I'm a McKinsey consultant currently advising CEOs on the AI infrastructure trade — the same $400B annual capex cycle this newsletter writes about. I see the boardroom side of the trillion-dollar reallocation in real time.
Before McKinsey: three roles at Amazon, two promotions — Senior Financial Analyst to Product Manager II to Senior Product Manager, with the second promotion landing me a $20M+ data-lake program across six transportation businesses and tooling now used by 1,800+ employees a month. The roles weren't accidents. I built things, shipped them, and they paid for themselves.
Outside the day job, I've shipped three apps solo, hired no one, and built side income that compounds independent of my next promotion. Most readers will run both lanes at once — a W2 that pays the floor and a portfolio of solo income on top — because that's the move in 2026, not a choice between them. New Money is the brief from inside that combined position — five moves a week, the same ones I'm running myself.
— Matt Marshel · writing as "The Operator"
High-level numbers from work I've owned or led. I write about labor, capital, AI, and macro because I've moved real money along all four lines — not because I read a book about it.
Kept high-level on purpose — the full résumé is on LinkedIn. The point isn't bullet-point flexing; it's that the topics I write about are the topics I've operated inside.
Strategy & AI infrastructure for the largest operators in the capex cycle.
Advise CEOs and operating teams on AI data-center strategy, infrastructure build-out, and large-scale transformation. Recent work spans a $2B revenue opportunity in AI data-center components for a major tech company, AI infra strategy for a European colocation provider, and $300M+ EBITDA uplift at a Tier-1 auto supplier.
0-to-1 product and data infrastructure for Amazon's global financial operations.
Led the launch of a unified data lake across six Amazon transportation businesses, enabling $20M+ in savings. Redesigned an operational forecasting platform now used by 1,800+ employees a month. Automated headcount workflows controlling $100M+ in staffing spend.
Business-intelligence and cost-efficiency tooling for fulfillment operations.
Owned the rollout of a variable-cost forecasting platform for Amazon Robotics, supporting $150M+ in annualized savings tracking. Co-led an accounting analytics dashboard that surfaced $195M in gross-margin entitlement.
First role out of college. Where the operator habits started.
Shipped a PPE consumption dashboard that surfaced $96M in annualized savings to the CFO. Built a warehouse staffing model that eliminated ~$180k/day in overstaffing cost. Designed a seasonal compensation incentive program that returned $1.4M in recruitment savings.
Free forever. One email a week. Five moves for the economy that replaced the old one.
New Money