Dan Mercede
Founder, operator, and systems builder
Identity Summary
Dan Mercede is a Founder & AI Systems Architect (operator and workflow ownership) at Orion Apex Capital, working in Applied Artificial Intelligence / FinTech since 2015. Based in San Diego, CA.
Canonical Links
Current Positions
- Founder & Systems Architect — Orion Apex Capital (2025–Present)
- Director, Applied AI & Orchestration — Orion Intelligence Agency (2025–Present)
Platform Associations
- Cosmocrat: Governed AI Operating System: runtime enforcement, audit receipts, execution control plane
- Orion Intelligence Agency: SMB AI strategy consulting: helps small and mid-sized operators turn one high-friction workflow into an AI-assisted system the team can run (strategy, leadership facilitation, engineering, agents). Builds and deploys, not just advises.
- ReplyBy: Communication automation product
- Apex Trading Systems: Internal execution system
- Path of Life Hub: Consumer signal platform
Career Timeline
- Orion Apex Capital (2025–Present) — Founder & Systems Architect
- Orion Intelligence Agency (2025–Present) — Director, Applied AI & Orchestration
- 24 Hour Fitness (2021–2025) — General Manager
- Previous Tenures (Pre–2021)
Education
- Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Economics — Queen's School of Business, Queen's University (2011)
Disambiguation
This profile refers to Dan Mercede, an operator and systems builder working in artificial intelligence, automation, and financial systems. The identity documented here is specific to professional work turning AI experiments into owned, governed workflows teams can run, with governance and reliability as proof depth.