and skill-based gaming, rewards, sports engagement, commerce and interactive experiences. Sports provided a natural environment because it already has something brands struggle to create: invested communities.
The work is not described here primarily as a metaverse company. Digital worlds were one expression of a broader participation-and-commerce vision—not the whole thesis.
INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES
The idea becomes clearer when you can see it work.
Historical footage is organized as demonstrated work, prototype/test work or concept exploration. It does not imply that every experience was commercially launched.
PUBLIC MILESTONE · 2021
XMANNA ×
Inter Miami CF.
Inter Miami CF announced XMANNA as its first-ever jersey sleeve partner and Official Loyalty and Gamification Partner. The official announcement identifies Steve Stein as XMANNA CEO and co-founder.
The relationship is presented accurately: through XMANNA, not as an Inter Miami ownership, employment or current endorsement claim.
FROM DIGITAL WORLDS TO INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
What comes next is built to coordinate action.
The current chapter is AI Creates AI and Eve: an agentic business operating-system direction shaped by the same long-running questions of adoption, participation, systems and execution.