The future will be shaped less by what we say, and more by how we build.

From the start, Verstoa has been approached as sort of an experiment. An opportunity to explore and to test. To see what new tools, particularly emerging tech, actually make possible.
To concept and build something end-to-end.
To learn by doing, not theorizing.
To automate the means while keeping the meaning human.
To see whether a virtue-first philosophy could hold up in real work.

virtus • venire

virtus — character, practiced
venire — what is coming

Verstoa explores what it means to build with virtue. It’s a place to design deliberately, to let intention precede scale, to treat products as expressions of character.

grtflRBL is a rebellion against disposable gratitude. It’s about slowing people down long enough to mean what they say, and to honor it with care and craft.
por·Ita is an homage to family, heritage, nourishment, and the communal rituals that keep us human in a fast world.

Different expressions. Same root.

Verstoa didn’t start as a company

It started when success stopped feeling like an answer.

I’d spent decades chasing what I thought I was supposed to want. Made my way to New York City. Worked with people I’d admired. Launched and scaled a business. Built a life in the heart of Manhattan.

But somewhere along the way, I started to wonder about the cost of all that motion. Was it more distraction than fulfillment? It wasn’t something I could answer without stepping out of the life I’d worked so hard to build.

So I left.

I left the life I’d built. I returned to a home near family. No new role lined up. No plan to replace what I’d left. Just a commitment to begin again, differently.

A return, not a retreat

What replaced motion was focus.

Slowing down. Journaling. Art. Nature. Bike rides. Dogs (lots of dogs). Long, quiet conversations on the porch.

I was struck by how fragile identity can become in a world defined by constant motion. How rarely we’re asked to ground ourselves in character instead of letting ourselves be defined by context.

A change of thought… and action

Verstoa was not the reason for the shift. It was the result of it.

In the past, major moves in my life were driven mostly by outside opportunities—a job, a city, a relationship.

This time, the internal shift came first. The work followed.

The name Verstoa reflects that posture:
ver — to see, with more clarity
stoa — a porch, a place of reflection

A space between impulse and action.

An open porch

Verstoa is a familia operation, a holding company, a workshop, a place to think. More than this, it’s an invitation.

To pause.
To pay attention.
To ask not only what we’re building, but who we’re becoming as we build it.

The porch is always open.