By: Jay Kt
Tellus president and CTO Jerome “JJ” Johnson was travelling through Europe with his family after a company all‑hands meeting. He was determined to savor the sights and sounds of this trip, though still fresh from his team gathering, his mind was still colored with business and tuned to patterns concerning finance. This may be why he noticed something that gave him pause to open Google Maps and do some digging. He saw an abundance of sports‑themed betting shops flashing by the window as often as bakeries or cafes.
Maps revealed more than three dozen within walking distance, a small urban constellation of temptation. “It made visceral what I’d been mulling for months: my children will inherit a financial system that’s been engineered to turn them into gamblers,” Johnson said. For him, the worry isn’t limited to bookmakers’ shops; it speaks to a wider drift in consumer finance toward products that reward perpetual engagement and speculation over steady, long‑term saving.
From online sportsbooks and zero‑commission brokerages to crypto apps and short‑dated options, the mechanisms differ, but the incentives are familiar: the platform prospers when the user keeps playing. “That tilt toward betting rather than sound personal finance is deeply troubling,” Johnson warned. “It fosters a kind of financial nihilism and does real harm to people’s futures.”
That conviction shapes the operating philosophy at Tellus, a Silicon Valley-founded fintech and proptech company launched in 2016 by Rocky Lee and T Zhu.
The company operates three distinct products: a rewards-based cash account, property management software, and a separately run real estate lending business. The Tellus cash account rewards users for saving rather than spending. Tellus is not a bank, and the account is not FDIC-insured.
Together, the platform is designed to make tools tied to real estate more accessible to everyday Americans, without presenting itself as an investment product or passive wealth machine.
Johnson: ‘The Incentives Here Are Not Subtle’
Tellus’ approach is shaped in part by Jeromee Johnson’s background in markets and the systems that either stabilize or distort financial behavior.
Before joining Tellus App, Johnson was a key member of the executive team at BATS Global Markets as it grew from a single equity exchange into one of the world’s largest cross-asset exchange operators. He built the BATS Options Exchange from inception and, after the 2010 Flash Crash, led a cross-market effort to modernize circuit breakers and harmonize obvious-error trading rules across U.S. exchanges.
He later led global markets at Miami International Holdings. Earlier, he co-founded 3D Markets, the first equity options dark pool in the United States.
That background matters because Tellus does not treat consumer financial products as neutral tools. The company views them as systems that shape behavior, with guardrails and consequences.
“Most of my career was spent in market structure, exchanges, dark pools and crossing networks, incentives,” Johnson shared. “The incentives here are not subtle. Low friction, mobile-first, immediate gratification, always-on access.”
In that kind of environment, the average consumer entering a betting app or speculative trading platform does not have the protections of an institutional trading firm, with risk desks, position limits and best-execution benchmarks. They have a screen, a payment method, and an invitation to keep acting.
Tellus was built around a different premise. Its founding insight was that real estate has long been one of the primary drivers of generational wealth in American life, while the systems around saving, renting, property management, and access to capital have often been fragmented or difficult for individuals to navigate.
On the consumer side, Tellus users set goals, claim Boosts, take quizzes, build streaks, and earn rewards through their own engagement on a platform powered by real estate. On the property management side, landlords and real estate investors use software tools to manage rent collection, tenant communication, maintenance requests, and daily operations.
Distinct from its consumer products, Tellus also operates a real estate lending business that provides short-term, business-purpose financing secured by residential real estate.
Tellus App Builds With Technology Through Forge Labs
Tellus expects its leaders and teams to get their hands on new technology rather than study it from a distance.
“We don’t stay informed by reading about technology; we stay informed by building with it,” Johnson said. “Reflexive use of AI is our default starting point for the team.”
That habit runs through Forge Labs, an internal program with a simple idea behind it. Engineering and operations get in a room on a regular basis and look at what is changing in the product and what customers are really doing with it.
“The market itself tells you the truth faster than any report does,” Johnson said.
The company is weaving AI deeper into how it runs.
“We’re integrating AI into how the company operates, top-to-bottom, rather than bolting it on,” Johnson said. “The key operating discipline is to focus on solving the structural problems. That keeps us aligned rather than running in circles chasing symptoms.”
Four values anchor the company: Integrity First, One Team No Walls, Intentional Communication and Impact Driven. Inside Tellus, those words are meant to guide how people actually work, not just hang on a wall.
“People here aren’t motivated by activity,” Johnson said. “We’re motivated by the difference between a problem existing and a problem solved.”
The Culture Behind The Product
Fast-growing companies often confuse momentum with progress. Tellus tries to manage against that by focusing on accountability and clear communication.
“We manage outcomes, not motion,” Johnson said. “People know what they own and what ‘good’ looks like, and we keep the feedback loop short so problems get diagnosed early instead of discovered late. I’d rather have an honest conversation today than a surprise next quarter.”
That operating style shapes how the company hires, manages and retains talent. Tellus looks for people who can carry a problem forward without waiting for a manager to define every step.
“Ownership,” Johnson said, when asked what qualities the company looks for in new talent. “We look for operators who run toward the hard part of the problem instead of around it, and who can hold a high standard without needing to be managed into it.”
The same mindset informs the company’s view of benefits and retention. Compensation and flexibility matter, but Tellus sees them as baseline expectations rather than the core reason strong employees stay.
“The real benefit is the work and the autonomy to do it well,” Johnson said. “We aim for the strong employees and then trust them with consequential problems. Competitive compensation and flexibility matter, but those things are just table stakes. What retains people is a culture where their judgment is respected.”
Taking the Case to Washington
Tellus’ critique of speculative consumer finance has also extended into the regulatory debate around prediction markets.
Johnson recently filed a public comment with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not because Tellus is regulated by the agency, but because the products under review are increasingly reaching the same consumers financial technology companies serve every day.
At the center of the comment was a question about whether certain event contracts have a real economic hedging purpose.
A contract tied to a Federal Reserve rate decision may have natural hedgers, such as banks, fixed-income managers, or corporations with floating-rate debt. But many sports or entertainment-related contracts can look less like risk-transfer instruments and more like betting pools dressed in market language.
“The economic purpose test existed for a reason,” Johnson shared. “That reason hasn’t gone away.”
The distinction matters to Tellus because product design should be judged by the behavior it rewards. A platform can look innovative while still pushing users toward short-term activity that does little to improve their financial lives.
“The antidote isn’t a financial literacy campaign,” Johnson said. “It’s financial products whose business models are actually aligned with the long-term wealth outcomes of the people using them. Products that make money when their customers build wealth, not when they trade, swipe or bet.”
That is the broader context for Tellus’ operating strategy. The company has raised more than $26 million, including seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, and reached profitability under Johnson’s operating leadership. It continues to build across consumer financial tools, property management software and separately operated real estate lending, while executing toward long-term scale.
Tellus is betting its future on products and a culture that can hold up under both market pressure and regulatory scrutiny.
“Creativity doesn’t come from a brainstorm,” Johnson said. “It comes from giving capable people real problems and the room to solve them.
The financial system Johnson worries his children will inherit rewards speed over patience. He is trying to leave them at least one company built the other way.
Disclosure: The information presented in this article is for informational purposes only and reflects information available at the time of publication. Tellus is not a bank and is not FDIC-insured. Readers should conduct their own research and consider relevant professional advice before making financial or business decisions.
