One operator, four ways. Twenty-two years building companies, products
and systems — then formalizing the engineering underneath what I was
already doing. I don't specialize. I get dropped into a thing that isn't
working and I come out the other side with it running.
Twenty-two years · Six industries · One job
Every room I've ever been put in was already broken when I
got there. That turned out to be the career.
I started my first company at nineteen. Raised the capital,
bought the buildings, and lost the entire portfolio in 2008 when the credit
markets closed. Most people take a hit like that at fifty. I took mine early
enough to still have time to spend it.
What came after was fifteen years of running rooms — restaurants,
nightlife, logistics, consumer packaged goods. Not managing them. Running
them. Being the person responsible when the system breaks at 2am and there
is nobody else to call.
2022: a $1M hospitality business collapsed in thirty days. I found
$634,000 sitting unclaimed in its own payroll records, filed for it,
and turned it into three brands, a 70,000-unit production run, and a signed
LOI on Woodward Avenue. No investor. No dilution. The money was already in
the building. Nobody had read the paperwork.
Then I went and got the degree. B.S. Information Technology, WGU,
2026, eight certifications under it. Not for permission — I already
knew how to build. I was done being the only person in the room who
couldn't prove it on paper.
Now I write Rust and Python and I still run a P&L. Two of those
builds went live this year: traphousetraders.com and
aitrustid.com.
I don't get hired because the résumé is tidy. I get hired
because the thing still works after I leave.
The Professional
MICHAEL
People call me in to scale things. I learn how a business actually
works, then rebuild it on infrastructure that holds. Most recently: a
HIPAA-regulated services company taken from paper files to a fully digitized
AWS operation in under six months, on an engagement I scoped with the owners.
Now
System Administrator — Life and Favor Home Care
Indianapolis, IN · March 2026 — Present
Brought in by ownership to scale the business. I scoped the engagement
directly with the owners and shareholders, delivered past the original scope,
and was retained as salaried System Administrator over the systems I built.
I didn't apply — they called.
Executed the AWS cloud migration end to end — data migration, HIPAA-aligned
access controls, encryption, audit logging — with no interruption to service
at cutover. Implemented HubSpot CRM and Slack as the core operating systems,
then designed and staffed the back-office administration function around them.
AWS
HIPAA
Cloud migration
HubSpot
SOP development
Change management
How I work
I don't need the feature explained to me. I've been the person who
decides what the feature is for — the one signing the vendor contract,
carrying the P&L, answering for the number at the end of the month.
That's the part most engineers have to be handed.
So I move faster than my title suggests. I read the documentation
everybody skips, I find the place the system quietly lies to you, and I
build around it before it costs anybody money. When the budget disappears
mid-build — and it has — I don't shelve the project. I re-engineer it to
survive on less.
I take the job nobody has scoped yet. Then I scope it, build it,
document it, and hand somebody else the runbook.
The Ventures
RAASHAD
I'm the friend people come to to launch. Somebody has an idea. I turn
it into a brand with a category thesis, a price list, packaging that ships, and
a loyalty program. I've run that playbook across restaurants, consumer packaged
goods, real estate and fintech since 2004.
$634K
Capital recovered
70,000
Units, first run
6
Brands launched
The rebuild
Roll & Smoke · Killer Coney Island · Shop Hookah Headz
Co-Founder & Co-Owner · Atlanta, GA & Detroit, MI · 2022 — 2024
A $1M hospitality business collapsed in thirty days. I developed a new
consumer product, pitched it, and financed the launch with $634,000 in
Employee Retention Credits I identified and filed — non-dilutive capital
nobody else in the building had noticed was sitting in the payroll records.
The portable hookah line went from concept to sell-out: product design,
manufacturer sourcing, packaging dielines, pricing, southern U.S. distribution.
First production run of 70,000 units sold out in one summer, peaking at 500
units a day in the French Quarter.
Shop Hookah Headz launched end to end and under budget — brand identity,
packaging design, multi-SKU production, live e-commerce, marketing creative.
Killer Coney reached a signed letter of intent on 3,600 square feet on
Woodward Avenue.
Concept, product design, manufacturer sourcing, dielines, pricing, southern U.S. distribution. First run of 70,000 units sold out in one summer.
