About me
I learned this by running a business.
I’m Mike Hodgen. I build companies.
I co-founded a vertically integrated manufacturer and apparel brand and helped build its microfactory in San Diego. I’ve had products to make, a team to support, and customers waiting for their orders. I know what it feels like when the work keeps finding its way back to you.
AI became useful to me when it started changing that work. Product creation. Inventory decisions. Content. Customer service. I built systems around the things the business actually needed, and learned their limits along the way.
Now I build AI that runs the company. Agents propose the work, I approve what matters, and each kind of task earns more room only after it proves itself. I write down what I learn, including what broke.
My own business, 2024
The work had to earn its place.
First-party results from the business I operate, not independently audited. The case study
- Revenue per employee
- +38%
- Less manual operations time
- 42%
The path here
Operating experience comes first.
- 2015
A business from the ground up
My co-founder and I started with $200 in fabric, hand-sewing in an apartment and selling on Etsy. I learned the business by doing the work.
- 2017
Own the way the work gets done
We built a microfactory in San Diego. Making our own products meant we could respond to customers quickly. It also meant every operating decision was ours to make.
- 2020
Learn to adapt under pressure
Live events stopped. A business built around festivals had to find its way through. That experience made me serious about understanding costs, making decisions from evidence, and finding better ways to work.
- 2023 to 2024
Put better tools inside the business
Inventory planning, product work, content, pricing, and customer service became a practical testing ground. I learned where AI helped, where it needed supervision, and where a simpler tool was the right answer.
- Today
A company that runs itself
I’m building the agents that run my own company, one decision at a time, and writing down what works and what doesn’t.
Talk to me about
What I can speak to from experience.
For interviews, podcasts and panels. Email is the fastest way to reach me: mike@hodgen.ai
- Running a real company on AI agents, and what still needs a person.
- How autonomy is earned: agents propose, I approve, and each task type earns more room.
- AI that reports success it never achieved, and how to catch it.
- Encoding law and policy into software, from payroll to records.
- Building a manufacturer from $200 of fabric, then running it with software.