AffirmX

AffirmX built something regulators and community financial institutions had never had: a patented risk-scoring platform, a FICO score of sorts for regulated institutions, serving roughly 225 credit unions and community banks. The founding team's pedigree runs deep, including an architect of the Hubble Space Telescope program and the author of a national compliance certification.

Ken Wolff, a five-time CEO and twenty-year management consultant who also teaches trombone and runs the jazz program at Catholic University, co-founded and led the company. He sold when a Silicon Valley AI company recruited him as CEO, and his selling priority was not the last dollar: it was a good home for his 19 employees.

Ken connected with Phyl Jones on Rejigg in January 2024 and signed an LOI that spring. When the financing behind the deal collapsed entirely that fall, most processes would have ended. This one did not: buyer and seller reworked the structure, and the deal closed in March 2025. Along the way Ken turned down a better-priced offer from outside the platform, choosing the buyer he trusted over the bigger number.

Phyl Jones, a Jersey City-based buyer financing through an SBA structure, won AffirmX on persistence and character. The seller said it plainly: he picked the person, not the price, and stayed engaged through every setback until the handoff was done.