Killer Coney Island
Brand book · cover — "To Die For"The thesis · "We Got Next" — why this, hereBrand book · wings, and the marketing planNo tipping · the model, with the dataMenu · sandwiches, brunch, the barMarket sizing · "Numbers don't lie"The dawgs · six builds, namedBurgers · "Pay Like You Weigh"Killer-Aid · the drink markKiller Coney Island · plate 02Killer Coney Island · plate 03Killer Coney Island · plate 04Killer Coney Island · plate 05Killer Coney Island · plate 06Killer Coney Island · plate 07Killer Coney Island · plate 08Killer Coney Island · plate 09Killer Coney Island · plate 10
1 / 18
The brand book end to end: category thesis, market sizing, full menu architecture, packaging system, marketing plan — and a no-tipping model argued from the data (72% of American customers are uncomfortable with tip suggestions; servers paid above the legal rate with a service charge instead). Signed LOI on 3,600 SF, Woodward Avenue.
The build-out — 14131 Woodward Avenue
This is what the landlord handed me to work zoning against. The
existing stamped set for the Highland Park space — site plan and scope,
plumbing supply, kitchen exhaust and hood ventilation with the full BTU and
CFM schedule, equipment schedule, ADA requirements. Drawn by LSA Inc. for
the prior tenant.
My job was to read it and price the deal against it: what the existing
hood and gas service would carry, what the bar addition did to the plumbing,
how the seating count landed against occupancy, what had to be redrawn
before anything could be permitted. A letter of intent on 3,600 SF is a
number on paper until somebody reads the mechanical plan.
Site & scope
Plumbing
Kitchen exhaust
Equipment schedule
ADA
Build cost
Title sheet · site plan and scopePlumbing · supply plan, bar additionKitchen exhaust · hood sections, CFMEquipment · schedule and elevations
1 / 4Tap to read
Four sheets, Highland Park, Michigan. The landlord's existing set, drawn by LSA Inc. — read, priced and negotiated against.
The run, on video
The carton · retail packaging, in handProduct · campaign cutSocial reel · the campaign library in motion
Brand identity, packaging with compliant warning panels, multi-SKU production, a live storefront and the full campaign library. End to end, under budget.
For me to continue, I need equity, profit, design rights, ownership.
The terms, 2022 — IP valued at parity with the cash investment
Before
True Life Management
Founder · 2004 — 2010
Structured as a REIT. Raised capital, deployed it into residential real
estate across Michigan and Ohio, and lost the portfolio when the credit markets
closed in 2008. Twenty-two years later I'm still raising capital — different
instruments, same instinct for finding the money a situation actually has
available to it.
Hookah by Cece
Project Manager, Business Restructuring · Atlanta, GA · 2020 — 2022
Restructured a 90-plus employee hospitality operation and scaled it to
roughly $100,000 in monthly revenue inside a year — through peak COVID, as one
of the few operators still trading in an open market.
Hookah 2 Go · the unit, brandedHookah 2 Go · LED retail cartonHookah by Cece · plate 01Hookah by Cece · plate 02Hookah by Cece · plate 03Hookah by Cece · plate 04Hookah by Cece · plate 05Hookah by Cece · plate 06Hookah by Cece · plate 07Hookah by Cece · plate 08Hookah by Cece · plate 09Hookah by Cece · plate 10Hookah by Cece · plate 11Hookah by Cece · plate 12
1 / 14
Restructuring, brand system and the guest experience program for a 90-plus employee operation.
Trap Burger
Acquired & launched · Detroit, MI
Acquired an independent restaurant concept and secured the location.
Operated it single-handed and chose not to continue without a partner.
Breaking Bread
Breaking Bread · plate 18
1 / 1
Identity, menu architecture and campaign creative.
Pet grooming brand — identity and illustration system.
Trap Burger
Acquired, rebranded, relaunched
Detroit, MI · concept acquisition · live site
Bought an independent burger concept, secured the location, and rebuilt
the brand from the mark down. The OG Trappers line-up is eleven named
builds — The 517 at five dollars for locals, The Motor City on a half
pound of corned beef, The Philly, The Brooklyn, The ATL, The Westside —
each one a city, each one a recipe, priced to be ordered by name.
Identity, product photography direction, menu architecture, the board,
and the live site. The customer prompt on the menu is the part I'd keep:
"Got an OG Trap Burger suggestion? Email us the burger and the toppings.
If selected, free burgers for you all month."
