Leverage #1: Human-first, depth, and momentum

Welcome to Leverage, Hypha's biweekly newsletter. 

Leverage is the multiplier effect. Our platform helps leaders gain it through the compounding advantages of three building blocks: a trusted single-source of truth, natural language insights, and collaborative execution.

My goal for this newsletter is to help you gain leverage through foresight and frameworks—to help you thrive in the AI age.

To kick off, I want to share the foundation: the operating principles that underpin Hypha.

Earlier this year, Simcha and I joined forces to build Hypha. We've both weathered two financial crises and two major tech cycles, just from very different seats. Simcha built a successful family office at the intersection of private equity, real estate, and venture. I've spent two decades building venture-backed startups with four successful exits.

Different paths, but we both want to build something meaningful, impactful, and durable.

Here are Hypha’s three operating principles:

Most AI teams start with the model and look for problems to solve. We do the opposite.

We start with people. We bring builders and domain experts to the same table. We embedded ourselves in our design partners' offices to observe their workflows, friction points, and decision-making—then built a cohesive platform around what we learned.

We measure success not just by efficiency metrics like time saved, but by better decisions made faster and more headspace for high-leverage work.

This human-first approach extends to everything—including how we talk. While other platforms describe their onboarding as "Data Migration and Integration," we call it BYOD: Bring Your Own Data. Same idea, less corporate speak.

Most AI companies build horizontal tools with little moat against LLMs or narrow point solutions. We're doing the opposite—we're going all the way down to the root and building our way back up.

The root of reactive culture in asset management is fragmented data. Documents buried in emails, multiple versions, hundreds of pages to parse for a single data point. I call it the "Where's Waldo?" problem.

We're solving the hard problem others avoid: turning fragmented, unstructured documents into a trusted single source of truth as the first building block, then layering intelligence and execution on top.

When GitHub launched in 2008, it became the backbone for how developers collaborate. We're building the same for all stakeholders in asset management—a platform so integral to how deals get done that it becomes the standard.

Momentum isn't just speed—it's progress toward a clear direction. And speed with focus compounds.

When builders optimize for momentum, there's a natural tension between chaos and control. Too much chaos, you lose direction and risk bloat. Too much control, you stifle innovation and first-principles thinking.

I monitor what I call the "chaos-to-control ratio"—maintaining just enough chaos to move fast and solve problems in unexpected ways, with just enough control to stay pointed in the right direction. Every standup, product discussion, client conversation recalibrates our roadmap, our hiring, our next move.

The legendary coach Frank Dick once said, "Winning is being better today than you were yesterday, every day." That's momentum—not perfection on day one, but directional progress compounding over time.

These three principles reinforce each other in everything we build at Hypha.

Thanks for being here from the beginning.

Peter Wang
Co-Founder & CEO, Hypha

The entire stack from capital to property management is shifting to AI-native tools, and the winners aren't replacing humans—they're supercharging what makes humans irreplaceable.

Look forward for a real talk w/ respected leaders in the space: Andrew Korn (CFO, EliseAI), Christina Tarumoto (Head of Client Services, Cardinal Group), and my friend Brandon Rosenblum (Head of Asset Management, Monticello).