The Story
Built by a builder,
not a consultant
Engineer-turned-PM. Twenty years building production software that people depend on daily, not demos. Texas A&M, Electronics Engineering Technology.
Most recently, deeply AI-amplified. On a federal infrastructure engagement I used AI to generate architecture reviews, security assessments, PRDs, and exec status at velocity traditional staffing couldn't match. Same workflow goes into every LvlUp engagement.
Before that: $4B GMV roadmap ownership at Volusion, virtual product launch in 60 days at Camp Gladiator (12 → 50 states, 15 countries, 400% surge, 99.9%+ uptime), and a 30-engineer consultancy + TWC-certified coding academy at an Austin tech venture (active, name withheld).
LvlUp packages that experience for the businesses that have never had access to it.
"I use AI to do the work. Most consultants use AI to look like they're doing the work. The difference shows up in what gets shipped."
— Ken Jackson, Founder · LvlUp Agency
How I build
For automation: n8n, Airtable, OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, and the platforms clients are already running on — nothing that requires a developer to maintain after handoff.
For web: Next.js, deployed on modern serverless infrastructure, built for performance and SEO from day one. Every site integrates cleanly with the AI systems we ship.
Currently Shipping · 2026
Active engagements,
right now.
Lvl Up isn't a launch — it's a productized version of work I'm already doing at scale. Two active engagements at the time of writing:
Enterprise AI consulting
Fortune 500 government-services prime contractor (under NDA)
Subcontracted through a partner AI consultancy. Active 2026 engagement spanning operations automation, onboarding compliance platform audits, code reviews, executive briefings, and pre-sale solution-brief authoring. Multi-quarter, multi-project scope under one engagement.
Read the case study →AI launch consulting
Voice of Reason.ai — Biographer
Kickstarter Strategy & Launch consulting for an AI-assisted product helping people capture life stories. Phase 1 (active): Key Constraints & Opportunities + Messaging, Ethics & Claims foundation. The risk-aware launch work that has to happen BEFORE any AI product touching personal subject matter ships.
Voice of Reason case study →Recent Engagements
The work behind
the audit.
The methodology you get with the AI Operations Audit is the same methodology I've applied for federal infrastructure, GenAI startups, fintech marketplaces, and PropTech platforms over the last four years. Different domains, same rigor.
Federal Infrastructure (via contract)
GovTech · Data Center Operations
Engaged as principal product architect across two parallel workstreams supporting a major cloud provider's data center operations. Co-authored formal SOW, C-suite visual roadmap, and a ~$478K program strategy with leadership. Conducted code-verified workflow analysis quantifying 120 hrs/week in recoverable manual effort across three FTEs. AI-amplified throughout — used AI to generate architecture reviews, security assessments, code audits, state machines, user flows, sprint plans, PRDs, user stories, and exec status reports at velocity traditional PM resourcing couldn't match.
Agentic AI ad-generation platform (under NDA)
GenAI · AdTech
Led product delivery for an agentic AI ad-generation platform. Defined the prompt architecture and integrated DALL-E and Stability API workflows to automate creative production, reducing iteration cycles and improving campaign setup efficiency.
Fintech marketplace (under NDA)
Fintech · Stripe Treasury
Owned product definition for automated escrow and payment workflows using Stripe Treasury and Banking. Replaced legacy manual processes with a multi-stage funds-flow MVP, coordinating between legal compliance and offshore engineering.
Austin Choice Realty
Real Estate · Brokerage Launch
Launched a new real estate brokerage in Austin for a top-performing REALTOR. Built the entire company infrastructure end-to-end — marketing website, CRM, Google Workspace, accounting, and HR tools — and ran the multi-channel marketing campaigns from day one. The full-stack pattern that LvlUp now packages for other small businesses.
Cipher
Personal Infrastructure · AI Life Assistant (built for myself)
Designed and built Cipher — a personal AI life assistant on Next.js + Supabase + n8n with embeddings, capability snapshots, and a memory system. It's the testbed where I prove the patterns I sell. Same playbook (audit → spec → build → tune in production) that the LvlUp Implementation Sprint follows. If I won't run it on my own life, I won't ship it for yours.
Career Timeline
The track record
2021–Present
Lvl Up Agency LLC
Founder & Principal Product Leader
Fractional Head of Product across AI, fintech, and SaaS. Discovery through production, distributed teams, 8–12 week MVP cycles. Shipped 8+ production MVPs across 10+ recent engagements. AI-amplified delivery throughout — architecture reviews, security assessments, PRDs, and exec status at velocity traditional staffing can't match.
2019–2021
Camp Gladiator
VP of Engineering & Acting Head of Product
Led an 18-person product + eng org (12 onshore, 6 nearshore) for a 100K+ subscriber consumer fitness platform. Launched a new virtual product in 60 days during the COVID pivot — 12 states to all 50 + 15 countries, 99.9%+ uptime sustained through a ~400% user-activity surge. Drove Salesforce CRM rollout across a 5,000+ trainer network. Modernized CI/CD: cut release-cycle time ~70%.
2017–2019
Founding partner — Austin tech venture (active company, name withheld)
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer
Co-founded a multi-line tech venture: software consultancy + product incubator + Texas Workforce Commission-certified 6-month coding academy. Scaled the consulting practice to 30+ engineers delivering 20+ custom platform engagements. Vetted 20+ founders as CPO of the incubator and took 5 early-stage products to market in year one. Built the academy curriculum, taught multiple cohorts (50+ graduating engineers), and arranged the loan-provider relationships that made the academy financially accessible. Did all branding for the parent venture and the academy.
2012–2017
Volusion
Vice President of Product
Owned roadmap and execution for a multi-tenant SaaS ecommerce platform serving 50,000+ merchants processing $4B+ GMV annually. Incubated and shipped Volusion's next-gen cloud-native, API-first, mobile-first platform. Drove Lean Startup, agile, DevOps, TDD, and CI/CD cultural transformation across the platform delivery org.
2007–2008
Invodo Inc.
VP of Technology · First Strategic Hire
Brought the company to Austin as their first strategic hire. Built office, infrastructure, and a 7-person founding team. Operated as lead PM and shipped inaugural contracts with 7 national brands — AARP, Got Milk?, Men's Health, Rodale, Gold's Gym, Spri, and Powerblock — including a Flash video player with iPod-export playlists for the Got Milk? campaign.
2000–2012
Headspring · Catapult · RFD · Field Asset Services · others
Senior Engineer & Concurrent Founder
Senior software engineering and technical consulting across Austin's startup and enterprise ecosystem. Selected: Headspring (Tarrant & Bexar juvenile justice platforms), Catapult (Dell enterprise frameworks; AMD Vignette → SharePoint 2007 migration), Field Asset Services (sole engineer for a $30M+ nationwide REO platform). Concurrent founder/CTO roles spanning REO, ecommerce, and local-search SaaS.
How We Work
Four things that
don't change
Diagnose before building
The worst outcome is building the wrong thing beautifully. Every engagement starts with a structured diagnostic to find the highest-impact opportunities first — that's why the AI Audit is the entry point.
You talk to the builder
No account managers. No handoffs. The same person who runs the audit writes the report, builds the automations, and supports the work post-launch. That's not a limitation — it's the whole differentiator.
AI-amplified, human-judged
I use AI heavily — to draft, to analyze, to accelerate. But every decision passes through human judgment before it ships. The combination is what makes the velocity possible without the quality drop.
Fixed scope, fixed price, fast
No hourly billing. No vague retainers. Every offering has a defined scope, a defined deliverable, and a defined price — so you know exactly what you're getting before you commit.