RAY HERNANDEZ'S

SIDE QUEST

EASY MODE

Same game, no controller. Every project, the career and the story in one easy scroll.

▶ START GAME INSTEAD
PLAYER 1
Ray Hernandez as a pixel-art golfer

I design AI products that make people better at what they already do.

Designer, then Chief Creative Officer, then Chief AI Officer. Started at 17, in 1998, on Betty Crocker's first website.

Brands, apps, hardware, films, whole companies. Hand me a napkin sketch and I'll hand you back a real product, ready for production.

AI didn't make me a builder. It made me a faster one. I've been building with it for years, at every step: research, design, code, film, launch.

I started at 17, in 1998, as a Design Intern at Rare Medium in Dallas. My first project was Betty Crocker's first website. I haven't stopped shipping since.

BrandProductStrategyResearchUI / UXPrototypesAI buildsAI filmTeams
SELECT YOUR FIGHTER

What I'm building.

RECALL RANDY, the RECALL fighterSTAGE 1
MEMORY · a.k.a. RECALL RANDY

RECALL

Shared team memory for every repo.

MCP serverWeb app

An MCP server that turns every AI coding session into team knowledge. It logs every decision and why, flags mistakes so nobody repeats them, and briefs the next AI session before the first line of code. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI and OpenClaw.

  1. It listens Every AI session in the repo, from Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or anything that speaks MCP, gets saved when it ends.
  2. It keeps what matters Decisions and the reason behind them. Mistakes and how to avoid them. What actually shipped. The raw chat gets thrown away.
  3. It briefs the next one The next session, from anyone on the team, loads that memory first. It knows the rules before it writes a line, so it doesn't drift and doesn't repeat old mistakes.
VS GOLDFISH: "Blub. Wait. What were we fixing?"
recall.team ↗
SCREENSTAP TO ZOOM
VELONA PRIME, the VELONA fighterSTAGE 2
FLEET AI · a.k.a. VELONA PRIME

VELONA

A data science team in a box for fleets.

Web platformAI agents

Agentic AI that digs through huge amounts of fleet and vehicle data and finds what people never would: anomalies, patterns, trends and insights. Launched in 2025. Sofico acquired Vinli to make it the core of its intelligence division.

  1. It watches the fleet Vehicle, contract and cost data, pulled into one place.
  2. Agents find what matters They flag what is about to break, cost too much or need a decision.
  3. You get the call to make A short list of what to do next, with the why behind it.
VS TOO-LATE TONY: "Shoulda called me yesterday. That'll be extra."
velona.ai ↗
SCREENSTAP TO ZOOM
THE HOMEROOM CREW, the HOMEROOM fighterSTAGE 3
FAMILY AGENTS · a.k.a. THE HOMEROOM CREW

HOMEROOM

My instinct before my instinct.

Web appAI agentsPrivate

Agents check 10+ school, sports and lunch portals every day and flag what needs me: every grade, assignment, lunch balance and practice change.

  1. They sign in Every day, agents open the school, sports and calendar apps the same way a parent would.
  2. They pull what changed New grades, missing work, schedule changes, deadlines and balances.
  3. One parent view It all lands on one board, so I catch the missing assignment before the report card does.
VS SCROLLZILLA: "Did you check portal seven? Or was it eight?"
Private build
SCREENSTAP TO ZOOM

Demo data. The real board stays with the family.

YO FRANKY, the FRANKY fighterSTAGE 4
DESIGN SKILLS · a.k.a. YO FRANKY

FRANKY

Your Pinterest pins, made real.

Web appAI agents

For people who know what they like but not how to make it. Franky turns your pins into the project you want, plus the prompts to build it with any AI tool.

  1. Point at the pins you love One pin, or a whole board you already made.
  2. Six directors read them Photography, light, color, type, mood and strategy each study every pin, then agree on the look they share.
  3. Get the guide and the prompts A full style guide and a reusable prompt for ChatGPT, Midjourney, Sora, Claude Code or Cursor. Make one post or a month of them.
VS OPTION OVERLOAD: "What about... all of them? Forever?"
yofranky.co ↗
SCREENSTAP TO ZOOM
MACK ATTACK, the TOKEN TOYS fighterSTAGE 5
MAC APP · a.k.a. MACK ATTACK

TOKEN TOYS

Your AI usage, at a glance.

Mac app

A free Mac app where little desktop robots show how much Claude Code and Codex usage you have left, so you never hit the wall mid-build.

  1. Get it free From the Mac App Store, linked on tokentoys.co.
  2. They move in Little robots live on your desktop.
  3. Glance and go They show how much Claude Code and Codex usage you have left, so you pace the work instead of hitting the wall.
VS EXACT CHANGE EARL: "No tokens? No code. Rules are rules."
tokentoys.co ↗
SCREENSTAP TO ZOOM
PONDERING PETE, the SPINNER VERBS fighterSTAGE 6
CLAUDE CODE · a.k.a. PONDERING PETE

SPINNER VERBS

Movie quotes for Claude Code's loading spinner.

Open sourceClaude Code

Claude Code shows a little word while it thinks. I swapped it for 80s movie lines, 90s hip-hop and retro terminal jokes, then shared it. Not everything needs to be a startup.

