I grew a local digital advertising business to $40 million in annual revenue with industry-leading margins and a 92% client retention rate. While running that operation, I watched enterprise tools burn through our budget — $22,000 a month for platforms that delivered generic reports nobody acted on.
No CS degree. No engineering team. No venture funding. Just twenty years of domain expertise and a conviction that the people who understand the problem should be the ones building the solution.
So I built it. All of it — while still running the business. An entire operating ecosystem — media planning, order management, competitive intelligence, sales forecasting, document processing, inventory management — powered by agentic AI that actually understands what our clients need.
Not automation. Intelligence. Systems that research prospects, analyze competitors, score deals, and generate strategic recommendations tied to real client needs. This isn’t where the industry was headed — it’s where it needed to be decades ago.
Why? Because local journalism is dying — and nobody else is going to save it. Every dollar of efficiency I create funds another reporter, another investigation, another story that holds power accountable. If the business side can’t sustain the mission, the mission disappears. So why not me.