Ally Zach
I started as a structural engineer, then taught myself to code and moved into crypto and startup land because I wanted to get closer to data science.
That path has changed shape a few times. Today, I'm the second member of Pantera's in-house research team, where I work across research, data products, technical writing, portfolio support, mechanism design, and full-stack development.
My favorite work lives at the intersection of fast learning and useful building: taking messy, unfamiliar problems and turning them into sharper tools, better systems, and clearer thinking. A lot of my work now sits in that research-to-product middle ground, where the job is to understand a workflow deeply enough to improve it.
AI has become central to that process. It changed how I research, build, automate, and think through complex systems, and eventually led me to cofound Syndicate: an AI agent orchestration app for coordinating specialized agents across messy, multi-step workflows.
- Structural Engineering
- Self-Taught Developer
- Crypto Research
- Data Products
- Mechanism Design
- AI Agent Orchestration
Venture Capital
Pantera Capital
Research Engineer
Remote
2024 — Present
Cross-functional research engineer at Pantera spanning mechanism design, data science, technical writing, and full-stack data products, with portfolio-company advising across the firm's investments.
The State of Tokenization — Q1 2026 Report
Published report mapping 593 tokenized assets totaling $320.6B.
Tokenization Data Portal
Open-source interactive dashboard of on-chain + off-chain tokenized assets.
Decoding DATs Beyond mNAV
Co-authored report dissecting the ~$117B digital-asset-treasury sector beyond mNAV.
Pantera DATboard
Live dashboard tracking DAT treasuries (BTC/ETH/SOL) from parsed SEC 10-Q/8-K filings.
The Super Bowl of Prediction Markets
First-authored report on Kalshi vs Polymarket's battle for price discovery vs liquidity.
Prediction Markets Dashboard
Novig — live prediction-markets dashboard tracking NFL activity across Kalshi & Polymarket.
AI Agents as New Narrative Drivers
Engagement & sentiment study of AI agents, comparing Truth Terminal vs Luna.
Crypto Myopia and the Endgame for Airdrops
Metcalfe's-law analysis of why pay-to-join airdrops fail to retain users.
Speculative Swells and the Memecoin Aftermath
Supply-shock analysis of memecoin price moves and the speculative aftermath.
Crypto's Reverse Wage Gap
Co-authored 502-respondent comp survey finding crypto reverses the gender wage gap.
Crypto Research
Messari
Enterprise Research Analyst
Remote
2022 — 2024
Authored 50+ long-form research reports across L1s, L2s, NFTs, DeFi, and consumer apps, and built the analytics tooling and automation behind the research team.
User Behavior and Engagement on Lens
Network-graph study of Lens showing 9x daily-active-user growth and that 70%+ of users span multiple apps — validating Web3 profile portability.
Sybil Account Detection in L2 Ecosystems
Sybil-detection framework across L2s, finding active addresses surged from 27% to 157% of Ethereum's and flagging Base/zkSync's airdrop-farming risk.
Decoding friend.tech from Metrics to Monetization
Decoded friend.tech's bonding-curve economics — 300K+ users, $50M+ TVL, $320K daily revenue — and how its points design penalizes manipulation.
The Efficacy of Token Incentive Models
Comparative study concluding gradual-release incentives (Blur, dYdX, Optimism) retain users far better than one-time lump-sum airdrops like Uniswap's.
User Acquisition and Retention Across EVM Chains
Cross-chain retention analysis showing L2s siphoning Ethereum's new users while each chain specializes — Ethereum DeFi, Arbitrum/Optimism perps, Polygon/BNB GameFi.
The Wealth Effect
Introduced a 'wealth effect' framework quantifying how native token launches can lift an ecosystem's user base 30–80%.
Solana's Shifting Landscape: From DeFi to Consumer Applications
Documented Solana's pivot from DeFi to consumer apps as network TVL fell 20x, arguing its low-fee design favors consumer use cases over financial ones.
Structural Engineering
Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Structural Engineer
Seattle, WA
2018 — 2022
Specialized in three areas for high-rise towers: high-seismic and high-wind design, foundation design, and performance-based design. Engineered more than 7M sq ft of construction across the US and Asia.
NuStar Resort & Casino
Five-star integrated resort & casino — three hotel towers (~1,000 keys), 236,800 sq ft casino, 2,500-seat theater; ~5.28M sq ft, Cebu's tallest development.
160 Folsom St / MIRA
40-story, 420-ft twisting residential tower (MIRA), ~714,500 sq ft, 392 condos; Studio Gang; completed 2020.
