“Some people code computer systems. I code human systems.”
On launching Amitai Gross Consulting
1. The Pattern
The first time I started a company, I was 16 years old. I know how that sounds — but it's true. My older brother wanted to open a franchise of the company he'd worked at for the past decade and needed help. Over the course of a year, I went from office admin to sales to building our HR and training program. By the end of that year, my sales numbers were ranked 11th in the world within that company, my department accounted for over 80% of the franchise's revenue, and I left for college.
Over my time in school and after, I held a string of managerial and executive roles — starting my first nonprofit at 19, becoming a documentary filmmaker, returning to HR and training on a consulting contract, directing a summer camp and building a year-round youth empowerment program out of it, working in the executive office of a nonprofit I'd wanted to work with since I was in college — and the list goes on, all before grad school. My career has mostly somehow been in director or executive roles since I was 16, which is certainly an odd trajectory. Every time I started in a new position or with a different company, I was taking on something I'd never done before and had to learn fast — either through on-the-job trial and error or by reading everything I could find about the field I'd landed in. Every single time, I produced. And every single time, I ran into the same set of problems, just dressed differently depending on the sector.
At my first-ever consulting contract, I found a company that refused to update the systems and work models it had been running on for decades. Leadership blamed a lack of sales on the sales team, while the archaic systems — training, promotions, internal communications — were maintained like gospel. In three months, I turned it around and increased sales volume by 1,000%, without selling a single unit myself. What the sales team actually needed was agency, respect, clearer training, continued education, real leadership opportunity, and a cleaner, safer, clearer environment to work in.
At an arts-based organization, leadership was made up of artists and educators with little to no experience in business operations, fundraising strategy, internal communications, or long-term succession planning. Every member of the team seemed to be flying by the seat of their pants. They wanted to hire interns but had no idea what those interns would actually do. Their revenue problems got blamed on specific individuals — leadership, operations, programming staff — rather than a simple lack of clarity and direction.
At a tech company, I found unclear work orders, an opaque decision-making process, and — most concerning — a habitual dependency on contractors paired with chronically late payment to the very teams building the company's products. The blame landed on clients, or on the teams. Never on the missing systems.
Whether it was a team blamed for "not communicating" or a fundraising shortfall blamed on "the market," the answer was always the same: problems blamed on individuals — or on some amorphous market villain — are usually problems of design. Over time, I realized most companies fail to understand just how critical their human systems actually are. That's where I come in.
2. Coding Human Systems
What do I really mean by "coding human systems"? It's actually simple: a computer system fails predictably when the architecture is wrong, no matter how hard the individual components try. Organizations of people are the same. Companies that try to isolate and treat symptoms are missing something basic — organizations, like the human body, aren't made up of parts working independently of one another. A body can't survive on just a heart or just a brain. It needs the liver, the lungs, the bones, the muscles, the skin, all working in tandem, in constant communication, to thrive. Companies are exactly the same: strategy, people, money, operating procedures, community, branding — these aren't separate problems. They're one system. Forgetting that is why plans stall or fail.
Over time, I built my operating philosophy on one core idea: equity, efficiency, and effectiveness aren't competing values. Design human equity, agency, respect, and empowerment into the system properly, and efficiency and effectiveness follow — naturally, substantially. Worker equity isn't a nice add-on. It's the keystone of the whole ecosystem, no matter how large or small the company is.
3. Who Is This For?
I could tell you my work is useful for any company, in any sector, at any age or size. Honestly, I mostly believe that. But I also know exactly which problems benefit most urgently from the expertise I've built.
Maybe you're a nonprofit Executive Director with a strategic plan that's been collecting dust since the day it was approved — built with board input, maybe even staff input, but with no real implementation, review, or buy-in baked in. Maybe you're a startup founder who's slowly become the bottleneck for every decision the company makes, because you're not sure you can trust your team enough to let go of them. Or maybe you're a worker cooperative trying to grow without losing the values and systems that make your work democratic in the first place. These are exactly the problems I want to help you solve.
4. What I Actually Do
Most of my engagements start at one of two entry points: strategic planning or nonprofit fundraising. These tend to be the most urgent, most frustrating problems to solve. I build strategic plans ranging from one-year interim playbooks to ten-year comprehensive guides — and every single one starts the same way: by understanding the views, priorities, expertise, and institutional knowledge of the core stakeholders — staff, leadership, beneficiaries or customers, partners, regular contractors, and volunteers if you're a nonprofit. A plan built in a vacuum is doomed to stall, miss its own goals, or provoke outright revolt. I move quickly through surveys, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and — if it's useful — full planning retreats or sprints, to build the foundation of the plan in partnership with the exact people who'll be most affected by it, or most responsible for making it real.
Nonprofit fundraising — especially in today's market — can be a tricky, exhausting quagmire of uncertainty and wasted effort. On the direct-giving side, I dig into your past fundraising data to identify your most critical supporters, the ones who'd respond to better or different outreach, the ones you're consistently missing, and the ones you're spending too much time and energy chasing. On grants, I help you reshape how you talk about your programming and budgets so you attract the funders you actually want, then run a proposal blitz so you're not putting all your eggs in one basket. And if it's an event — an annual gala, say — I can help from ticket sales and advertising to messaging, vendor and sponsor sourcing, and coaching your leadership to make appeals that are actually compelling to your donor base.
While those two entry points are how most people start working with me, we usually end up layering in other services as the need surfaces: project management and implementation; improving governance systems and building in more participatory principles; strengthening internal culture and external brand cohesion; or facilitating the difficult — but necessary — conversations around internal conflict. The goal of all of it is the same: leaving your company healthier, more sustainable, and genuinely calmer to work in.
5. Why This? Why Now?
Just as I kept running into the same problems throughout my career, I kept finding the same solution: participation, agency, and empowerment aren't "nice-to-have" add-ons. They're critical design inputs. Organizations that build them in will outperform the ones that bolt them on later. Nearly 20 years in executive and operations leadership — plus an academic background in conflict analysis and the psychology of people in dispute — has only confirmed that thesis, over and over.
Now I want to put that experience to work for you and your team. Whether you're a large, established organization or a small, young one, I try to make the work as seamless, effective, affordable, and well-documented for your own future use as possible. With a sliding scale that ensures even the smallest organizations can afford this without compromising on quality or care, you'll get exactly the support you need — no more, no less.
6. My Invitation to You
Start by taking a look at my new website (www.amitaigross.com). I'd bet you'll find at least one place your organization could use this kind of help. If you're not sure exactly where, don't worry about it — that's what a conversation is for. Tell me what's not working, and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right fit. If yes, great. If not, no hard feelings.
I'd be genuinely glad to help you get back to the vision you had when you first started your company or organization — by supporting and empowering the most important resource you have: the people doing the work.
Some people code computer systems. I code human systems.
