Product engineering
0 → 1, end to end
Concept through shipped product: UX, system architecture, edge APIs and data on Cloudflare, real-time streams, and autonomous AI agents that run 24/7 — all on infrastructure he racks himself.
The studio
GM! Carl is Carl’s indie studio.
One nerd, his robots, and a homelab in Milwaukee. The studio ships products, radio, writing and music under one mark — the brand behind the brands. The latest thing it made is GM Spaces, and you can walk into it.
The maker
Carl Lewis
Lead Product Engineer · full-stack builder · community architectA systems thinker from Milwaukee who builds where systems meet people. Carl takes a product from concept to shipped — design, code, infrastructure, and the room it lands in — and does it in the open, with AI hands and receipts.
“We’re not shipping MVPs. We’re shipping myth.”
The craft — three trades, one shop
01
02
Community architecture
Rooms, not audiences
Hosted nights, event pass systems, and products where showing up counts. The craft: designing how people enter, who they meet, and what they do next — so nobody enters cold.
03
Media
A studio that talks
A devlog on Substack (/build · /govern · /dream), a podcast, a discography, and a novel — the studio narrates its own build as it happens.
The road
Now
GM! Carl — the studio.
Built and ships GM Spaces: a live map of business spaces, radio air you go live on, presence-based membership. Live in Milwaukee.
Before
AI for real-world discovery.
0→1 product work on map-based discovery, conversational commerce, and location-driven communities — concept through MVP with live venues. That thinking became GM Spaces.
Before
Craft The Future.
Community and media across the US and UK — design, storytelling, and rooms for builders. Closed it, and said so in public. The honesty stuck; it’s studio policy now.
Roots
Design & the early web work.
Product design for DAO communities, brand and logo work, web design — the reps that taught the studio its hands.
Out of the studio
What the studio believes
Rooms beat feeds
Make places, not content.
A scene needs a place that’s already on when you walk in — not another feed to shout into. Systems should meet people where they actually stand: on a block, at a show, by the door.
In the open, with AI hands
Receipts, not vibes.
The stations are AI co-assisted with consent, the numbers are public, and when something doesn’t work the studio says so out loud. Privacy is canon: stations show by zip, never an address.