About

Build, hold, and operate.

Arrowhead Advisory Group is an operating group across payments, fintech, and education. We do not spread capital across passive bets. We build the brands ourselves, hold them, and operate them with a generational lens.

Our Story

Why Arrowhead exists

Modern merchant services is not one industry. It is the rails, the orchestration layer that runs on top of them, the operators who actually move the money, and the platforms that hold it all together. Most groups own one piece and outsource the rest. We chose to build all four.

Arrowhead Advisory Group is the parent. Underneath it, four operating brands: 0030 Payments handles merchant services and processing; Penumbra is the orchestration and infrastructure layer; Penumbra for Platforms is the ISO and embedded-payments operating surface; Echelon Institute is our white-label education and credentialing platform spanning thirty-plus industry lanes, payments and legal shipped today. Each brand stands on its own. Each one compounds the others.

We bring a long-term, generational lens to building. Operational execution today, compounding value across years. Fifteen provisional patents filed across orchestration, AI compliance, and payment intelligence. A defensible IP layer underneath every brand we run.

We do not invest from the outside. We operate from the inside.

Arrowhead
Advisory
0030
Payments
Echelon
Training
Penumbra for Platforms
Platform
Penumbra
Orchestration
Leadership

The operators behind the build.

Dylan Lacoste

Dylan Lacoste

Chief Executive Officer

CEO of Arrowhead Advisory Group. Designed and built the proprietary AI orchestration infrastructure powering the portfolio. Leads firm-wide strategy, capital allocation, and operational execution across all four brands.

Fifteen provisional patents filed across payment orchestration, AI compliance, and payment intelligence. Production multi-provider failover architecture deployed. Penumbra's orchestration layer is live in production today.

Graduated from Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business at 20. Bought and exited a small business, then reinvested the proceeds and learnings into building this group. Operator by default. Trader by habit. Long-term by design.

Penumbra Echelon Institute 0030 Payments Patent Strategy Systems Arch Orchestration AI Compliance W.P. Carey
CW

Carson Westbrook

President

President of Arrowhead Advisory Group. Joined May 2026 as the second operating principal alongside Dylan, holding owner-level access across every portfolio surface.

Carson partners with Dylan on firm-wide operations, strategic execution, and the build queue. Covers commercial relationships across Penumbra, Penumbra for Platforms, 0030 Payments, and Echelon Institute, and represents AAG to merchants, sponsors, and partners.

Operates from the same long-term lens. Active investor. Builder by default. Committed to the standard the AAG name carries.

Operations Strategic Execution Partnerships Sponsor Relations Commercial Capital Allocation
What We Believe

Three rules we run every brand by.

Rule 01

Operate, do not outsource.

Every brand inside AAG has direct operating leadership. No portfolio company drifts in autopilot. If we are not running it, we do not own it.

Rule 02

Build the IP layer.

Fifteen provisional patents filed across payment orchestration, AI compliance, and payment intelligence. The defensible technical layer underneath every brand we run.

Rule 03

Compound, do not flip.

Long-term, generational lens on every brand we hold. Operational execution today, compounding value across years. No quick exits.

Proprietary Technology

The orchestration layer underneath the portfolio.

Penumbra is the technical spine. Production API live, multi-provider failover deployed, and the orchestration logic that ties every brand together. Built in-house. Nothing off the shelf.

Live
Production API
15
Patents Filed
Multi
Provider Failover
In-house
Zero Off-the-Shelf
Routing

Multi-Processor Orchestration

Real-time routing based on cost, approval probability, and processor health. Gateway-agnostic by design so the customer is never locked into a single rails provider.

Risk & Compliance

Automated Protection

Multi-signal fraud architecture across behavioral, velocity, BIN, and network signals. Continuous compliance monitoring. SOC 2 Type II controls implemented (audit engagement pending), architected to PCI DSS Level 1 (certification pending).

Underwriting

Decision Intelligence

AI-assisted merchant underwriting that evaluates risk, categorizes verticals, and accelerates approvals. Built to support broad vertical coverage as the merchant base scales.

See the portfolio
Intellectual Property

15 patents pending across the portfolio.

Payment Routing Intelligence

Multi-processor routing algorithms that optimize for cost, approval rate, and processor health in real time. Core to the Penumbra platform.

Residual Attribution

Automated residual calculation, attribution, and distribution across multi-tier sales hierarchies. Powers the economics of 0030 and Penumbra for Platforms.

Behavioral Fraud Detection

Pattern recognition across transaction sequences that identifies fraud before it completes. Targets sub-20ms decision latency (pre-production benchmark) using a multi-signal fraud architecture.

Training-to-Deployment Pipeline

Integrated credentialing, licensing, and field deployment system. Connects professional education to active revenue generation across thirty-plus verticals. Core to Echelon Institute.

All patents filed as micro entity. Assignee: Arrowhead Advisory Group LLC and its portfolio companies.

One conversation, no obligation.

Tell us about your platform and what you are trying to build, fix, or operate. We will tell you whether AAG is the right fit and which of our brands should sit closest to the work.

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