About
Building Ai systems for companies
"Don't Even Think Once"
Born in Toronto, raised across China and Malaysia (22 years in Asia), educated in New York. Built businesses spanning Vancouver, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. Experience across 3 continents, 5 countries, and 80+ cities shaped a unique perspective on technology, business, and solving problems at scale.
Timeline
Two decades of building real products
16 years in China, 6 years in Malaysia. Built fluency in Mandarin, developed deep understanding of Asian markets and business culture. Formative experience that shaped a global perspective on technology and commerce.
First venture: importing high-end cosmetics from Canada to China. Learned supply chain, international trade regulations, and the realities of scaling physical product businesses across borders.
Transitioned into Vancouver real estate market, working across 80+ cities. Identified massive inefficiencies in real estate technology. Began building tools to solve actual problems agents and brokers faced daily.
Founded Spark RE Technologies. Built team, scaled to $6.7M revenue, served thousands of real estate professionals. President of BC Real Estate Tech Association. Company successfully acquired. Learned how to build, scale, and exit.
Board Advisor for Hive Technologies, guiding product strategy and market expansion. Strategic Advisor for MediaLife.ai, an AR media platform activating fandom touchpoints through immersive augmented reality campaigns for anime studios, exhibitors, and convention organizers.
Full pivot to security research and AI-powered intelligence systems. Building SCAFU (security intelligence), Nuculair (OSINT platform), and AURA (outbound automation). Focused on finding real vulnerabilities, contributing to bug bounties, and establishing credibility in the security industry.
Strategic investments in technology and real estate at Nelson Investments. Focus on companies solving real problems with scalable solutions. Active involvement in portfolio company strategy and growth.
Recognition
Featured work and industry coverage
"Spark RE Technologies transformed how real estate professionals manage their business, scaling to serve thousands across British Columbia."
Read article →"A proven entrepreneur who understands how to build technology that solves real problems in traditional industries."
Read article →"A tech founder who scaled Spark to serve thousands of agents, demonstrating the power of merging clean systems and real-world utility."
Read article →Philosophy
Six principles that guide everything
Solve real problems
Build tools that address actual pain points, not imagined ones. Talk to users, understand their workflow, solve their problems.
Privacy first
Security and privacy aren't features—they're requirements. Build systems that respect user data and implement defense in depth.
Ship, then iterate
Perfect is the enemy of done. Ship early, gather feedback, improve rapidly. Real users provide better insights than theory.
Learn from users
The best features come from watching people use your product. Observe, listen, adapt. Users will show you what they need.
Bridge industries
The best innovation happens at intersections. Apply lessons from one domain to solve problems in another.
Open source mindset
Share knowledge, contribute back, build in public. Rising tides lift all boats. Good ideas deserve to spread.
Engagement Model
Principal Architect vs. Full Agency
Understanding the trade-offs is critical. Retaining a principal-level systems architect provides a high-leverage alternative to onboarding a full development agency or building an internal team from scratch.
| Dimension | Hiring an AI Agency / Team | Principal Systems Architect (Simeon Garratt) |
|---|---|---|
| Speed to Deploy | Multi-month onboarding, resource allocation, and contract overhead. | Direct integration within days. Immediate architecture audit and local-first configuration. |
| Communication Loop | Account managers and project leads act as intermediaries, slowing cycles. | Zero dilution. Direct communication loop between business stakeholders and code execution. |
| Security Paradigm | Standard cloud-first setups, creating high-latency and dependency on third-party API keys. | Security-research-driven. Strong emphasis on local-first networks, self-hosted LLMs, and isolated runtimes. |
| Cost Structure | High monthly burn rate covering agency admin margins and non-technical staff. | High-leverage, direct contract. 100% of resource investment goes directly to engineering. |
Get in touch
Let's build something meaningful
Whether you're looking for technical consulting, security research, or just want to discuss interesting problems, reach out. Always open to meaningful conversations.