collin
Nerdahl
Systems Architect Building Intelligence Infrastructure
Builder → Operator → Architect
18+ years real estate
15 years Lean Manufacturing
7+ years trading systems
3 years AI infrastructure
I design intelligence systems for decisions where mistakes are expensive.
My work is grounded in real capital, real operations, and personal stakes.
ABOUT
I didn’t start with abstraction. I earned it through execution.
My work spans real estate, trading systems, manufacturing operations, and AI infrastructure — always in environments where failure has consequences.
Early financial setbacks taught me the cost of delegating understanding. Since then, I’ve taken full ownership of the systems that govern capital, risk, and decision-making.
Over the last two decades I’ve operated through multiple market cycles, managed teams in production environments, built rule-based trading frameworks, and deployed AI systems with real dependencies.
Today, I focus on intelligence infrastructure: hardening reasoning, context, and execution in non-deterministic systems.
If I won’t use it with my own capital or my family’s decisions, I won’t ship it.
CURRENT FOCUS
Architectural frameworks for intelligence infrastructure, reasoning, context management, and execution discipline for LLM-assisted systems.
Built through daily use, not demos.
EXPERIENCE
Real Estate & Capital Operations
18+ years operating through multiple cycles, beginning during the 2008 downturn. Major projects include adaptive reuse, multi-family conversions, private transactions, and capital recycling.
Notable execution:
Church conversion to residential + 9 bedrooms (first property)
30-acre estate adaptive reuse: acquired ~$490K, exited ~$1M
Capital redeployed into additional multi-family holdings
Active portfolio with mixed bank and private financing
My wife leads day-to-day operations; I support strategy, systems, and capital structure.
Manufacturing & Operations Leadership
15 years in manufacturing operations during a sustained scale-up phase.
Progression:
CNC Operator → Production Manager → Shop Foreman
Responsibilities included:
Team leadership (4–10 direct reports)
Lean / Kaizen implementation
Process optimization and waste reduction
Training and operational systems design
This period shaped how I think about throughput, constraints, and reliability.
Trading Systems & Risk
7+ years developing rule-based trading frameworks across equities, options, and crypto.
Top 1% performance in a 60,000-trader competition on TradingView
Emphasis on execution discipline and risk containment
Integrated psychology and systems thinking
This work informs how I design decision systems under uncertainty.
AI & Intelligence Infrastructure
Active LLM user since the release of ChatGPT. Early adoption across multiple platforms.
Focus areas:
Reasoning integrity in non-deterministic systems
Context management and constraint design
Tooling that survives real use, not ideal conditions
HOW I OPERATE
Proof Before Promises
Everything is validated with real stakes first.
Infrastructure Over Features
Foundations compound. Features decay.
Constraint-Driven Design
I optimize for failure modes, not best-case paths.
Continuous Improvement
Small patches, constant refinement. Manufacturing discipline applied everywhere.
CAPABILITIES
Intelligence Infrastructure
Reasoning systems
Context Management
LLM Architecture
Verification Frameworks
Operations & Management
Production leadership
Lean systems
Process Optimization
Team Training
Capital & Risk Systems
Real Estate Operations
Trading Frameworks
Creative Financing
Risk Containment
Execution Design
From abstraction to repeatable action under uncertainty
WHAT I DON'T DO
I don’t build hype-driven tools.
I don’t optimize for virality.
I don’t ship systems I wouldn’t trust with my own capital or my family’s decisions.
I work selectively, where alignment and integrity matter more than scale.
AVAILABILITY
Engaging on a limited basis for architectural reviews and system-level advisory.
If you see clear alignment, reach out.
BACKGROUND
Based in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
Married for 18 years to Priscilla and father of three daughters.
My work is informed by decades of continuous self-directed learning across business, psychology, systems thinking, finance, and technology
CONTACT
Collin Nerdahl
meaning by design
Founder of
© 2026 Collin Nerdahl | Sarnia, Ontario
Builder → Operator → Architect