Acquisition
Rebrand
Menu architecture
Naming
E-commerce
Launch
The mark · identityOG Trappers · the boardLive site · shippedThe 517 · always $5 for localsThe Jack · made to orderThe Ganson · chopped, mozzarellaThe Ceal · caramelized onionThe Mike · jalapeño, baconThe Land · fried mozzarella, A1The ATL · hot honeyThe Philly · sirloin and ribeyeThe Brooklyn · chopped cheeseThe Motor City · half pound of corned beefThe Westside · pita
1 / 14
Eleven named builds, one board, one live storefront. Every city on the menu is a city I've worked in.
Nimble
Nimble — an Airtel
Short-stay hospitality · brand and positioning
A category word as the product. An Airtel: hotel-standard
accommodation at a short-let address. The thesis is that home-sharing
won on supply and lost on consistency — so Nimble sells the thing nobody
else guarantees: 24-hour professional staff, full-time property management,
one design standard, every stay.
Identity, positioning and the pitch built together, because the name only
works if the sentence under it does.
Positioning
Category creation
Identity
Hospitality
Property management
The mark · an AirtelPositioning · the argumentNimble × Airtel · the categorySystem · layout and ground
1 / 4
The short-stay thesis that AirMaid was later built to service.
Ho'Cast
Final cover · Hustle or StarveDirection · third passDirection · second passDirection · first pass
1 / 4
Podcast brand, four cover directions to the one that shipped. By Nic and KNWVMBRR, a Bandz production.
Last Ones Laughing
The mark · Worn by WinnersLast Ones Laughing · plate 01Last Ones Laughing · plate 02Last Ones Laughing · plate 03Last Ones Laughing · plate 04
1 / 5
Apparel mark and campaign assets. Worn by winners.
The Operator
McGUIRE
The hands. Before the cloud certifications there were floors, routes,
crews and openings. Everything I know about systems I learned from running
operations where the system failing meant somebody's night went wrong at 2am.
Operations
Veho — Logistics Operations Lead
Detroit, MI · 2023 — 2026
Directed daily distribution of 6,000 to 10,000 packages: route
troubleshooting, fulfillment execution, driver workflows and shrink analysis in
a live, time-critical operation.
Toast on Lenox — Project Manager / Operations Lead
Atlanta, GA · 2022 — 2024
Led a restaurant launch from concept through opening: SOP development,
systems setup, vendor coordination, staffing, marketing execution and event
coordination, reporting to ownership.
Harold's Chicken Ice Bar — Hospitality
Edgewood · Atlanta, GA · 2019 — 2023
High-volume nightlife, bar and hookah operations, guest recovery, staff
training. Harold's was a Chicago staple growing up. Working one in Atlanta was
never only a job.
A system is only as good as whoever is running it at 2am.
Builder & Artist
KNWVMBRR
The handle is the signature. It's painted on the canvases and it's
on the repositories. Same hand, two materials — one works in acrylic, the
other in Rust.
I'm self-taught the way people were before there were courses for it: by
needing the thing to exist and refusing to wait for somebody to build it.
No team, no seed round, no permission. Fourteen broker integrations, a
production stack, and a protocol spec — one pair of hands.
Shipped & live
AITrust-ID
aitrustid.com · Open protocol · Live
An open protocol for labeling AI output with evidence-backed authenticity
tags, checked entirely on the reader's own machine. Nine labels, each carrying
the signals that produced it and the spans they fired on. When confidence falls
below a published floor the system returns UNK instead of guessing.
No paid APIs and no network egress at inference — structurally, not by
policy. Content never leaves the machine; assertions carry a hash and character
offsets, never text. Inverts the category: every competitor sells detection to
institutions so they can accuse people. This one issues receipts to authors so
they can answer the accusation. The specification, reference implementation and
calibration ledger are free permanently.
Person view · the tag setEnterprise view · the gated halfHonest state · "not independently validated"Governance · who owns which outcome
1 / 4Tap to read
Every tag is a card you can open. A capability that isn't ready says so on its own face — "Not independently validated. This capability is not available yet." Most products hide that. This one ships it as a state.
Trap House Traders
traphousetraders.com · Independent venture · 2024 — Present · Live
A Rust-first autonomous trading and financial intelligence platform:
real-time market data ingestion, multi-broker execution, risk controls, AI
reasoning services. Fourteen-plus broker and market data integrations with
failover logic and execution safety boundaries. Full production stack run solo.
