Hey, I'm Zain.
I care about markets that haven't changed in decades, and building the systems that will change them.
I care about markets that haven't changed in decades, and building the systems that will change them.
About me
After Oxford, I turned down Magic Circle law offers and a funded Master's to join Appear Here, a marketplace disrupting how brands access retail space. I had no sales background. I wanted to understand how a marketplace works from the inside. Within eight months I was leading the function and helping take the company to profitability for the first time.
Marketplaces are what I keep coming back to. At Appear Here, I started asking the question that obsesses me: how do you decide which brand fits which space? I built a matching engine internally to answer it. That work is now the foundation of what I'm building independently: an automated brokerage for property, where AI agents replace the manual, intuition-driven process that defines the industry today.
My edge is commercial execution, genuine technical and legal depth, and the ability to move fast from problem to prototype. I studied AI and law at Oxford, I've scaled revenue and led teams, and I'm comfortable operating outside my depth. Once I have conviction, I build.
Selected work
01
Joined as the youngest member of the sales team with no prior sales background. Rebuilt the sales function, introducing structure, process, and accountability where there was little. Grew revenue 65% year-on-year, closed £345k in a single month (350% of target), and helped the company reach profitability for the first time. Led a team of more experienced sellers eight months in.
Contract automation: Built an end-to-end LLM-assisted contract pipeline using Juro, Claude, and structured workflows. Reduced legal turnaround by 60% and removed a recurring bottleneck from the commercial process.
AI matching system: Prototyped an LLM-driven matching engine that enriches and ranks brands against retail spaces. Now building it as an independent product: AI agents that automate the full brokerage workflow.
02
10,000-word dissertation on the use of AI in government decision-making under UK GDPR. Filed Freedom of Information requests to Ofqual and obtained their Data Protection Impact Assessment. Identified a legal flaw in how children's data was being processed, later validated by their Data Protection Officer.
03
Rebuilt OUEMS from a dormant post-COVID state with no budget. Grew events from around 30 attendees to 200–400, monetised through door sales, and created a broader underground scene through independent events. Built from nothing, no institutional support, no existing audience.
04
Building a full-stack AI lettings agent for property. The system combines a scraper, an LLM-driven matching engine, and a Supabase backend to replace the manual, intuition-driven process that defines property search today. AI agents handle the matching and ranking, surfacing the right properties for the right people without the usual back and forth.
Originated from internal work at Appear Here, where I built the first version to match brands to retail spaces. Now applying the same architecture to residential lettings at scale.
Background
I'm always open to interesting conversations and new ideas. Whether you want to discuss a project, explore an opportunity, or just think through a problem together, I'd love to hear from you.