From buildingcompaniesto building the AI that runs them.
I'm Mike Hodgen. I turned $200 in fabric into a solar-powered microfactory: 4,500+ products, 10 employees, 7,000+ five-star reviews. In 2020 I made my own title Chief AI Officer, years before it existed anywhere, and spent the next four years finding out exactly where these tools break. Then the tooling caught up, and I built the systems I already knew were needed. Not from the outside. As the CEO. Now I do it for companies that play to win.
RECEIPTS / WHAT THE WORK PRODUCED
The
whole story.
2014-2025 / NO SHORTCUTS
Chose range over a lane
Bioengineering, biochemistry, international studies. All of it pointed at a narrow expertise I did not want. I wanted to run something real instead. Met my co-founder at Iona, and the idea hit at a festival: make the fashion better.
From zero
Two broke kids. $200 in fabric. Hand-sewing in an apartment. Launched on Etsy. No safety net.
Bet on owning the line
Anyone can outsource. Control of the product and the pace was the whole point, so we committed to building it ourselves: a solar-powered microfactory in San Diego, handmade and local, at a 0.5% defect rate, 10x better than the industry.
The machines landed in January
Weeks later live events went dark worldwide. A festival brand lost 80% of its revenue in a month, with a brand new factory to feed. I changed my own title to Chief AI Officer that year, before the title existed anywhere, and started rebuilding the company around it. We kept every employee and came back at 108% YoY.
All in, on whatever existed
Every consumer AI tool, the week it shipped. Not building yet: the tooling could not carry what I wanted. Four years of finding out exactly where the models break and what an operator actually needs from them.
Ran the company on it
Not as a consultant, as the CEO. Product, SEO, pricing, inventory: every function got an AI layer, assembled from whatever was available.
The numbers hit
+38% revenue per employee. -42% manual ops time. 3,000+ hours saved a year. 4,500+ products. 10 people. AI through all of it.
Claude Code closed the gap
The tooling finally reached the ideas. Four years of knowing exactly what to build met the first thing that could actually build it, and the backlog came out at speed.
Hodgen.AI
Handed the CEO seat to my co-founder. Now I run AI for companies that move fast, with the systems to prove it works.
FEATURED IN
On the record.
04 / PODCASTS
Retention Nation
HiFlyer Digital
Using AI to drive retention and loyalty in ecommerce
LISTEN ↗The Ecom Show
The Ecom Show
Managing 4,500+ SKUs and scaling inventory the easy way
LISTEN ↗Digital Marketing Fastlane
Digital Marketing Fastlane
Building a DTC brand from a one-bedroom apartment
LISTEN ↗The Mindset Babe
Perry Richardson
Building a brand and leading through a pandemic
LISTEN ↗Let's build
yours. now.
A few companies at a time. The ones that move get the seat. Apply, or book a call and let's see if we're a fit.
The time is now. Founders, operators, people who play to win. I build the systems, then I run them with you: weeks, not years.