THE FOUNDER STORY
A career shaped by the question: what makes people act?
The arc moves from markets and sales to enterprise technology, gamified engagement, sports technology and AI operating systems. The connecting thread is simple: ideas create possibility; partnerships make them larger; execution makes them real.
Begin the storyCHAPTER I / MARKETS
Learn the rhythm of risk, information and timing.
Sholom’s early professional foundation was in financial markets, including currencies, commodities, alternative investments and international client relationships. The work taught a durable lesson: the better you understand information, incentives and timing, the better you can help people make consequential decisions.
The progression began in Prague at Rock Consulting Financial Services—first in sales management (1998–2001), then as Director of International Sales (2001–2005)—and continued at Hemisphere Global Asset Management (2005–2008). Before the work moved into technology, it established a practical view of markets, capital and international business.
CHAPTER II / SCALE
Sales became a system, not just a conversation.
At Truman Foreclosure Assistance (2008–2011), the focus expanded from individual client relationships to building sales organizations, coaching teams and creating repeatable commercial operations. It was a practical education in how a company moves when recruiting, training, marketing and sales are designed to work together.
The experience later informed a central operating belief: strong technology is only useful when it can be introduced through a real team, a clear value proposition and an execution model people will actually adopt.
Selected career metrics from Sholom Stein’s privately reviewed résumé.
CHAPTER III / ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Technology earns its place by creating measurable value.
The move into enterprise software brought Sholom into longer, more complex technology conversations. Panaya (2011–2015) and VATBox (2015–2016) became important chapters in SaaS, international business development, enterprise adoption and finance technology.
This was the bridge from commercial strategy to technology operations: understanding how large organizations evaluate risk, migrate systems, involve finance leadership and commit to change only when the practical value is clear.
View the public professional recordCHAPTER IV / THE 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 observed a contradiction: organizations worked hard to earn executive attention, yet even senior people would willingly engage with a small game or a chance to win something useful. He proposed prize-based engagement experiences that were repeated across conferences.
That behavioral insight—not a claim of sole invention—became a starting point for the later commercial work in gamification: invite participation first, then create the relationship around it.
CHAPTER V / 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 a collaboration: two founders combined complementary capabilities to test, develop and commercialize participation-driven ideas. This site does not treat joint intellectual property as the work of one person alone.
CHAPTER VI / THE STADIUM LABORATORY
Test the participation thesis where fans already care.
NGAGE SPORTEK brought the work into a live professional sports environment with Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club. The question was direct: could games, rewards and timed participation help turn sponsor advertising into something fans actively chose to engage with?
The team explored mobile games, prizes, signed merchandise, timed interactions and in-stadium participation. Live usage shaped the product: experiences needed to fit natural breaks in play rather than pull attention away from the game itself.
CHAPTER VII / XMANNA
The central thesis was the gamification of advertising.
XMANNA should not be reduced to a “metaverse company.” Its central idea was to make advertising more participatory: use loyalty, games, rewards, skill, social experiences and discovery to create a reason for people to return and engage.
Sports gave the idea a natural setting because fans, clubs, brands and communities already share emotion, identity and recurring moments. The resulting product universe explored gaming, digital commerce, MannaDrops, virtual spaces and interactive worlds as connected expressions of that thesis.
Read XMANNA’s official participation-model storyCHAPTER VIII / EXPERIENCES
From a thesis to worlds, games, rewards and tools.
The historic product archive is where the idea becomes visible: an Inter Miami virtual shop walkthrough, MetaRacerX gameplay, XLANTIS world exploration, MannaDrops rewards, loyalty administration, digital-stadium work, a concert concept and games footage.
Each artifact is labeled so the visitor can distinguish what was demonstrated, what was in testing and what remained concept exploration.
Open the product experience archiveInter Miami CF2021
CHAPTER IX / INTER MIAMI
A public validation of the fan-engagement direction.
Inter Miami CF announced a major, multi-year partnership with XMANNA. The club identified XMANNA as its first-ever jersey sleeve partner and Official Loyalty and Gamification Partner, and identified Steve Stein as XMANNA’s CEO and co-founder.
The relationship belongs to the XMANNA chapter. It does not imply that Sholom owned or worked for Inter Miami, nor that the club endorses AI Creates AI today.
CHAPTER X / FROM DIGITAL WORLDS TO INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
The same operating question, at a different scale.
The progression from market systems to enterprise software and participation platforms eventually led to a broader question: what happens when software no longer only assists people, but can coordinate meaningful business work across functions?
That is the current focus of AI Creates AI and Eve—an agentic business operating-system direction designed to connect information, tools, permissions, workflows and people in a more capable operating layer.
THE STORY CONTINUES
Ideas. Partnerships. Opportunity.
Current work is focused on AI Creates AI, Eve and the next generation of operating systems.