Founder · Advisor · Writer

I turn AI and engineering into companies.

I build AI-native products and advise the founders and CTOs scaling them. Formerly the Chief AI Officer and CTO who took BuildOps to a unicorn by rebuilding it around AI. I scaled Weedmaps past 300 engineers to IPO, and built and sold a company for $550M as its VP of Engineering. I write here every other week.

BuildOps → unicorn, as CAIO/CTO

Weedmaps → 300+ eng, IPO

ShopKeep → $550M, as VPE

Building

// grazier ventures

Flagship

Aqen

The AI cofounder I build everything else with. It runs the research, drafting, and code behind every project on this page, and it is how a team of one ships like a team of ten.

aqen.ai →

Commonplace

A local knowledge graph that gives AI agents memory that can’t leak.

Civic-SLM

A small language model trained on my city’s public records.

Highball

A transit tool I built because I wanted it.

Latest writing

every other week

Read all essays →

Advising · TideHelm

I work with founders, investors, and CTOs on the calls that shape an engineering org for years: the first VP Eng hire, post-Series B scaling, a platform rewrite, technical diligence, CTO succession.