High growth + high intelligence
I help founders and business owners integrate AI into their businesses.
I’ve managed $10M in P&Ls, achieved 15% YoY growth, and coached dozens for leaders to achieve similar results.
If you are currently on a plateau or struggling to growth your business and team, I can help. I’ve been there, solved for that.
Companies I’ve Worked For
My Story
I’ve built what you’re building. I’m enjoying life.
I’ve spent 20+ years building products and leading teams. Along the way, I picked up my ICF ACC coaching credential, because the hardest problems in tech were never technical. They were human.
My career started in WordPress. First for a defunct WordPress theme company, then Liquid Web, then iThemes (after the acquisition), then RocketGenius (the team behind Gravity Forms). I learned what it takes to ship products at scale. And what it costs the team when leadership gets it wrong. From there, I moved to BitLyft, a small cybersecurity firm. Then Jackson National in financial services. Small and scrappy. Large and regulated. I’ve worked inside both.
Now I run a solo practice with two sides. I coach founders who are doing too much and quietly wondering if they’re the bottleneck. (Usually, yes. And it’s fixable.) I also help mid-market companies actually move on AI — the practical change-management work, not the press release.
A few things shape how I work. I’m anti-hustle. Sustainable beats heroic, almost every time. I’m family-anchored. I coach soccer, help my kid with school projects, and close the laptop when it’s time. I’m a builder by reflex. I learn in public, because the ground is moving too fast to pretend otherwise.
If you’re a founder trying to build something real without burning down your life — or a company trying to bring AI inside the walls without the theater — let’s talk. I don’t have all the answers. Nobody does right now. But I’ve made enough of the mistakes to help you make different ones.
This is the whole point
Building a Life to Enjoy
in their words
You don’t have to take my word for it
My MCode Impact Session with AJ gave me the clarity I was looking for to understand what motivates me. I was able to realign my work and shift to a mindset of satisfaction while feeling energized about the work I do.
Douglas F.
Verified
AJ has been there and done it all. He brings a diverse and deep set of experiences to every call. He’s an amazing listener who follows up with thoughtful questions that help you think bigger and see more clearly. Our MCode coaching session helped me see myself in new, empowering ways—and the insights and ideas he shared were immediately actionable and impactful.
Cory M.
Verified
AJ is a trusted expert within OTO and across the coaching neighborhood. He is a go to person for his peers and his leadership team. He has been able to professionally challenge current ways of working, offer a fresh perspective and make those around him think about old situations in a new way.
Brittni S.
Verified
Working with AJ to better understand what motivates me allowed me to find new meaning in my work. I was able to align my responsibilities in a way that allowed me to focus on energy giving activities first, while turning attention to activities that I didn’t enjoy.
Kelly S.
Verified
AJ has observed several ACES teams. He has been able to participate in hearing feedback from all leadership; however, AJ is open to understanding all perspectives as an un-biased party to be able to provide suggestions/improvements to allow the teams to be more successful.
Brandy H.
Verified
AJ is a great partner to our team. He understands our overall vision and makes suggestions that will help us meet our targets. He doesn’t shy away from controversial topics and enabled our team to a common understanding to make progress towards our goals.
Kim B.
Verified
Lead Better. Work Smarter. Every Week.
One weekly email to help you grow as a leader, stay aligned with what drives you, and systematize how you show up — consistently and intentionally — in your work and life.
My Writing & Thinking
Latest articles
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Why I Stopped Defaulting to OpenAI
My GitHub history shows an arc from OpenAI to Gemini to Claude — not from conviction but from accumulated experience, with OpenAI still winning specific jobs like Whisper and long-running terminal tasks.
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MCP Is the Glue I Didn’t Know I Needed
MCP matters not as a spec but as the practical layer that stops you from copy-pasting between apps — the moment it becomes real is the first time an agent publishes to Notion, sends a Telegram message, and reads your calendar without you touching any of them.
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What Cowork Changed About How I Run Agents
Cloud-executed agents removed the laptop-must-be-open constraint and changed not just convenience but which tasks I am willing to assign — shifting the relationship from supervision to management.
Don’t figure this out alone
Whether you’re a builder or a founder leading a growing team, we can architect the systems you need to focus on what actually moves the needle.
30 Minutes. No Pitch. For Founders doing $50k+/year. I’ll tell you if it’s not a fit.