I exhausted the initial AI compute budget mid-build. Rather than shelve it, I
re-engineered the pipeline to survive on less — replaced paid third-party
dependencies with internally built services, added cost-aware orchestration and
verification gates, and rebuilt the execution path.
Version 5.4. Separate admin path, separate trader path, and an execution layer that will not place an order without three environment acknowledgements.
In the workshop
SharpShooterBoard
v0.8.8 · Local-first sports intelligence terminal
Probabilistic research platform for NBA, NFL and MLB. Ingests timestamped
sports and sportsbook data, engineers as-of features, trains calibrated models,
simulates multiple futures, grades market edges, analyzes tickets with OCR, and
tracks CLV and bankroll state across FastAPI, Streamlit and Telegram.
Treats operator memory as a hard requirement: the changelog, the inventory
and the lessons-learned file must be updated after every meaningful pass, or the
pass isn't finished.
Rust
Python
Calibrated models
As-of features
OCR
FastAPI
Six First Dates
AI matchmaking platform · React, Expo, FastAPI, private LLM/RAG core
A guided six-date process with an AI coach, a structured playbook and
human matchmaking underneath. React web, Expo mobile, FastAPI backend, a
private LLM/RAG core on Google Cloud Run, consent controls, RBAC and audit
logging. Load-tested to 25,000 simulated users.
The deck below is the part worth showing: my own design review, in red,
over a running build. Flip the input and output so the answer lands at
the bottom. Delete that button entirely and centre the sentence. These two
don't work. Make the hero bigger — "make it like we mean it." Then
the version that shipped.
React
Expo
FastAPI
RAG
RBAC & audit
Design review
Running · localhost, mid-buildRunning · local buildReview · the hero, marked upShipped · the same hero, fixedReview · flip input and outputReview · cut a button, centre the restPreview modal · 3 free, then sign in
1 / 7Tap to read
Build, review in red, ship. The red pen is mine.
Also in the workshop
Agent Michael — a safety-gated trading core where live execution requires
three separate environment acknowledgements before it will place an order.
CEAL — peer-to-peer lending with an AI assistant on both the borrow and lend
side. A county distress-lead workbench with 0–100 scoring and live
underwriting math.
Product design
AirMaid / McMaid — short-let turnover marketplace
Product definition · two-sided marketplace · iOS
Defined from zero on paper: which cities carry the most listings, what a
checkout clean costs today, what it costs to clean one unit in thirty
minutes and six units in a day. Staffing, training, bonding and insurance.
How the cleaner gets paid — same day or next.
Then the product. A job board on a live map, every job priced per room, per
bed and per square foot. A cleaner side and a client side with separate
navigation bars. Supply logistics, a ready / not-ready state per unit, service
notes, and a rating loop where the customer approves, denies or complains.
The personas came before the screens — Sara, 29, eight units, single mom,
works full time. "Just get it done" is her personality.
Product definition
Unit economics
Two-sided marketplace
Personas
Pricing model
SOP design
Job board · map, job box, income barPersonas · profile and review loopClient home · ready / not readyCost calc · per room, bed, sq ftMarket & ops · the money questionsThe SOP · what a clean actually is
1 / 6Tap to read
Six sheets. The market question, the unit economics, the SOP, then the screens — in that order.
Trap Burger — ordering app
Product design · four pages of flow, one component set
A tappable logo menu that stays put on scroll. A greeting that rotates by
name or guest. Then the order path as modals: a draggable burger carousel,
sauce and veggie modals you tap and untap, a combo question that only asks
when it needs to.
Three menus running off one component set — The Brick and Double Up,
Stick-Up Chicken ("how many birds you need?" — 1, 3, 5), and Plug
Taco. The sauce modal is specified once and reused. The note I left
myself on page two was "reduce words."
Flow design
Modal architecture
Component reuse
Voice & microcopy
Mobile ordering
Landing · sign in, or just shopOrder · carousel, sauce, veggieStick-Up Chicken · reused modalsPlug Taco · build your mealMenu page · signed-in and signed-out statesModal notes · add / unadd, shell rotation
1 / 6Tap to read
Four pages. One component set, three menus, and a running argument with myself about word count.
