Builder of companies, furniture, and a good life.
Husband to Tina since 1988. Founder of Buildtelligence and That! Company, and builder of ThinkFreely. Off the clock, you'll find me with my family, in the workshop, under the stars, or alongside Gunny.
The things that make me, me.
Work is a big part of my life, but it's not the whole story. Here's where you'll find me the rest of the time.
Tina & the family
High school sweethearts. Business partners. Still my favorite person.
Gunny
Tail Gunnery Sergeant Randolph Von Knorr. Trained entirely in German.
Night Sky
Nebulae, galaxies, and the Moon, from my backyard.
Past Master
Served as Worshipful Master of my lodge.
Fishing
Early mornings, still water, and the occasional good bass.
Woodworking
I build furniture by hand.
A legacy of coaching
I coached my kids. Now they coach theirs.
Living life by the Rule of Sevens.
Ask yourself what you'd do if you had seven years left. Then seven months, seven weeks, seven days, seven hours, seven minutes. The answers tell you what to do today.
What would you build, and who would you build it with?
Which relationships would you repair or deepen?
Where would you go, and what would you finally finish?
Who would you call? Who would you sit with?
What would you say, and to whom?
What really matters, right now?
Helping local government use AI without losing the public's trust.
I've been in digital since 1996. Today I lead Buildtelligence and ThinkFreely, helping cities, counties, and constitutional officers adopt AI responsibly. I also run That! Company, the white label partner with more than 750 agencies under contract.
AI Independence
Taxpayer-funded work shouldn't be locked to one vendor. If a model is interrupted, repriced, or switched off, the work should move without a rewrite.
Operating Control
Elected and appointed leaders should see how AI is used across every department: who, where, at what cost, and under which policy.
Privacy before the prompt
Citizen data, records, and case files should be protected by design, before anything leaves the building.
From Think Freely.
Practical notes on AI independence for public-sector leaders and the people who run real operations.
When Congress Can Kill the Model, Can You Move the Work?
The buyer question is replaceability: if a model is interrupted, can the workload move without a rewrite.
Cheaper AI Is Not the Strategy
Lower model prices help, but an AI strategy also needs clear limits on spending, provider choice, and how work is routed.
Why Build on Someone Else’s Land?
When a vendor owns the workspace and its context, moving away becomes harder. Build portability into the workflow from the start.