Howdy, good day
AI-native tech + growth builder,AI Wrangler for brands.
Empowering brands and ventures at the intersection of AI technology, creative, and growth.
Rooted in the art of digital creation and a lifelong obsession with technology — not just a technologist, but a creative, a growth architect, and a builder of new ventures.
Working alongside executives, brands, and entrepreneurs to craft and execute AI-native products and growth that push ideas from vision into reality.
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Field Notes.
Videotechnology · October 12, 2026
The Most Expensive Thing in AI Isn’t Credits
The most expensive thing in AI isn’t credits — it’s your time. A walkthrough of the True Kin AI OS early preview, and an invite to join as an early-access development partner.
Videotechnology · August 26, 2026
AI Wrangler made the local news.
Funny where this thing started. I was writing LinkedIn posts about AI. That was it, no plan behind it. Then the DMs started coming in. Operators, owners, business leaders, all…
Videotechnology · August 17, 2026
Episode #1 of AI Wrangler on the Streets: Meet Cole, he is building the first eCommerce…
…website for his family's business, A&R Meats in Red Bluff, CA. Their entire product list lives in a paper notebook. To get it online, he'd normally type every item, every price,…
technology · May 29, 2026
The more folks use AI, the less creative the internet is getting.
I didn't expect that. But we're seeing it everywhere, the same fonts, the same layouts, the same color palettes, the same "voice." Brands are blending into one giant blur.…
technology · May 22, 2026
Happy Memorial Day weekend, we remember the men and women who gave everything, and the…
…families who still feel the absence. Thank you. The freedom to build, gather, and dream is your legacy. 🇺🇸 Hoping everyone gets to make a lot of memories with the people who…
technology · May 15, 2026
Got a call from an entrepreneur today.
He's retired. Or supposed to be. He was telling me about AI, Claude he's playing with, things he's building, causes he is supporting. Then he said: "I made a business plan." I…
technology · April 15, 2026
A $4 billion Silicon Valley sneaker icon just sold its entire shoe business, to become an…
…AI GPU landlord. Yes, really. Allbirds, the company that defined the "tech bro shoe" era is exiting footwear completely, rebranding as NewBird AI, and raising $50M in convertible…
technology · April 8, 2026
62% of business calls go unanswered.
That's not a typo. That's a crisis. I had Claude run the math. The average business owner answers only 38% of their inbound calls. That means 62 out of every 100 calls go to…
Videotechnology · August 26, 2026
Had fun conversation with Ben Seidl and Cam Hering on the Last 50 Ft podcast by Autolane…
…yesterday. We covered a lot of ground: my entrepreneurial journey from building websites in middle school, agencies, venture studio, to building public marketplace lockers, to my…
Videotechnology · August 11, 2026
Go into your Shopify admin and add up what your apps cost you every month.
Most brands are surprised by the number. Almost nobody can name what half of them do. One brand had $500 a month of that going to a wholesale portal. Missing many features…
Videotechnology · June 19, 2026
About 10 months ago I got my first MRI.
It found a lovely herniated disk. The machine itself felt like something from decades ago, loud, slow, and claustrophobic. Good news though, I’m much better now I would have never…
Videotechnology · May 27, 2026
Last Sunday, my niece asked me if I can shoot her senior photos.
She sent me a few inspiration shots, clean, studio-lit, the kind you'd pay a photographer with a studio for. I said: "I can do that with AI" Then I shot them in my living room. No…
technology · May 21, 2026
8,000 of the sharpest minds in tech just hit the market.
Meta restructured this week, roughly 10% of the workforce as they go all-in on becoming AI-first. Here's what's getting me excited: There are over 100,000 US companies in the…
technology · May 13, 2026
AI's hottest 2026 job: "Forward-Deployed AI Engineer."
→ Postings up 800%+ in 2025 → Comp: $350K–$550K → Palantir, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Salesforce (1,000+ hires) all racing to staff up What's an Forward-Deployed AI Engineer? Not…
technology · April 15, 2026
Today I searched "western cowboy boots size 11.5" on a major western brand's Shopify…
…website. The result? "No products found." A western brand. That sells cowboy boots. Couldn't find its own cowboy boots. I might as well flip open a catalog and call in my order.…
technology · April 4, 2026
Early preview of the AI Wrangler sticker pack.
I've been obsessed with stickers since I built my first online media platform, born from a love for biking adventures in middle school. Every brand I've worked on, one of the…
Videotechnology · August 26, 2026
Episode 2 of AI Wrangler On the Streets: Nearly 20 years ago I helped Norissa Harman…
…launch Girls With Guns Clothing first website. This week we sat down to put AI to work inside her business. She's a serial entrepreneur, and she already uses AI every day. Her…
Videotechnology · July 6, 2026
I’m excited to announce my new venture: CMG.
I stepped away from agency life in 2019, and AI is what pulled me back. I've always loved the same thing: working with emerging brands and accelerating their results. AI brought…
technology · June 26, 2026
Just landed in LA with my son Carson, to kick off our first annual father-son adventure…
…trip. First stop, we are going to VidCon. Full days of creators, meeting his favorites creators in real life, and maybe a core memory of inspiration. Its also Creators AI R&D.…
technology · May 28, 2026
And if you're an AI Wrangler like me, you're not running 3 agents.
You're orchestrating a living swarm of 25+ AI Agents in parallel each one chasing its own wild thread, iterating them real time, cross-pollinating breakthroughs across the network…
technology · May 20, 2026
Today, I was walking through a new website build which has a product config wizard…
…builder, bundle flow on Shopify built with Claude Code and Shopify CLI. I got stopped mid-demo: "Van, what you've done in the past week would have taken three months and a stack…
Videotechnology · April 22, 2026
Fun build night tonight in the AI Wrangler lab.
My 7-year-old just used Claude Code + Wispr Flow to build a working Pokédex app with TWO cameras and a soundboard. 🛠️🚀 He didn't type a line of code. He talked. Wispr Flow turned…
technology · April 14, 2026
It's rodeo week in my hometown of Red Bluff, the world's largest 3-day rodeo.
If you've never been to a rodeo, here's the thing people don't realize: wrangling isn't about brute force. It's about reading the animal, knowing when to pull and when to let go,…
technology · April 3, 2026
A $1.8B revenue company… with just 2 employees powered by AI.
This isn't the future. It's now. Today, NYT just profiled Medvi, a telehealth GLP-1 startup launched in Sept 2024 from a house in LA with $20k and zero outside funding. The…