The role
As Chief AI Officer I owned the decisions this site keeps talking about: what data was allowed where, which AI capabilities got built and in what order, how the team measured whether any of it worked, and how AI capability was presented to customers, partners, and eventually an acquirer.
What the seat involved
AI strategy tied to the product roadmap rather than floating beside it; governance sized for a startup: a handful of owned decisions, not a committee; and hands-on direction of the AI systems the company shipped. The same operating-model discipline I bring to advisory clients, exercised with founder-level stakes.
The outcome
Haystacks.AI was acquired by Coframe in late 2025. An exit is never one person's result, but going through diligence as the AI executive, defending the architecture, the data practices, and the roadmap, is exactly the accountability I now take on for advisory clients, four at a time.