Builder and founder. Two brands built from zero, a digital studio, and the web applications and automations behind them — some built for clients, some built for myself. I find where a process is losing information or attention, then replace the manual workflow with a system that closes the gap.
I'm Kai — a mechanical engineer who builds things. Some of it is software: web applications, data layers, automations that turn a two-hour manual routine into one click. Some of it is brands and audiences: two projects I started from nothing and grew into real reach and real revenue. The method doesn't change between them. Get close to how something actually works, find where it's leaking, build the system that fixes it, then check whether the numbers moved.
I co-founded 'Iwa Media, a Honolulu-based studio working with businesses across tourism, hospitality, home services, lending, and food & beverage. I build fast and end to end — discovery and process mapping through deployment — leaning hard on modern tooling and AI-assisted development to ship things that would otherwise need a team. I'm an engineer by training who came to software through building things people actually use. The work below is what that's produced so far.
A Honolulu-based digital studio I co-founded, working with small businesses across three service lines: software — applications, automations, and the data layers behind them; growth — paid social and the tracking that proves it worked; and media — the content that feeds both. Most clients need more than one, because a system nobody finds and traffic that lands nowhere fail the same way.
I built the studio's own infrastructure — site, Google Workspace, Meta Business Suite — and its pricing, positioning, and pitch materials. I run discovery and outreach directly: scope engagements, pitch owners and operators, and report performance back against their numbers.
Visit 'Iwa Media →A commercial lending client was running origination on purchased lead lists, manual document collection, and back-and-forth email with lenders. I replaced the whole path with one system.
The original site: a static brochure page. Every application started as an email or a phone call, and nothing that came in was tracked.
The replacement: a self-serve digital intake with pre-qualification, an authenticated status dashboard, and automated routing behind it.
Leads arrived cold and unqualified from purchased lists. Documents were collected by hand over email. Lender coordination happened in threads nobody could audit. Applicants had no idea where they stood, so the team fielded status calls all day — and information was being lost at every handoff.
I embedded with the client and mapped the origination process end to end before writing any code — every step, every handoff, every place a document or a decision went missing. The map showed the losses clustered at three seams: intake, document routing, and status communication.
A self-serve intake with a pre-qualification flow so unqualified leads never reach a human. A Postgres/Supabase data layer as the single source of truth. An authenticated client dashboard showing live application status. Completed forms route automatically through DocuSign to the reviewer, and status changes propagate back to the applicant without anyone sending an email.
A mobile mechanic who needed booked jobs, not impressions — on a budget where every dollar of ad spend had to be accounted for.
A local service business competing for the same customers as every other shop in the area, with a budget too small to absorb waste. Reach on its own is worthless here — a view from outside the service radius costs the same as one from a customer three miles away and is worth nothing.
Tight service-area targeting so spend stays inside the radius he can actually drive to. Pixel and Conversions API implemented first, so bookings are measured rather than estimated. Content built for retention — the hook and pacing carry the cost per click, not the bid.
Over 1,000 link clicks at $0.20 each on under $200 of spend, 10 booking-form conversions, and 4 bookings of a $400 service — roughly 8X return on ad spend. A separate $85 Messenger campaign produced 16 leads at about $5.31 each.
Figures from Bogger Builds' live campaigns. Return on ad spend calculated as 4 bookings of a $400 service against sub-$200 Meta ad spend.
A lifestyle brand & label rooted in surf, dance, and car culture. Established in 2024. Built from zero to 1k+ followers across platforms in under a year. Coordinated merch rollouts, photoshoots, and videoshoots. Collaborated with Babe Beverages — a San Diego-based kombucha brand — sponsoring events. Ran affiliate merchandising, website operations, and marketing for Druski's Coulda Been House Season 2 winner (@bippleyipsnipp_, 329k IG followers).
House & UK Garage influenced project built and marketed entirely independently. Established in 2025. Grew to 1M+ monthly views, secured a feature on EDM.com, attracted A&R interest and support from SoundCloud, and received a label offer from Breakaway — all through strategic content and community building. Garnered 2M+ streams across DSPs (Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, SoundCloud) through organic reach and email collection from short-form content on Instagram & TikTok.
Taking an idea to something live and in use — React and TypeScript front ends, Supabase and Postgres behind them, deployed and instrumented. Built with modern tooling and AI-assisted development.
Finding the manual routine that quietly eats hours and replacing it with a system — with a human approval gate wherever judgment actually matters.
Wiring AI into the tools a business already runs on, so data doesn't just sit there — it moves, routes, and triggers the next step without someone chasing it.
Two of my own, start to audience — naming, positioning, content direction, merch and release strategy, partnerships. I've been on the founder side of everything I sell.
Meta advertising, pixel and Conversions API implementation, and performance reporting that proves ROI — plus the client acquisition to fill the pipeline in the first place.
Sitting with the people doing the work to map where information or attention gets lost between steps. Whether the fix ends up being code or a campaign, it starts here.
Open to work in web development, automation, and growth — or a mix of all three.
Currently based in Oahu, Hawaii.
Open to relocation. Available remotely.