Agent Michael — trading dashboard
Information design · the screen before the code
A trading desk drawn in five pen colours before a single component was
built. Total balance, withdrawable cash, stocks and crypto split out, the
agent's own P&L beside the account's, open positions and plays on an
infinite horizontal scroll, headlines and markets below. Colour is doing
the work: each colour is a data class, not a decoration.
The settings rail is marked invisible until called. The widget
box is sketched in the corner because the layout had to survive widgets
being added later. This is the same safety-gated core that requires three
separate environment acknowledgements before it will place a live order.
Information design
Dashboard layout
Data hierarchy
Fintech
Execution safety
Dashboard · the whole desk, one page
1 / 1Tap to read
One sheet. Every number on the screen placed before anything was built.
Electric 600 — EV rental, built as components
Product design · "My goal is to make EVs more accessible than gas"
Specified component by component before any code: the EV tile, the data
card, the money menu, the rent action. Each one its own unit with a pressed
and unpressed state, light and dark mode, and a defined flip, fade and blur.
Think microservice.
Then the parts most people skip. Per-charge against per-weekend against
membership pricing. The add-on menu that writes to a digital invoice. The
security deposit, split to a second card if you want. ID onboarding that has
to match the payment address. And the adverse path — the branch where no
rental can happen — drawn out in full rather than left for later.
Component architecture
Pricing & packaging
Checkout flow
Onboarding & KYC
Light / dark
Edge cases
Scheduler · now / later, pickup, filtersThe placard · one componentThe placard · states and hoverMoney menu · per charge to membershipAdd-ons · receipt and depositPayment & ID · and the adverse path
1 / 6Tap to read
Six boards. Components first, then pricing, then the invoice, then the path where the rental fails.
Art
$250K
In commissions
1/1
Every piece
0
Galleries, agents, prints
A quarter-million dollars of it, sold direct
Acrylic on canvas · 1 of 1 · Certificate of authenticity
Hard-edge portraiture — flat planes, vectorized rendering, color-block and
currency grounds, Detroit and Chicago iconography. Every piece is a one-off,
signed, with a certificate. No prints, no editions, no reorders.
Commissioned by recording artists and their families across Atlanta and
Detroit, and carried on the collectors' own channels — including a piece
Lil Baby took to the wall on the My Turn press run, in the first
frame below. Priced, pitched, sold and delivered by me. No gallery took a
cut and no agent booked a client.
Acrylic
Portraiture
Currency grounds
1 of 1
Commission
Signed nvmbrr
Post Malone · acrylic on canvas, signed nvmbrDelivered · My Turn press runCommission · acrylic on canvasMan of the Year · the finished canvasMan of the Year · finishedMan of the Year · in the roomCurrency ground · DetroitCurrency ground · detailCommission · signed nvmbrrCommission · detailCommission · acrylic on canvasCurrency ground · commissionHard edge · flat planes, detailLettering · pop groundFinishing · sealing a commissionUnderpainting · in progressRomeo · drawing on raw canvasRomeo · brush in handSet build · clouds, by hand
1 / 19
Hard-edge portraiture on currency and colour-block grounds. Painted, sealed, signed and delivered by hand.
Vendors don't bluff me and engineers don't have to translate.
Why the two halves were never two people
Twenty-two years
The order matters more than any single line in it.
2004True Life Management founded — real estate trust, Michigan and Ohio
2008Credit markets close. Portfolio lost.
2019Harold's Chicken Ice Bar, Edgewood — high-volume nightlife operations
2020Hookah by Cece — restructuring a 90-plus employee operation through COVID
2022The collapse. $634K in ERC identified and filed. Terms renegotiated to co-ownership.
2022–24Roll & Smoke, Killer Coney, Shop Hookah Headz — 70,000 units, sold out in one summer
2023Veho — 6,000 to 10,000 packages a day
2024Trap House Traders — Rust-first trading platform, built solo
2026B.S. Information Technology, WGU. Retained as System Administrator at Life and Favor.
2026traphousetraders.com and aitrustid.com live
Credentials
Every credential is verifiable by link.
8
Certifications
25+
Further credentials
2026
B.S. Information Technology
Technical
CompTIA Security+
CompTIA Network+
CompTIA A+
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
LPI Linux Essentials
Google Cloud
Google IT Support Professional
Practice & education
ITIL Foundation
CAPM · PMI #3924111
Leadership MicroMasters University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
B.S. Information Technology Western Governors University, 2026
