Real estate has long been one of the largest drivers of generational wealth in America, but the systems surrounding it have historically served institutions far better than individuals. Managing rental property meant navigating fragmented services and opaque processes. That disconnect caught the attention of Rocky Lee and T Zhu when they founded Tellus App in 2016.
Since then, Tellus App, Inc. has grown into a profitable fintech and proptech company that’s rethinking how Americans save and how landlords manage the rental properties they own. With Jeromee “JJ” Johnson as President and CTO, the company has structured itself around three pillars: savings tools, property management software for landlords and tenants, and business-purpose real estate lending. Tellus is not a bank. Tellus is not FDIC-insured.
The approach reflects Johnson’s background building and operating financial markets. Before joining Tellus, he was on the executive team at BATS Global Markets, helping grow it from a single equity exchange into one of the world’s largest cross-asset exchange operators. He built the BATS Options Exchange from the ground up and, after the Flash Crash of May 6, 2010, led the effort across U.S. exchanges to harmonize the rules for clearly erroneous trades and to modernize market-wide circuit breakers. He studied math and physics at Yale and is a member of the Forbes Technology Council.
Fragmented Tools and a Drift Toward Speculation
The first problem is practical: property management often requires juggling multiple platforms and service providers.
Johnson sees a second problem in what financial products encourage people to do. “The trend for financial services firms to keep tacking towards speculation, betting, rather than sound personal finance behavior is very concerning,” he says. Too many platforms push day trading, cryptocurrency betting, and other forms of financial speculation.
That speculative focus, he adds, “reinforces a financial nihilism among consumers and does real damage to their future financial prospects.”
Tellus approaches the problem differently. In the Tellus App, members earn rewards when they claim Boosts or complete tasks tied to them, and they can set savings goals. Tellus’s terms of service say that once a member claims a Boost, Tellus cannot take it away or change it after the fact. Beyond Boosts, members can use other Tellus products, including Reserve and Vault. Tellus continues to expand its savings tools, directly and with partners. Tellus is not a bank. Tellus is not FDIC-insured.
Landlords and tenants use Tellus’s free property management software for rent, expenses and maintenance requests. Property owners remain responsible for managing their properties.
Separately, Tellus makes business-purpose loans on non-owner-occupied residential properties with one to four units. It works through licensed mortgage brokers, its loans are secured by liens, and it does not make consumer loans.
Building Profitability While Preparing for Scale
Johnson joined Tellus in 2020, bringing his market-building experience to the work of scaling a financial services company. The transition from startup to profitable business meant building the operational infrastructure that could handle regulatory requirements, customer service demands, and the technical complexity of running three different lines of business.
The company has raised $26 million, including a $16 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2022.
Johnson’s approach to growth management emphasizes clarity over activity. “The hardest challenge in a fast-growing company is staying clear when everything is moving at once,” he notes. Tellus addresses this through what it calls “intentional communication,” one of its four core values, so that team members always understand what they’re solving for and why.
Integrating AI Throughout Operations Rather Than Bolting It On
Many financial services companies treat artificial intelligence as an add-on feature or a way to automate customer service. Tellus is integrating AI into how the entire company operates. Johnson describes this as building with technology rather than just reading about it.
The company’s Forge Labs program brings engineering and operations teams together regularly to test what’s changing in technology and how live customers are driving product development. The teams pressure-test new capabilities against real customer needs and operational requirements.
It also shapes how Tellus team members work day to day. “Reflexive use of AI is our default starting point for the team,” Johnson explains. Instead of a special project or separate initiative, AI is part of the standard toolkit for solving problems across all departments.
The focus remains on solving structural problems rather than chasing symptoms. Johnson’s view is that the market tells the truth faster than any report does. By staying close to customer needs and operational realities, Tellus can adopt AI tools that improve outcomes instead of adding complexity.
Building a Team That Runs Toward Hard Problems
Johnson’s hiring philosophy reflects his market-building background: find operators who can handle complexity and ambiguity without needing constant management. “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,” he says.
The company’s four core values guide both hiring and daily operations: Integrity First, One Team No Walls, Intentional Communication, and Impact Driven.
Johnson treats mentorship as foundational, inside Tellus and out. He mentors CEOs and small business owners through the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program in Kansas City, applying the same principle he uses at Tellus: “design for where you need to be at full maturity, even while you’re executing at today’s stage.”
Performance management focuses on outcomes rather than activity. Johnson prefers honest conversations about problems today rather than surprises next quarter. Team members know what they own and what success looks like, and they get frequent feedback on their progress toward those goals.
The Bigger Picture: Incentives in Financial Services
Tellus operates in a financial services industry that’s increasingly tilted toward speculation and institutional interests. Johnson’s concern about companies pushing betting behavior over sound financial planning comes down to incentives: what a financial product rewards people for doing, and what that does to their finances over time.
The software behind everyday rentals hasn’t kept pace with how people live and work. Tellus is betting that landlords and tenants want simpler tools for rent, repairs and records.
Johnson’s experience building exchanges taught him that sustainable businesses come from making markets work better. That philosophy extends to how Tellus works: the company stays focused on the gap between problems that exist and problems that get solved.
