About
One team built to see the whole job through.
Grey Mirror brings delivery, finance, technology, systems integration, communications, partnerships, and governance coordination into one working relationship. We enter informed, make the first useful move tangible, and keep the connected priorities moving toward something your organization can operate after handoff.
Consequential work does not stay inside one specialty.
We organize around the work, not a service line.
The work around an award, public program, or grantmaking operation can cross strategy, funding, operations, technology, communications, evidence, and governance in a single week. Separating that work across specialists leaves leadership managing the handoffs.
Grey Mirror forms one evidence-backed view of the situation, then coordinates the disciplines needed to move it. The team prepares before it meets, listens closely enough to revise its preliminary read, and makes useful work tangible early.
More than 100 nonprofits worked with and advised, from small organizations to one moving over nine figures a year in donations.
Philanthropy by Grey Mirror applies that model for nonprofits, foundations, fiscal sponsors, regrantors, and organizations carrying grant-funded work. It brings sector context and deep funding capability to everything the work requires. It is not a separate firm or a grant-writing shop. Most client names stay private on purpose; discretion is part of the relationship.
The people in the work.
Engagements are staffed around the work, not around seats or isolated deliverables. Nine people bring their disciplines into one group, and each engagement draws on the people its priorities require. You work through one accountable relationship while Grey Mirror coordinates the capabilities behind it.
Leadership & delivery
Jake Proffitt
Direction & architectureSets direction, works hands-on in engagements, leads the preliminary read on new work, and personally reviews every inquiry.
Jake founded Auguster Event Trading, where quantitative systems he built generated eight figures in documented gains across its private member community. He then co-founded Grey Mirror with Ethan Furgione to apply engineered research, systems, and execution to consequential organizational work. His academic background is in electrical engineering at Georgia Tech.
Ethan Furgione
Delivery & client operationsLeads delivery, client coordination, and the operating cadence that keeps engagements moving.
Ethan joined Auguster's leadership as Jake's partner, then co-founded and built Grey Mirror with him across strategy, systems, and execution. He runs the firm day to day: operations, priorities, and follow-through, keeping nine people moving as one team. His academic background spans engineering and economics at Vanderbilt.
Finance & strategy
Nicolas "Nico" Hull
Finance & strategyBrings finance, valuation, underwriting, and diligence judgment to budgets, forecasts, award terms, and the financial side of funded work.
Nico's experience spans exchange markets, investment banking, and private equity, including Kalshi, Goldman Sachs, Lexington Partners, and Halle Capital. His academic background is in philosophy at Vanderbilt.
Technology & systems
Mickey Paulus
TechnologyArchitects the technical side of execution: models, memory, tools, evaluation, and reliability.
Mickey is a technical founder, product builder, and researcher. He co-founded Portal Labs and built the Portal Laptop, co-authored research published in Scientific Data, and helped develop cardiac-signal annotation software. His academic background is in computer science at Georgia Tech.
Alec Hance
Systems integrationConnects fragmented software, communications, files, records, and workflows into infrastructure a team can actually run on.
Alec's work spans consulting, software delivery, and technical leadership, including Accenture, senior development roles, and engineering leadership at Georgia Tech. His academic background is in computer science at Georgia Tech.
Partnerships & development
Joshua "Josh" Strong
Development & relationshipsDevelops the relationships among leaders, advisors, capital, and strategic partners that engagements draw on.
Josh's experience includes Roark Capital and investment leadership at the Georgia Tech Student Foundation, alongside work across venture and private-equity environments. His academic background is in industrial engineering at Georgia Tech.
Ethan Monforton
PartnershipsBuilds the partnerships and trusted referral networks around the work.
Ethan combines investment analysis, operating experience, and relationship development, with a background that includes Bitterroot Capital Advisors and Grey Mirror. His academic background spans economics, human and organizational development, and data science at Vanderbilt.
Governance & legal coordination
Charles "Barney" Ford
Governance & confidentialityHelps identify permission, confidentiality, authority, evidence, and governance questions that need licensed legal review, and coordinates that review.
Barney brings an in-house counsel perspective focused on corporate structure and governance. His academic background is in law at The Catholic University of America.
Matthew Monforton
Structure & authorizationHelps identify corporate, transaction, and authorization questions that need licensed legal review, and keeps public promises aligned with authorized work.
Matthew's legal career spans prosecution, legislation, appellate work, and corporate counsel. He served as a Los Angeles deputy district attorney, represented a Montana district in the state House, and served as counsel on a petition before the U.S. Supreme Court. His academic background is in law at UCLA.
The disciplines meet inside the work.
Leadership and delivery turn the work into a visible priority stack. Finance tests budgets, award terms, forecasts, and tradeoffs. Communications shapes the public story. Technology and systems connect data, workflows, and working products. Partnerships helps the work move through the people around it. Governance coordination keeps permissions and professional boundaries visible.
The relevant disciplines share context and build on one another's work inside Grey Mirror. Your team works through one accountable relationship instead of carrying the handoffs among separate specialists.
AI is infrastructure, not the offer.
The client is buying accountable execution. Technology helps the team provide it with more speed, context, and consistency.
Grey Mirror uses AI and engineered workflows to search, compare, evaluate, and repeat research and production work faster. That lets us absorb more context sooner, test work earlier, and make cross-disciplinary execution more economical.
People review the work, make consequential decisions, and apply the permissions and confidentiality practices defined for the engagement. The technology supports that process; it does not replace judgment.
Confidentiality and responsible access.
Work across nonprofits, foundations, and grant-funded organizations can involve sensitive information. Access, confidentiality, and offboarding are defined in the engagement agreement.
Defined for each engagement
- What the team can see, and what it cannot
- Where work product lives
- How access changes or ends
- Which deliverables and intellectual-property rights are assigned or licensed
- Which third-party platforms, software, data, or other materials remain subject to separate terms
Boundaries that hold throughout
- Legal, accounting, and audit judgment stays with the appropriate licensed professionals
- We execute and coordinate around that judgment, never substitute for it
- A client’s name or nonpublic work is used in marketing only with written permission
What are you trying to make real?
Tell us what is already moving, where it needs to go, and why it matters now. If the work looks like a fit, we prepare before the first conversation.
Jake reviews every inquiry personally and replies within 24 hours.