Erik Laine and I go way back. We hung out all the time when we were younger, did the things young guys do, made our share of mistakes, and somewhere in there figured out we had the same kind of energy.
Then life happened. About fifteen years passed.
We reconnected over cryptocurrency, of all things. We were both into it at the same time, and the first conversation turned into the second, and it was like no time had passed. We just clicked. We have ever since.
Together we have run an Amazon store. We have worked in trucking. We have worked in mental health care. Every business taught us the same lesson about systems, and we learned it side by side.
He pulled me into AI
Here is the part people get backwards. I am the face of the AI work now, but Erik got there first. He had quietly built AI automations for his own life: selling on Marketplace, repricing, planning trips. Practical stuff, solving real problems. Watching what he had built is what pulled me into AI in the first place.
That is how our partnership works to this day. Erik builds the platform side, the engine room. I am out front with people, the way I have been since the bar. Two operators, one system, and both of us accountable for what our clients get.
Why a partner matters
Every business I ran alone ran on my memory and my energy. The ones that worked had somebody next to me who saw what I could not. If you are building alone, find your Erik: the person whose strengths start where yours stop. Then build the system together, so the business runs on more than either of you.