Built a Better Mousetrap

October 22, 2025

"So What?" Says World

About thirty years ago, I started looking into MBA programs. I was working as a database programmer in my first job out of college. It was time to move on, and I figured I'd move up into management. Not leaving tech, I told myself, but rather adding depth.

And so I traded my printed (pre-Internet) database manuals for Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies (written and published by McKinsey & Co.), universally acknowledged amongst my peers as an MBA book worth committing to memory. When you have an intuitive sense about the drivers of free cash flow, fortunes follow.

But I have to confess that I didn't entirely grasp the nuances of valuation until I had AI explain it to me. And when I looked into valuation as it applies to startups, I was introduced to an entirely new cast of characters: CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), LTV (Lifetime Value), and TAM (Total Addressable Market), along with the slightly more familiar concept of 'runway'—how long until the money runs out.

Now, when I evaluate my own projects, I apply these frameworks.

The context: I built a system that automatically generates QR Cards—scan the card, get a custom webpage with personalized content. Perfect for convention centers and DMOs, I thought. But I don't have the runway or the connections to win that business yet.

Pivot: QR Cards for Boutique Hotels. Property-level decision makers, easier sales. But scaling to multiple hotels means managing a much bigger content pipeline—requiring either constant curation (not scalable) or self-service options (not yet built).

Then I had a better idea. One with lower CAC, higher LTV, and much larger TAM:

QR Cards for Me.

Last week, I was a panelist at a Seattle CFO Leadership Council discussion on the impact of AI on the CFO role, where I spoke about the topics I brought up in last week's newsletter.

I brought with me a stack of 48 cards, each one slightly different.

Side A: My name, a familiar graphic, and a QR code.

Side B: An animal illustration

Each card renders the same template, which contains links to the same five destinations -- my three websites, this newsletter, and my LinkedIn profile.

But the template renders differently based on the card you get. If you scan the dragonfly card, not only do you see a dragonfly image on your page, but the blurbs for each of the five links is rewritten from the point of view of the dragonfly.

Article content Links written from the perspective of the dragonfly View the default, no-frills template here: https://app.modelcitizendeveloper.com/cfo-lc

That's 48 cards x 5 links = 240 generated content blocks, for an instant demonstration of the power of the system.

PLUS:

Post-event "Thank You" note with special message for attendees Assessment of "Your CFO Leadership Style" based on your animal "BEAST MODE" button instantly transforms the style/theme of the page differently for every category of animal -- from "Nocturnal" (Dark mode, purple) to "Aerial" (Sky blue, expansive) -- including background colors, glow effects, and animated shifted gradients.

Article content BEAST MODE ACTIVATED And the kicker is that I built the entire landing page, including all content and rendering logic, in a single day. And it only took me that long because I'm still building the automated tools for card+page production. When I'm done, it should take me about an hour, including ideation.

This is the business model:

Find audiences (real economy, NOT tech industry) who need help understanding what's possible using AI Show them things they've never seen before Inspire them to act Offer free resources + advisory services + consulting

This is what's possible when you understand what AI can actually do—not the hype, but the practical application. 240 unique content blocks in a day. Custom experiences that used to require agencies and weeks of work. Built by one person on a shoestring budget.

If you're a CFO or business leader wondering what AI means for your organization, this is the conversation we should have.

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