From the Trading Desk to a Data Powerhouse: The Founding Journey of Alpha Modus

Int'l Business Times

16-06-2025

Most stories of innovation begin with a big idea. The story of Alpha Modus begins with a man's relentless pursuit of data clarity in the chaotic world of financial trading. Before Alpha Modus became a player in AI and retail intelligence, its founder, William Alessi, was deep in the world of trading the equity markets. As a seasoned trader, Alessi understood the rhythm of markets and the power of early data. He had spent years operating in an environment where precision, pattern recognition, and risk-taking intersected. And while others clung to legacy ideas, Alessi was looking ahead.
"AI and predictive analytics were not lucid in finance back then," Alessi recalls. "But I knew if I wanted to scale trading strategies, I would have to think outside of the box and pioneer my future utilizing data."
So, in 2005, he began hiring engineers to design proprietary algorithms. These early builds were crafted to track subtle signals in market behavior and predict short-term movements, advancing work in what is now broadly called data science.
By 2015, those tools had matured. Alessi and his engineers were no longer just reacting to data; they were beginning to shape how it could be used. The foundation was strong enough to expand beyond trading. In 2014, Alpha Modus was officially launched.
The company's name captured its ambition: "Alpha," a reference to excess market return, and "Modus," Latin for method or approach. "The idea was always bigger than finance," says Alessi. "We wanted to explore how data could be used to drive better decisions, across any environment where behavior mattered."
It wasn't long before that ambition led Alpha Modus into the retail space. Through mutual connections, Alessi was introduced to Chris Chumas, a strategic thinker with a background in consumer insights. The two quickly aligned on one central belief: artificial intelligence was about to redefine brick-and-mortar retail.
Initially self-funded, Alpha Modus began developing systems to analyze how people moved through physical spaces, how they engaged with products, and how those actions could be interpreted in real-time. Its goal wasn't just to improve the retail experience; it was to make it measurable, predictive, and adaptive.
Initially, in pursuit of richer datasets for alpha generation trading the markets, the team quickly realized the real alpha generation would be found serving the retail sector by leveraging advanced data analytics and consumer data to enhance the consumer experience at the point of sale.
"It was early 2019 when Alpha Modus received its first notification of allowance from the US patent and trademark office," Alessi says. "That was a major transition in our future. I realized this first patent issuance was lightning in a bottle." Alpha Modus' patent portfolio includes method claims covering key AI applications in visual intelligence, data aggregation, and consumer behavior modeling, technologies that were not just useful but potentially industry-defining.
Suddenly, Alpha Modus wasn't just sitting on good data. They were holding intellectual property with the potential to shape how AI is implemented in physical environments.
But that breakthrough came with a challenge. "We were at a major crossroads," Alessi admits. "We didn't yet have the infrastructure to defend or monetize what we owned. We were a small team, and the big players could outspend us on the ground." Alpha Modus at Nasdaq Bell Ringing Ceremony
Instead of backing down, Alpha Modus decided to transform. It shifted its focus to further define its core patent, building a comprehensive portfolio. Today, it holds multiple patents spanning AI applications in behavioral analytics, real-time retail intelligence, and visual processing technologies.
The company now operates across three distinct divisions: patent licensing and legal strategy, AI-driven services, and enterprise sales. What's clear is that Alpha Modus is no longer the scrappy startup experimenting with algorithms. It's a data-first company with defensible IP and a vision that's catching up with the future.
"Every step we took was based on the idea that data, when properly understood, could make us smarter about human behavior," Alessi says. "We never wanted to build things that just sounded futuristic. We wanted tools that could make people's lives better in the real world."
What makes its story compelling is not just where it is now, but how it got here. No institutional capital. No flashy accelerator. Just a trader with a feel for patterns, a team of supporters, and an instinct that the biggest opportunities live in the margins where others are not yet looking.
And now, as AI continues to reshape industries, from personalized retail to real-time behavioral analytics, Alpha Modus is no longer just predicting trends. It's helping to define them.