The work
What I’ve built, and who I built it with
Faana
Co-founder · 2025 to now
The partnership
A fractional executive
Autumn Manning joins the leadership team after a kickoff workshop and moves critical work forward from the inside.
For companies where what worked at the last stage isn’t working at this one
Helping founder-led companies grow well
Faana works alongside founders and CEOs on growth when the company hits a real inflection point. That growth comes from three places: culture, how people experience the company from the inside; customer, how the market experiences it; and community, the connection and value the company creates beyond the transaction. Faana is a transformation company building stronger leaders, healthier companies and more connected communities. Autumn Manning founded it and leads it as CEO, and I’m her co-founder, leading the platform that supports the work.
With Autumn Manning and the Faana team
Kreneon
Technical lead · 2026 to now
The problem
About one in four
Texans in 2080 would have less than half the city water they need in a repeat of the worst drought on record, if none of the state water plan is carried out.
For the cities and companies that need new water supply
Signed records for plants that make new water
Texas could be 5.8 million acre-feet of water a year short by 2080 if its worst drought on record comes back, and the plants that make new water, from desalination to industrial reuse, need money to get built. Kreneon is designing contracts for cities and companies to fund those plants together, and the registry those contracts settle against. Mike Ulwelling, Kreneon’s CEO, who started Ideagility with me in 2010, brought me in as technical lead, and I architect that registry with the Kreneon team, so each plant’s output arrives as a signed record that a lender, a buyer and a regulator can all trace back to the meter.
Built with Mike Ulwelling and the Kreneon team
Debt Hacker
Founder and inventor, not yet launched · 2024 to now
The problem
About half
of credit card accounts in use carry a balance from month to month, at rates that average about 22 percent.
For people who owe more on their credit cards than they can pay down fast
Built for the other side of the table
Card issuers decide how far above the prime rate to price a card, and in 2024 that markup hit a record. I invented Debt Hacker for the people paying it, who owe more on their cards than they can pay down fast, to give them a plan for this month built on their own cards, explained in plain English.
With help from Patrick Hrabos
Lost Horizon
Founder · 2021 to now
The result
Guest Favorites
Both the Satao and the Hideout carry Airbnb’s Guest Favorite badge, which Airbnb gives the homes guests love most, based on ratings, reviews and reliability.
For guests who want a quiet weekend on a Texas wildlife ranch
Comfort in wild country
I designed two stays on raw Hill Country land near Kempner, and we built the solar power, battery bank and water systems that go with them. The Satao is a safari tent on a deck six feet up, with a soaking tub under a roof that opens to the sky, and the Hideout is a container tiny home with a Japanese soaking tub.
Shep
Head of Engineering, then advisor · 2020 to 2022
The result
Acquired
by Flight Centre Travel Group, the parent of FCM, in December 2021.
For corporate travelers who needed current COVID guidance while they booked
Teaching a browser extension to read any travel site
I joined Shep as head of engineering in February 2020, a few weeks before COVID shut down travel, alongside its founders Daniel Senyard and Rey Garcia and a small engineering team. I architected the machine learning that taught Shep’s browser extension to read travel sites it had never been coded for, and we used it to deliver destination-specific COVID guidance to corporate travelers. The data architecture I designed carried us through the security reviews behind the enterprise pilots we won while travel was shut down. Flight Centre Travel Group acquired Shep in December 2021.
Built with Daniel Senyard, Rey Garcia and the Shep engineering team
Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report
VP of Technology · 2017 to 2020
The result
100X
increase in the visitor to paid-subscriber conversion rate.
For a members-only travel guide that had to grow on memberships alone
Turning around a luxury travel publisher
Hideaway Report had just sold its travel and advertising businesses when I came in as VP of Technology in 2017, and what was left had to grow on memberships alone. Working with CEO Crista Bailey, I rebuilt the engineering team, and together we built a modern data stack with Fishtown Analytics, now dbt Labs, started scoring visitors with machine learning, and paved the way for a 100X increase in the visitor to paid-subscriber conversion rate.
Built with Crista Bailey and the Hideaway Report team
Ideagility
Co-founder and CTO · 2010 to 2014
The result
$0 → $1M
a year in recurring revenue for AgileBid, grown with Mike Ulwelling and the Ideagility team.
For businesses paying for every click on Google and Bing, from franchise owners to the Portland Trail Blazers
Taking the hand-tuning out of pay-per-click
At BRC, the search marketing firm I founded in 2002, our people spent their days adjusting pay-per-click bids by hand, so we built a system that did most of it for them. That system became AgileBid, and in 2010 Mike Ulwelling and I started Ideagility to take it to market, with me leading product and engineering as CTO. With Mike and the Ideagility team we grew it to a million dollars a year in recurring revenue, with customers like ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids and the Portland Trail Blazers.
Built with Mike Ulwelling and the Ideagility team
Primo Chalk
Founder · 2009 to 2020
The result
Still on shelves
We sold Primo Chalk in 2020, and you can still buy it today.
For climbers and lifters who want a grip that lasts and calluses that don’t tear
A better grip chalk, from formula to shelf
I founded Primo Chalk in 2009 to give climbers and lifters a better grip chalk. I developed the formula and designed most of the manufacturing process and machinery, and the Primo team and I scaled production and got Primo Chalk sold through Rogue, EliteFTS and Amazon. We went through SKU, Austin’s accelerator for consumer products companies, in the spring of 2015, and sold the company in 2020.
Built with the Primo team
Industries I’ve worked in
Most CEOs ask early whether I’ve worked in their world. Here’s where I have, and what I did there.
Travel and hospitality
Turned around Hideaway Report, led engineering at Shep, and built and run Lost Horizon.
Fintech and lending
Managed engineering teams at Mozido, built a mortgage lender’s data platform, and invented Debt Hacker.
Consumer products
Founded Primo Chalk, formulated and manufactured it, and sold it in 2020.
Marketing and ad tech
Founded BRC and co-founded Ideagility, whose AgileBid grew to a million dollars a year.
Supply chain
Led engineering at Mercado Labs, an import supply-chain platform.
Health sciences
Led a migration from Oracle to Snowflake for a health sciences company.
Water infrastructure
Technical lead at Kreneon, building a registry for metered water production.
Leadership and people
Co-founder of Faana with Autumn Manning, building the platform behind her method.