About Austin

The Journey

In May of 2023, my wife, Jacqueline, suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm one week before our daughter Knoxly Rose was born. They both made it. We sold our home in California and have been on the road ever since, chasing the therapies that work and building a life around what actually matters.

Most of what I do now is downstream of that day.

The work

I run 50/Fifty Growth, a consultancy for founders and operators trying to grow without losing the plot. We do strategy that ships — not slide decks for a drawer. Out of that work came ATC, a control tower for teams running AI agents the way good engineering teams run pull requests. Dispatch, evidence, ship. It's in beta. It's the most interesting thing I've built.

I also work with Sheepdog Studio, the AI-native design and engineering shop that builds the products we design.

The brotherhood

I lead The Fold — a community for men pursuing faith, purpose, and intentional living. Entry is by completing The Shepherd Rite, a 90-day modern rite of passage. We didn't make it easy on purpose. Easy is what got most men into the spot they're in.

The Fold exists because the version of men's work I wanted didn't exist yet. I needed brothers who would tell me the truth, hold me to a standard I'd actually picked, and refuse to perform spiritual depth for the camera. So we built it. Slowly. Together.

What I write about

Faith and leadership. The road. Building software in an era where the software starts to build itself. What it means to be a husband when your wife is recovering. What it means to be a father when your daughter only knows the version of her mother that exists now. What it means to be a man, in the actual sense, when most of what gets called manhood is a pose.

I don't write on a schedule. I write when I have something true to say.

How to find me

The Watch is the newsletter. My Jax is Jackie's site, and the truest record of what we're walking through. I'm on X, LinkedIn, and Instagram, but the real conversations happen by email.