Mission Rock (Verde)
Mission Rock waterfront redevelopment; Verde = 23-story, 254-unit residential tower; completed 2024.
Hilton Garden Inn — Austin
17-story, 214-key, ~140,000 sq ft hotel at 17th & Lavaca (Austin University Capitol District); completed 2021.
Imperium Tower
68-story residential tower (Pasig, Metro Manila; 64,500 m²; 2021) — MKA's structural design used outrigger bracing to cut the core aspect ratio from 20:1 to 12:1, with Performance-Based Seismic Design over a 5-level below-grade podium.
Galleon Place
Twin-tower mixed-use complex (Pasig; 178,600 m²; est. 2025) — MKA engineered a 39-story office tower (PT wide-shallow beams for column-free floors) and a 53-story residential tower with an innovative triangular concrete core + outriggered columns for typhoon/seismic demands.
Viridian at Greenhills
55-story, 560-unit residential tower (San Juan, Metro Manila; 1.3M ft²; 2019) — MKA provided peer review + Performance-Based Seismic Design, pairing a concrete core wall with Buckling-Restrained Braces and perimeter columns to achieve its slender profile.
JW Marriott Austin
35-story, 1,000-room convention hotel (Austin, TX; 1.3M ft²; 2015) — MKA designed ultra-shallow long-span ballroom trusses, 30-ft cantilevered Level-4 trusses carrying a pool with hanging levels below, and 19-ft concrete V-trusses on the south façade.
Side Projects
Syndicate
Technical Cofounder
I'm the technical cofounder and engineer behind Syndicate, building the product in close partnership with my cofounder, who leads the business side. We made it because we wanted a product we could use every day, both at work and on personal projects, and it became the one we reach for constantly.The idea is simple: everyone gets a team. Describe the outcome you want and specialist agents plan it, build it, and hand it back finished, turning “I wish I could build that” into something you actually ship.
- Atlas, a manager agent that breaks a goal into tasks, dispatches them to specialist agents, routes messages between them, and escalates open questions back to me.
- A provider-agnostic runtime that runs Claude, OpenAI, and Gemini agents on one team, normalizing streaming, tool calls, and auth across three separate CLIs behind a single protocol.
- Agent Maker, which turns a plain-English role description into a reusable, installable agent package with generated identity, skills, and scoped tool permissions.
- Tunable interruption levels (Minimal, Balanced, Hands-on, Manual) that govern how often the manager coordinates autonomously versus pausing for human approval.
- A tag-based orchestration protocol for messaging, task lifecycle, and human questions, with parser fallbacks so dispatch survives imperfect model output.
- A local-first Electron app that sandboxes every agent to its project folder, with per-agent MCP servers and connectors, live dev-server previews, and encrypted on-device credentials.
Private beta
Education
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Structural Engineering, minor in Business
Master of Science
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Emphasis in Structural Engineering & Construction Management.
Bachelor of Science
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Structural Engineering focus, minor in Business.
Honors & Scholarships
The Full Record
Earlier Experience
KPFF Consulting Engineers
Structural Engineering Intern
Seattle, WA
May — Aug 2017
- Designed beam haunches, retaining walls, and steel connections for the new REI headquarters
- Reviewed steel and rebar shop drawings for the SeaTac International Arrivals Facility expansion
HNTB Corporation
Structural Engineering Intern, Bridge Design
Chicago, IL
May — Aug 2016
- Produced load ratings for a Detroit bascule bridge using CSiBridge and gravity load calculations
- Performed and documented fracture-critical, element-level, and routine inspections on Chicago bridges
Research & Teaching
Teaching Assistant · Design of Structural Systems
Dr. Daniel Abrams & Dr. James LaFave
Jan — May 2018
Led the CEE 465 capstone design through lectures and studio sessions, preparing assignments and submittal guidelines.
Teaching Assistant · Steel Structures I
Dr. James LaFave
Aug — Dec 2017
Taught CEE 460 structural steel theory and AISC Steel Construction Manual use via lectures, studios, and office hours.
Research Assistant · U. of Illinois Expansion & Planning
Associate Dean Dr. Liang Liu
Apr 2015 — May 2018
Built an interactive campus Revit model and researched future College of Engineering building projects with faculty.
Research Assistant · General Education Course Data Project
Assistant Provost Amy Edwards
Nov 2015 — Jan 2016
Analyzed six years of general-education enrollment data in Excel, surfacing trends for faculty and the board.
Skills & Proficiencies
Get in touch
I'm focused on product engineering, research systems, and AI agent workflows. If you're building in that world, I'd love to talk.