J·L
Justin Lea

Barton Springs.
Justin Lea, Austin
Austin, 2026.

You're probably here because something in your life isn't settled. You're thinking about starting a thing, or leaving a thing, or finally admitting to yourself what you already know. I've been there more than once, and more than once I've been wrong. You have less time than you think. You have more time than you fear. Whatever's next doesn't need permission, it needs a first move. This page is a record of what a first move can become. Take what you need.

The Ledger

A law practice. A restaurant group. A youth soccer league of six hundred players. A FIFA-rated field. A circumnavigation. A tequila brand. An American sports brand. A hand-stitched soccer ball and a workshop in the Colombian Andes. A data intelligence practice reading businesses from Texas public records.

Education
Education

Grinnell College

1997 – 2001 · Grinnell, Iowa

Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Trustee Honor Scholarship. Varsity baseball and soccer.

Education

Oxford, St. Edmund Hall

Summer 2002 · Oxford, England

Comparative criminal procedure and British legal history.

Education

Marquette Law

2001 – 2004 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Juris Doctor. Sports and tax law focus. Thesis on the evolution of law within western civilization.

Legal Practice
Legal Practice

Kirkland & Ellis

2004 – 2006 · Washington, D.C.

Contract attorney on major international antitrust litigation.

Legal Practice

Maestas Law Office

2006 – 2009 · Taos, New Mexico

Associate under Alan Maestas. Criminal defense and civil litigation for the underrepresented.

Legal Practice

Law Office of Justin Lea

2010 – 2016 · Taos, New Mexico

General practice. Two hundred active cases a year. In court most days.

Taos
Civic

Taos Youth Soccer

2006 – 2012 · Taos, New Mexico

Largest youth organization in Taos. Six hundred and fifty members. Built the fields they played on.

Civic

New Mexico Legal Aid

2008 – 2013 · New Mexico

Vice Chairman, Finance Committee. Five million a year allocated to legal services for indigent clients.

Civic

Taos Planning & Zoning

2009 – 2015 · Taos, New Mexico

Chairman. Appointed unanimously. Presided over preliminary and final public hearings.

Civic

Taos Eco Park

2009 – 2015 · Taos, New Mexico

Twenty-three acres. FIFA rated. Built through a town council and a school board that had never agreed on anything.

Venture

Taos Brewing Company

2013 – 2025 · Taos, New Mexico

Restructured a collapsing brewery. Ran it twelve years. Closed honestly last November. Some things you fight for even knowing how they end.

Consulting

La Caza Tequila

2018 – 2022

Lead consultant. Concept to thirty states. Three-SKU ultra-premium brand.

The Long Drive
Endeavor

Circumnavigation

2015 – 2017 · Thirty-six countries

A 1996 Land Cruiser across Asia, North Africa, and Europe. Kuala Lumpur to London across land.

Hayworth
Venture

Hayworth Athletic

2018 – now · Austin, Texas

America's soccer brand. Founder and CEO. One hundred and fifty-two prototypes. Named for the moment Red gave Andy the poster.

Manufacturing

Good Stitch S.A.S.

2018 – now · Monguí, Colombia

Soccer ball workshop in the Colombian Andes. Eight employees. Living wages. Five hundred balls a month.

Austin
Consulting

J.B. Lea, LLC

2018 – now · Austin, Texas

Independent consulting practice. Business plans, negotiations, investor packages, long-term engagements.

Venture

Cash Out Data

2024 – now · Austin, Texas

Alcohol revenue intelligence for Austin. Twelve hundred bars across sixty-seven corridors, built from Texas Comptroller filings.

Practice

Public Data Intelligence

2025 – now

A methodology for reading a business from public records in a week, not a quarter. Currently in live proof-of-concept.

Civic

Barton Springs Project

2026 – now · 78704, Austin

Democratizing economic sight for 78704. Public data applied to aquifer drought, tax assessments, and corridor decline.

Consulting

Roofing Business Consulting

2026 – now · Austin, Texas

Commercial insurance claims and operational consulting for a Texas-based commercial roofing practice.

Inquiry

Staircase

2026 – now

Structured merger arbitrage methodology. Four-factor framework. Direction-of-edge discipline before any capital is risked.

Thesis

Texas Domesday Book

2026 – now · Ongoing

Current ongoing project. Joined, queryable, cross-referenced public data across Texas agencies. The platform hiding inside five ventures.

Currently
Cash Out Data

Austin alcohol revenue intelligence.

Twelve hundred bars across sixty-seven corridors. Built from Texas Comptroller filings. Refreshed monthly.

Public Data Intelligence

A business read from public records in a week.

Public data joined and cross-referenced. Pricing, permits, capacity, and competition read in days.

Hayworth Athletic

America's soccer brand.

H·W

Hand-stitched in Monguí, Colombia. One hundred and fifty-two prototypes. Eight years.

Hayworth Studio

No. 152, the Standard Model.

Design your own ball. Colors, panels, embossing, screenprint. Made in the Andes.

The Network
Connects to

Every edge is a real relationship. Hover to follow it. Click to hold. Drag to arrange.

The Atlas
N

Places lived, worked, studied, or passed through long enough to remember.

Taos Ale House
I.Taos Ale House. Twelve years, closed honestly.
La Caza tequila bottles
II.La Caza. Concept to thirty states.
Hand stitching a soccer ball, Monguí
III.Monguí, Colombia. Three hours per ball.
Vintage soccer match, pre-game handshake
IV.The sport, older than the brand.
Hayworth No. 152 detail
V.No. 152. The standard model.
The Circumnavigation

A 1996 Land Cruiser, two container ships, and two years living on top of a truck. Kuala Lumpur to London across land. Thirty-six countries. Visa trapped in Tajikistan, finding God in Corfu, fixing a broken transmission in southern Laos. Every venture built since carries something picked up on that road.

Maersk container ship at sea
VI.The ship, between ports.
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
3.1390° N · 101.6869° E
Chengdu
China
30.5728° N · 104.0668° E
Dushanbe
Tajikistan
38.5598° N · 68.7870° E
Tbilisi
Georgia
41.7151° N · 44.8271° E
Corfu
Greece
39.6243° N · 19.9217° E
Ouarzazate
Morocco
30.9189° N · 6.8934° W
Bordeaux
France
44.8378° N · 0.5792° W
London
England
51.5074° N · 0.1278° W
1996 Land Cruiser, overland
VII.The truck, on the road.

Two years, thirty-six countries, one truck.

Answers
What kind of problems do you take on?
Early-stage builds, operational turnarounds, and inflection points where an organization needs structure, clarity, or renewal. I am most useful where there is ambition but incomplete infrastructure, or where a longstanding business needs disciplined execution to regain its edge.
What do you actually do?
I take ideas that exist only in conversation and build the structure required to make them real. Clarifying the business model, building operational systems, aligning people, and staying with execution until the concept stands on its own.
How do you think about numbers?
A P&L should tell a clear story. I help teams understand what their numbers are actually saying: where margin is leaking, where complexity is hiding, and what must change to create durability. Financial clarity is not about spreadsheets. It is about knowing where to look, asking the right questions, and digging deeper than you thought was possible.
What makes you useful in complex situations?
I am comfortable navigating problems that have not been solved before. Cross-border logistics, regulatory hurdles, distressed operations, unconventional partnerships. I build relationships across silos and create connections that did not previously exist.
What can't you do?
Plenty. I don't write code. I've never taken a company public. I don't understand biotech. I will tell you early when I'm the wrong person for something.
One Question

What are you building that no one knows about yet?

Thank you. I'll read it.

J·L