Profile · Behavioral Decision Science
Tyler Boyd
He doesn't care who you are. He's built a company to figure out why you say yes.
The dealmaker who started reading minds.
He doesn't care who you are. He's built a company to figure out why you say yes.
Walk into any marketing department and you'll find a wall of demographics. Age. Postcode. Income band. Tyler Boyd thinks that wall is mostly decoration. Knowing a customer is a 34-year-old in Manchester tells you almost nothing about the moment they freeze over a "confirm" button - or the nudge that would un-freeze them.
That gap is the whole business. As CEO of Youtility, Boyd runs a behavioral decision science platform that reads real-time signals to model the emotional drivers and blockers behind a choice, then recommends the next-best action across marketing, sales and service - delivered through APIs that drop into a banking app or a checkout. The company calls its cohorts "Think-a-Likes" instead of look-alikes. The distinction is the point: two people with identical demographics can want wildly different things, and a person's state of mind shifts by the hour.
The proof isn't theoretical. In a campaign with a leading UK bank, Youtility's behavioral modeling pushed sales up 17% against traditional demographic targeting. Santander UK, Virgin Money and Monese have signed on as partners. And in April 2026, Boyd closed the second close of a seed round at $4.2M - fuel to push the platform deeper into the US while expanding across the UK.
His sales line is refreshingly un-grandiose. "We've built a platform that can be deployed quickly, operate in real time, and deliver individualized insights without requiring massive infrastructure." No moonshot. Just plumbing for human intent.
Simply knowing who those customers are doesn't explain why they make the choices they do.
Boyd's resume reads like four careers stapled together. He rowed varsity crew at Columbia College and graduated in political science - not a line of code in sight. Then came the finance years: Credit Suisse's investment banking division, private equity advisory at MVision across New York and London, a senior associate seat at the healthcare-focused fund Health Catalyst Capital, and a turn as SVP at Green Conversion Systems negotiating contracts with financiers and vendors in the waste-to-energy world.
The pivot that explains everything came next. Boyd was one of the first hires at Purple Strategies, the corporate strategy and marketing firm founded by political ad veteran Alex Castellanos. There, finance met message - the science of moving people. Castellanos would later show up again, this time as an investor in Boyd's own company. Employer to backer is a rare full circle.
At US fintech Squeeze, as Chief Strategy Officer, Boyd sourced and engineered the deal that fused Squeeze's consumer-facing reach with a UK technology firm named Youtility. "By combining the consumer facing expertise of Squeeze with the market leading B2B services of Youtility, we will offer a one-of-a-kind embedded experience both for businesses and their consumers," he said at the time. He then took the CEO chair of the combined company - a transatlantic operation run from London and Richmond, Virginia.
Investment banking at Credit Suisse; PE advisory at MVision across New York and London.
Senior Associate at Health Catalyst Capital ($100M+ AUM); SVP at Green Conversion Systems leading contract negotiation.
Among the first hires at Purple Strategies under Alex Castellanos - finance meets the science of persuasion.
Chief Strategy Officer; sources the combination of Squeeze with UK firm Youtility.
Leads Youtility as CEO; closes a $4.2M second-close seed round in April.
One leading UK bank ran Youtility's behavioral modeling against the old demographic playbook. The behavioral approach didn't just match it. It moved the number.
Source: Youtility campaign result with a leading UK bank, reported April 2026. Illustrative bar heights.
The platform models emotional drivers and blockers as they happen - mood, hesitation, intent - rather than freezing customers into static demographic boxes.
Cohorts grouped by how people decide, not how they look on a census form. Two identical profiles can want opposite things.
Recommendations drop straight into banking apps, marketing and service flows - embedded, real-time, no rip-and-replace.
"Without requiring massive infrastructure." Speed of deployment is itself the selling point for risk-averse banks.
Decision science changes that by modeling the behavioral signals and states of mind as they happen.
“Companies today rely heavily on demographic assumptions, but simply knowing who those customers are doesn't explain why they make the choices they do.”
“We've built a platform that can be deployed quickly, operate in real time, and deliver individualized insights without requiring massive infrastructure.”
“Decision science changes that by modeling the behavioral signals and states of mind as they happen.”
“By combining the consumer facing expertise of Squeeze with the market leading B2B services of Youtility, we will offer a one-of-a-kind embedded experience.”
He studied political science, then built an AI company about human persuasion. The throughline is people, not pixels.
Varsity rower at Columbia College - he learned to read a boat's rhythm before he learned to read a customer's.
His old boss became his backer: Alex Castellanos hired him at Purple Strategies, then invested in Youtility.
Wall Street, healthcare PE, waste-to-energy finance, political marketing, fintech - five worlds, one operator.
Youtility's London base sits a short walk north of Hyde Park, near Paddington Station.
He spent his finance years bouncing between New York and London - rehearsal for the transatlantic company he now runs.
Boyd's near-term map: convert proof-of-concept deployments into US contracts, expand the round toward a full close, and line up a Series A later in 2026. The longer bet is bigger and simpler - make real-time behavioral intelligence the default way banks and brands understand their customers, so "why did they choose?" stops being a guess and becomes a feature.