GTMB2B SALESFULL-STACK

Adam
Pouliot

Co-Founder & CEO, Kato Housing · Economics B.S., University of Maryland '27

Finding off-campus housing at UMD was a nightmare, so I built Kato. It's now helped nearly 15,000 students find apartments, sublets, and roommates, and it's the platform property managers pay to reach them.

I take early-stage products to market: customer discovery, B2B sales, and growth, with the full-stack and data skills to build what I'm selling. Also Director of Partnerships at Startup Shell, UMD's student-run incubator.

View Kato →

Featured by and recognized by

Work

Kato Housing

Co-Founder & CEO

Student-focused apartment search and subletting marketplace for UMD and College Park. I designed and built the product, ran customer discovery, and closed our first paying property-manager client on a per-lead pricing model. Bootstrapped to nearly 15,000 users with $0 in paid marketing through content and campus outreach. 685+ units and 135+ active sublets live on the platform. Recognized by the City of College Park, and backed by $6K in non-dilutive funding.

Adam Pouliot outside the University of Maryland IDEA Factory

Adam Pouliot speaking with students at the Kato showcase

The Kato team beside their showcase display

Adam Pouliot being interviewed at the Kato showcase

Adam Pouliot and a teammate at the Kato Student Housing booth

Press

Featured on Maryland Today↗

University of Maryland campus gate in College Park

College Park, MD Press

Featured on Prince George's Community Television↗

Adam Pouliot being interviewed on CTV News about Kato

CTV News — PGCTV

Award

Won Best in Customer Discovery — Pitch Dingman ($3K)

Kato team accepting Best in Customer Discovery at Pitch Dingman

Best in Customer Discovery — Pitch Dingman, Nov 2025

Grant

UMD Entrepreneurship Fund Grant ($1K)

UMD Entrepreneurship Fund Grant

Community

City of College Park recognition

City of College Park

Accelerator

UMD Do Good Accelerator ($2K)

The red Do Good arches outside the Thurgood Marshall School of Public Policy building

UMD Do Good Institute, School of Public Policy

Milestone

Nearly 15,000 students explored Kato

PropTechMarketplaceCollege Park MD

katohousing.org →

Startup Shell

Director of Partnerships

UMD's student-run startup incubator, with $2B+ in collective portfolio value across its alumni companies. I manage alumni, donor, and corporate sponsor relationships: building the sponsor pipeline, re-engaging lapsed donors, and producing fundraising materials including the Spring 2026 fundraising video.

Spring 2026 Fundraising Promo Video

Adam Pouliot speaking at a talk hosted by Startup Shell and Z-Fellows

Talk hosted by Shell & Z-Fellows

Startup Shell's Sponsor Display, May 2026

startupshell.org →

Projects

High-powered rocketry

Personal project · Terrapin Rocket Team · Summer 2023 – Present

Led my high school's competition rocketry club and built a custom active airbrake system that deployed mid-flight to hit a target altitude. In college I designed and flew my own rockets from scratch, earning Level 1 and Level 2 high-powered rocketry certifications. One crashed from 2,000 feet; I rebuilt it and flew it again a month later. I now run the high-powered certification program for the Terrapin Rocket Team at UMD, guiding members through their own L1 and L2 flights.

The launch field at Spaceport America Cup with a red rocket on the ground

Spaceport America Cup, 2024

Level-1 Certification Rocket

A rocket airframe with tip-to-tip fiberglass layup and custom surface mounted G10 fiberglass fins on a workbench

Tip-to-Tip Fiberglass Layup, custom surface mounted G10 Fiberglass Fins

HardwareAerospaceHigh school → collegeLeadership

BlazeBlock

Personal project · Spring 2023 – Summer 2025

A UV/IR flame detection device that alerts homeowners within seconds of ignition instead of the minutes a standard smoke detector takes. In side-by-side tests it detected fires 83% faster on average. I built the working prototype in high school, placed third at the Howard County Engineering Expo, received feedback from my local fire department, and filed a patent.

Demo video

BlazeBlock prototype on a windowsill with its green indicator light on

Prototype, UV/IR sensors

Device enclosure

Workbench with soldering iron, multimeter, monitors and a breadboard used to build the BlazeBlock prototype

My desk at the time

HardwareFire safety

About

I'm a senior at the University of Maryland studying Quantitative Economics and Business, and the founder and CEO of Kato Housing.

I didn't start in business. I began in Mechanical Engineering at UMBC, building rockets and a fire-detection device, and transferred to UMD in 2024 because I kept caring more about whether someone would actually use the thing than about the thing itself. Most of what I know technically, full-stack development, data pipelines, hardware, I taught myself along the way.

Kato started the way most of my projects do: something was broken for me personally. Finding an apartment in College Park was miserable, so I interviewed students in dining halls and on the quad, built a first version, and kept rebuilding it. It took seven months to find the real business model. In summer 2026 I chose not to continue my internship and went all in on Kato. Since then we've closed our first paying property-manager clients, been recognized by the City of College Park for our work on student housing, and are bringing on a marketing and engineering team.

Alongside Kato, I'm Director of Partnerships at Startup Shell, UMD's student-run incubator, where I manage sponsor and donor relationships, and I run the high-powered rocketry certification program for the Terrapin Rocket Team.

I graduate in May 2027 and plan to be in San Francisco after that. I'm drawn to early-stage problems where I can talk to the customer, build the product, and sell it myself.

AdamPouliot