I got my MBA

I realized where I was going, so I went and got my MBA. I've always had a passion for teaching and training, and I had a vision of what I wanted this to be.

Five rounds of layoffs

Toward the end of my time at Purple, we'd been through five layoffs. I thought:

"There's got to be a better way."

I went full time as a startup CTO

A small startup reached out. I built their software for them and took the leap to go full time as their CTO.

The first check came. The second never did.

That left me with no job in one of the worst downturns for engineers in the history of engineering.

I went back to an idea I'd been toying with

Helping people use AI, and the tools I'd learned, way more effectively. I kept learning, kept building, and stayed sharp on AI and the best practices.

I finished the job anyway

I finished that startup's project even though they had no money. Then I built a project for another company, for equity, to make sure I really had the chops in this AI stuff. Both work today, both have pilot clients, and both are seeking funding.

AI is genuinely easy to use

There are practices you need to learn, but they aren't engineering things. I call it AI hygiene. And the real ROI isn't a workflow or a program. It's changing the way you interface with your computer.

No one was walking people through it

You can find a hundred AI trainers on YouTube. No one was going through the process with people and helping them actually learn it.