AI Automation & Custom Software for Operators
Midwest Roots. Global Systems.
25 years of P&L ownership: big-box retail, fast-casual & QSR franchising, hotel development and construction. Now building the AI systems that move the bottom line. I speak operator and engineer.
Scaling: IHG • Choice Hotels • Scooter's Coffee • Hawaiian Bros • 17 locations operated • Midwest Roots • Global Systems
The Short Version
Most business software is built by people who've never run a business. They've never made payroll, closed a month, or watched a deal evaporate overnight. I spent 25 years on the other side of that software, and then I got tired of waiting on it.
I became a dad at 22 and a Walmart manager the same year. By 25, I was one of the youngest GMs in Best Buy history. From there I served as COO of Future Health, a healthcare software company later acquired by ChiroTouch, where I led the developers, sysadmins, and support teams that moved a client-server product into SaaS. I then joined an HR consulting firm (Creative HR Solutions) as a Partner, and was eventually recruited as the Chief Operating Officer of a turnkey hotel construction company, where I built and launched our own FF&E company with a global supply chain. I survived a 35% overnight tariff hit on goods at sea, and a $50M hospitality deal that vanished the night the world shut down (COVID). Today, through BraveHart Development, my partners and I develop and open hotels we own and operate 15 Scooter's Coffee and 2 Hawaiian Bros locations across three states.
In every one of those seats, the bottleneck was the same: waiting. Waiting on vendors. Waiting on six-month implementations. Waiting on software built by people who didn't understand the problem because they'd never lived it. I bought the systems, ran the demos, sat through the roadmap calls, and the thing I actually needed was always two quarters away.
Then I taught myself to build with AI, and it was like handing a caveman a lighter. For the first time in 25 years, I could solve an operational problem the same week I found it. What started as scratching my own itch became a portfolio of software products: some live in production, more on the way.
Now I build those same systems for other operators. The rule hasn't changed since I was the one writing the checks: if it doesn't make you money or save you time, I don't build it.
If you've got a problem that's been waiting on a vendor, tell me about it.
Building an AI operating layer for 3 brands across 17 locations
BraveHart develops and opens hotels (operated by Hart Family Hotels once open), and owns and operates 15 Scooter's Coffee and 2 Hawaiian Bros locations across three states. I built The Phi Standard™, my own AI platform, because nothing off the shelf spoke operator.
- ✅One website serving three brands, 17 locations operated, and 400+ teammates
- ✅An AI catering agent handling inquiries end-to-end on bravehartdevelopment.com
- 🔜Multi-brand campaign management, planned and launched from one place
- 🔜An investor portal with live portfolio performance and reporting
- 🔜On-brand content generation with built-in validation and approval workflows
Built by me, deployed on our own businesses first.
Work With Me
Most AI consultants sell the shiny thing: dashboards nobody opens, demos that collect dust. I've spent 25 years on the other side of the table, and I only build what pays for itself. Two ways to engage:
Fractional COO / Director of Operations
For franchise groups, construction & development firms, and hospitality operators who need a senior operator without the full-time hire. I've owned the franchisee seat, run the job sites, and carried the P&L. I'm productive in week one, not quarter two.
2–3 days per week · 90-day initial engagement · Iowa/Nebraska on-site, anywhere remote
AI Implementation Sprint
A fixed-scope, 30-day engagement: I find the 2–3 highest-payback automations in your operation (reporting, scheduling, customer communication, marketing, follow-up) and build them. You own everything I build. If I can't find automations worth more than the engagement costs, I'll tell you in the first week and we part friends.
Fixed price · 30 days · built by me, not handed to an agency
Also open to: board/advisory seats, and speaking on AI for real-world operations. I take on 2–3 clients at a time. No agencies, no handoffs.
Based in central Iowa? See the AI consultant for Des Moines & central Iowa page.
Need a website? Start here
I stopped trying to make AI work and let it work for me
There was a stretch where I started every day panicked and ended it staring at the clock, running the list of what didn't get done. What fixed it wasn't anything I built for a company. It was the assistant I set up for myself.
I do that for other owners and leaders now.
I've Been on Your Side of the Invoice.
Tired of paying your IT company every month and having no idea what they actually do or where the money goes? Paying for software you never use? Emailing for support and hearing nothing back for days? I've been there. I've run the businesses, signed those invoices, and felt every one of those frustrations. That is exactly why I do things differently:
- A written response policy. Four hours, not four days.
- Resolved in 24 hours or that month's care fee is credited. In writing.
- Fixed prices agreed before I start. You always know what you are paying for.
- You own everything. Your site, your data, your accounts, even if we part ways.
For the engineers in the room
Operator language everywhere else on this page. Builder receipts here.
Across the portfolio: 40+ repositories, 9 live production web apps, a multi-tenant platform with an events → outcomes → confidence learning loop, and a 50+ skill compiled library that makes each new build faster than the last. Built, deployed, and operated solo.
φ Platform
Multi-tenant AI platform in production: agentic workflows, LLM content generation with validation and approval pipelines, billing, and event/outcome telemetry that closes a self-learning loop. Gated in CI by 110 engine and architecture tests.
Custom MCP Server
Built a Model Context Protocol server exposing 15+ tools (platform health, migrations, tenant provisioning, event queries), wired into Claude, Cursor, and a long-running agent runtime.
Sovereign Infrastructure
Two self-managed Linux VPSs running an agent gateway, MCP HTTP service, webhook receiver, and automated ingest pipelines under PM2 and systemd, behind Caddy HTTPS, with secrets management and key-based deploys.
Agent Deployment Architecture
A three-surface model (interactive plugins, headless API agents, sovereign-node execution) with fail-closed governance and audit trails, designed for regulated environments.
Personal AI Operating Systems
FounderOS chains goal-directed agent work across sessions with durable memory, reusable skill promotion, and an append-only hash-chained ledger. A second-brain pipeline turns raw inputs into structured insights and daily briefings.
TypeScript / Next.js · Python / FastAPI · Postgres / Supabase · Anthropic & OpenAI APIs · multi-model routing · Stripe · PM2 / systemd / Caddy · Doppler · Vercel
Start Here
Three ways to work together. Every one of them starts with the $750 automation demo.
Need a website? Start here
Automation Starter Project
One high-impact automation
$750
Live demo in 3 days.
One high-impact automation, scoped and shipped fast. You see a working demo in 3 days before you commit to anything bigger. The $750 credits in full toward your 30-day AI Implementation Sprint.
Get Started for $750Need a website? Start here
AI Implementation Sprint
$4,500
Fixed price · 30 days
Two or three automations built and shipped in 30 days. Reporting, scheduling, customer follow-up, or whatever saves you the most time and money. You keep every system we build. Your $750 demo credits toward this.
Get Started for $4,500Fractional COO
Custom
2–3 days/week · 90-day initial
Senior operations leadership 2 to 3 days a week. The initial engagement is 90 days.
Let's talkWhat I've Built
Real products I built myself. Everything below runs on φ, the AI platform I built to run our own companies first.
BraveHart Development
POWERED BY φOne site for three brands, 17 locations, and 400+ teammates; live AI catering agent.
LiveOld Dogg New Tricks
POWERED BY φA complete AI course and quiz funnel teaching managers and professionals how to actually use AI.
LiveWant to talk about what I can build for you?
I take on 2-3 projects at a time. No agencies, no handoffs. I build it myself.
I'll reply within 24 hours. No spam, no newsletter, just a real conversation.