  1. Pick your packs Mix as many as you want: 80s movies, 90s hip-hop, Bob Ross, NASA, retro terminal and more.
  2. Copy one prompt It tells Claude to merge the verbs into your settings. Prefer it by hand? Grab the raw list.
  3. Paste into Claude Code Your existing verbs stay. The new ones get added. Next time it thinks, you get a line you can finish by heart.
VS THE YAWN: "Thinking... thinking... zzzz."
spinnerverbs.com ↗
SCREENSTAP TO ZOOM
RAY-1, the RAY-1 fighterSTAGE 7
AI CLONE · a.k.a. RAY-1

RAY-1

Part film, part clone of my brain.

Art pieceLocal AI

An art piece I'm building. Part film, part clone of my brain, with real working AI inside.

  1. Mirror It began as Mirror, a model that learned how I write.
  2. Everything Then I started feeding it every piece of digital data I have.
  3. Still adding New tech keeps getting bolted on. The clone keeps getting closer.
VS TEMPLATE TIM: "Please see the attached template."
Private build
CAREER MODE

Vinli > Sofico

5M+connected vehicles
2025Velona launched
2026acquired by Sofico
LV 1 · 2018 – 2022

Head of Product & Design

Built product and design from the ground up for a connected-vehicle platform with Fortune 500 partners.

LV 2 · 2022 – 2025

Chief Creative Officer

Set the creative vision across product and brand. Then built Velona: a data science team in a box, prototyped with working models.

LV 3 · 2025 – 2026

Chief AI Officer

Made AI the company's direction and led the team that launched Velona, turning fleet software into AI insights.

LV 4 · 2026 – Now

Sr. Director, Sofico Intelligence

Rebuilt Velona into Sofico Intelligence: the same engine under the hood, a whole new car, built for lease contracts.

SIDE QUESTS

Things I started on the side.

2020 – Now

AIM7

Strategic Partner · Pickleball performance app

Partnered with Dr. Erik Korem, now Director of Player Performance for the New York Jets, to take it from idea to launch: MVP, go-to-market and dev team. Now a top pickleball app with pro players.

2018 – Now

Bashful Beauty

Co-founder · Lash, brow and skin spa

Co-founded and built from the ground up with my wife. A downtown Rockwall spa known for its lashes and brows, plus waxing, facials and spray tans. 8+ years strong and now run by a full team.

HOW I BUILD

Napkin to shipped.

  1. Napkin SketchIf it doesn't fit on a napkin, it isn't ready. Pen and paper first.AI: Still analog. Some things should be.
  2. Planning & ResearchThe competition, the user groups, the user journey, even the psychology of the colors.AI: Agents run the deep research. I make the calls.
  3. Inspiration & IdeationReferences, mood boards, and three real directions. Not thirty.AI: Franky turns a board of references into a style guide.
  4. PrototypeA working thing beats a deck. I build it myself.AI: Claude Code and Codex are on the team.
  5. Iterate ×3Test it. Break it. Fix it. Then do it again. And again.AI: Every decision and mistake is saved, so round two starts smarter.
  6. DistributionBrand, launch, content, story. It isn't shipped until people show up.AI: AI film and content, made in-house.
THE LAB

More things I've built.

NuuzsA news start page for your browser, on the Chrome Web Store. Featured on Tiny Startups.
NUUZS.COM ↗
MirrorA private AI on a Mac mini that learns how I write and think, from my own data. Runs locally.
Email, rethoughtA new way to read email: every message shows up with the context from everything else around it.
DOCA personal AI sidekick for Mac and iPad with a retro CRT face: calendar, morning briefing, memory.
RaycordA Mac meeting recorder with a tiny pixel character that lives in the notch.
RepoRayScans all my code overnight and delivers a morning brief as a newsletter and a menu-bar app.
SluiceText yourself a link. AI reads it, summarizes it and files it where it belongs.
PhaseRelayA live roster of AI models. A daily audit finds new ones; nothing switches until it wins a head-to-head.
RosterThe human context layer for any company that uses AI internally.
TermShotA native Mac app that takes scrolling screenshots of your terminal.
Practice PredictorIs practice on today? Turns the forecast and state heat rules into a clear yes or no for a high school team.
Best OfLocal "Best Of" directory sites. One engine, several towns.
StevioA daily word search. Same puzzle for everyone, every day.
ray-osMy own operating system for Claude Code: the rules, memory and hooks behind every project.
AI FilmsCinematic AI video: brand films, sizzle reels, characters. Directed, not prompted.
EARLIER LEVELS

Where it started.

2015 – 2016

LAUNCH & Inside.com

Head of Product for Jason Calacanis

Designed and launched Inside.com and worked hands-on with companies in his LAUNCH Incubator and portfolio on product, brand, UX and vision.

2009 – 2011

Social Fly

Co-founder · Photo booths, Austin, TX

Reinvented the photo booth with my wife: our own hardware and software, with filters and social sharing before Instagram. Grew from 1 booth to 6, booked for the year in month one.

2011 – 2014

LikeUs Network

Founder & CEO · Social currency

Hardware that turned vending machines social: post for a sponsor, get the snack free. Backed by Mark Cuban. Launched at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013.

2012 – 2013

ShopSavvy

Creative Director

Led design for a shopping app with 40M+ downloads.

Ninja Shaved Ice

Founder

A food truck in the East Bay.

2007 – 2018

Stoodio.com

Founder

My freelance design agency.

1998 – 2000

Rare Medium

Design Intern

Started at 17. First project: Betty Crocker's first website.