Fintech · AI · Behavioral Science

From AI on the roadmap to AI in production.

Vive builds intelligent systems that are human-aware, personally adaptive, and governed for regulated industries.

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20 years
Fintech & behavioral science expertise
PhD
Cognitive Neuroscience
0 → $1B+
Led from pre-product to exit
Approach

How we think about the problem.

Three principles shape every system we design.

How we see
01

Behavioral lens

Human behavior is the starting point. A behavioral science foundation means we design for how people actually process information, form habits, and act under uncertainty.

How we structure
02

System design

Good systems don’t demand willpower. They adapt to real behavior, learn with use, and reduce friction rather than adding rules for people to follow.

How we ship
03

Strategy to code

Every handoff between teams loses something. Vive works at every layer, from research to production code. When an engagement spans the full arc, the original thinking ships intact.

Methodology

Anatomy of a knowledge system.

Six stages, from behavioral discovery to production code.

01
How people actually decide
Behavioral discovery

Map how users process information, form habits, and make decisions in this domain. Behavioral models grounded in decision science.

Outcome: a behavioral map that drives every design decision downstream.

02
What the agent knows vs. what it may share
Knowledge architecture

Design the source of truth: domain knowledge, tone, policy, and boundaries. Separate what the agent knows from what it is allowed to surface in any given moment.

Outcome: a structured knowledge base that scales without losing control.

03
What the model sees before it speaks
Context engineering

Design what the model can see before it is asked to speak. The right tools, the right policies, the right information, shaped for this user in this moment.

outputs as well-shaped as the inputs that produced them.

04
Constraints that hold in production
Governance design

Deterministic policy layers, step-up confirmations, audit trails. In regulated environments, the wrong output is not a bad experience; it is a compliance event. Design for that.

Outcome: an agent that is safe to deploy in regulated conversations.

05
Agents that adapt to real people
Personalization layer

Adaptation logic that adjusts tone, complexity, and pacing based on behavioral signals. Systems that scaffold better habits over time, not just complete tasks.

interactions that adapt to the person, not just the task.

06
From architecture to production
Runtime and evaluation

Write the production code that brings the system to life. Build evaluation harnesses that measure behavioral outcomes, not just task completion. Ship with gates, not hope.

Outcome: a system that holds in production and improves with evidence.

Services

Two lanes. One depth.

Whether the problem is financial or behavioral, the work draws from the same foundation.

Deep domain expertise

Fintech intelligence

Over a decade building intelligent systems where the stakes are real: regulated money, compliance risk, and financial decisions that affect real people.

Context engineering for agentic systems
Knowledge architecture and governance
Credit risk modeling and data science
Cash flow and transaction intelligence
Data strategy and BI leadership
Regulatory and compliance readiness
Academic + applied

Behavior design

Behavioral science applied to systems that understand the individual and guide positive change, across fintech, health, and anywhere better habits are the goal.

Behavioral product strategy
Positive habit formation systems
User research and decision science
Agent voice and adaptation design
Engagement and retention architecture
Consumer-facing experience design
About

Rare expertise. Direct access.

Vive is led by Dr. Christopher Courtney, behavioral scientist and fintech executive. Chris spent over a decade as a leader in consumer finance, owning credit risk, data science, BI, analytics, and UX research. He took a consumer lender from pre-product through unicorn valuation to acquisition by a global asset manager.

Vive works with fintech teams building intelligent products in regulated environments. From early-stage companies shaping what to build, to growth-stage teams connecting strategy to what ships, the work fits the stage.

The combination of behavioral science and operational fintech experience is rare. When it lives in one person, the strategy and the code come from the same mental model. When you engage Vive, you work directly with Chris. The person shaping the strategy is the same person designing the knowledge architecture and writing the production code. No layers. No dilution.

The direct access advantage

Strategy to implementation

The same person who architects the system ships the product. No deck-and-disappear.

Cross-functional fluency

Fluent across data science, engineering, product, risk, legal, and compliance. We speak every stakeholder’s language.

Regulated environments

Consumer lending, BNPL, payments. Spaces where a mistake isn’t a bug, it’s a compliance event.

No overhead, no layers

No account managers. No junior analysts doing the real work. Direct access to the person solving the problem.

If this sounds like the right kind of problem,
tell us about it.

We’ll follow up with a concrete first step.

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