Work
Case studies
What I built at OWL Venice, and for the brands I advise.
OWL Venice · 2016 to now
Building a $5M wellness brand, then rebuilding how it runs
I founded OWL Venice in 2016 from a Venice kitchen and grew it into a nationally distributed bone broth and wellness brand. In 2026 I rebuilt how it operates around a small team and a set of trained AI roles.
The brand
Positioning, product development, packaging, photography, e-commerce and wholesale, led as founder and creative director. OWL reached over $5M in annual revenue in 2023, 100+ wholesale accounts, about 50K email subscribers and 70K+ Instagram followers.
The AI operating team
In the fall of 2026 I rebuilt how OWL runs around 16+ specialized Claude roles, each with its own instructions, knowledge files, recurring work and approval rules, coordinated by a Chief of Staff. The roles carry the workload; people still sign off on anything customer-facing, financial or public. My designer and developers still handle design systems and theme code.
What it’s done
The roles quickly took on work that used to need an agency or a full-time hire. SEO: about 25 blog articles published or rebuilt and new titles and metadata across the store, with search clicks already climbing. Email: 53 emails designed and 7 new automated flows launched, plus a list cleanup that took abandoned-checkout delivery from 29% to 95%. Customer service: an answer library built from about 450 real emails, with every reply drafted for the team to approve. Pinterest: 104 old Pins cleaned up and 35 new Pins scheduled after 17 months of silence.
Next on this page: the full revenue picture from peak season, December through January.
$5M+
Annual revenue at OWL Venice’s peak (2023)
16+
Specialized AI roles, coordinated by a Chief of Staff
29% → 95%
Abandoned-checkout email delivery after the list cleanup
53 + 7
Emails designed and automated flows launched
What it costs to run · monthly averages, 2023 to now
From $87K a month to $11K.
What OWL spent each month on its team and outside help. AI roles now handle the email, SEO, recipe content, social and PR work that agencies and contractors used to do.
−94%
Agencies & contractors: $40.8K/mo (2024) → $2.4K/mo
−82%
Payroll, incl. kitchen staff: $49.7K/mo (2023) → $8.9K/mo
−87%
Total people + outside help: $87.4K/mo (2023) → $11.3K/mo
One role, before and after
Customer service
$6.1K/mo
A full-time customer service hire: salary plus employer taxes
$1.1K/mo
The Customer Experience AI role drafts every reply; someone on the team reviews and sends (about $1,000/mo of their time)
2023–2025 are full-year averages from OWL’s QuickBooks ledgers and Gusto payroll. Contractors “now” are the Aug–Oct 2026 average; payroll including kitchen staff is shown at $8.9K, above the latest pay period’s run rate of about $6.9K/mo. Ad spend is media, not labor, and isn’t included. OWL also got smaller over this period (it closed its retail shop and scaled back production), so most of the payroll change isn’t AI. The agency and contractor line is where AI roles replaced outside work.
The OWL Reset product page · October 2025 and November 2026 · scroll inside each to compare
Before · October 2025 (archived copy)
After · November 2026
Bone broth collection page · May 2026 and November 2026 · scroll inside each to compare
Before · May 2026 layout (saved theme in Shopify)
After · November 2026
Halloween email · October 2025 and October 2026 · scroll inside each to compare
Before · Halloween 2025 email
After · Halloween 2026 email, with a founder’s note
Product and collection pages were rebuilt this fall: copy, structure, ingredient education, reviews and FAQs drafted with AI and approved by me; design system and theme code by my designer and developers. The 2026 Halloween email was drafted with my AI email role, then edited and approved by me.
Seatopia · Consulting
Growing a mission-driven seafood brand through partnerships and search
I worked with Seatopia, a regenerative aquaculture seafood company, on growth strategy, partnerships and organic channels over six months.
The focus was building revenue that doesn’t depend on paid ads: an affiliate and partnership program, organic search and the brand storytelling behind both.
Affiliates and partners. I restructured a program of more than 260 affiliates around the partners who were actually driving sales: clear tiers, re-engagement campaigns, custom landing pages for top performers, and a dream-partner list across functional medicine, chefs and ocean advocates. Partners included Dr. Casey Means, VeesHoney and Luke Cook.
The Casey Means launch. Landing page and ad copy, purchaser and non-purchaser email flows, a co-branded Detox from Heavy Metals eBook, and the photoshoot plan behind it.
The Seatopia Dinner Series. Intimate dinners hosted by top affiliates and wellness voices, with a chef’s menu built around Seatopia seafood. Each one became content: a Reel, blog posts, a newsletter feature and a giveaway.
75%
Of revenue from affiliate and organic search
20%
Revenue lift
40%
Lower ad spend
6 months
Engagement length
Seatopia Dinner Series, Venice, July 2025
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