About
About Andrew Grinde
I build companies around the belief that the environments, technologies and institutions surrounding us shape how we live, and that they are worth designing well.
I am CEO of MobileFlow, a co-founder of BYLD, the founder of BYLDERS.SI and a partner in Trivium, and I am based in Middle Tennessee.
Current work
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CEO
MobileFlow Inc.
Software that turns real-world activity into measurable outcomes, through the Hytch, Tally and Arcus platforms.
Education
I received a bachelor's degree from Yale.
What I am working on
Most of what shapes a life is set before anyone makes a choice: the street, the route home, the group you plan with, the software on your phone, the incentives at work. I think of that as the habitat. My work starts from one rule: design the habitat so the healthier life becomes the easier life.
Cities are where that matters most, and Nashville is where I work. Develop Nashville is where I follow how the city is building: the projects, the data and the risks, with every figure sourced. The companies are the ways I am acting on these ideas, each on its own terms, and each has its own page here.
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Coordinating real-world activity
People plan in one app, travel with another and show up somewhere a third system cannot see. I want software that holds the whole plan, from the group chat to getting there and getting home, and then gives people their time back.
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Verifying what actually happened
When a city, employer or venue pays for a trip or an arrival, or an owner pays a draw on a job, the evidence should come with it. A verified result says that something met a rule, and claims nothing more than the evidence supports.
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Building places that last
Development decides how a city lives for decades. BYLD is construction software built by builders, with the schedule, budget, change orders, plans and the field on one set of numbers, and Develop Nashville tracks what is being built across the city.
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Applying AI to operations
Small teams can run serious operations when AI handles the recurring work and a named person approves every send. BYLDERS.SI builds and runs those workflows in the systems a business already uses.
Trivium Development, where I am a partner: luxury custom home builder and boutique real estate development in Nashville, Tennessee and Central Oregon.
How I think about software and tools
These are the rules I build by. They apply to every company I work on.
- Technology should return people to life. The best tools reduce the load on people, improve how they coordinate and send them back to real places, work and relationships. Time spent inside an app is not the goal.
- Build what people enjoy using. Software people come back to holds the whole loop: the decision, the action and the result. That record is what lets the product keep getting better.
- Plan for agents, and make them accountable. Software agents will make or nudge more of the decisions people and groups make. That future needs verification and transactions that can be audited.
- Incentives drive outcomes. Design every program, partner channel and internal process by asking what behavior it rewards.
- Design systems before demanding heroics. When something keeps failing, look first at the incentives, defaults and information around it.
- Truth over polish. No invented numbers. Say what is live and what is not, and a person approves anything that goes out.
Interests
Beyond the companies, my interests run to cities and the built environment, clothing and interior design, health in everyday environments, and how organizations are designed. The Projects & Interests page lists them, and Thinking holds the writing.
Long term
Applied over decades, the same ideas reach past software. Sweetgrass Roots is my long-term vision for places where food, health, housing, land and learning are designed together. It is a vision under development, not an operating organization.
I try to build things that can outgrow me. Land, capital, technology and trust should be more durable and more useful because they passed through my hands.
To get in touch, use the contact form.