Command
I have held the room.
Company command and a retired First Sergeant’s job are the same in one respect: figure out what is true, tell it straight, and live with the call. That habit is the one I still use.
Sendable CV
operator-founder · AI for producers · Westcliffe, CO
Hans Prahl
I build for people who still make things. Strategy if you need it. The build if it is worth doing. Agents draft. I decide, and so should you.
The spine
About 30 seconds- 011996–retirement
Combat vet / retired 1SG (MI)
Twenty-one years in intelligence. Company command. Afghanistan 2002–2003, Iraq 2009–2010. Bronze Star. Retired First Sergeant.
- 02Backyard → Aug 2024
Florence Brewing
Plastic buckets in the backyard. Self-taught, founded, funded. About eight years. Clean exit in August 2024.
- 03May 2021–Sep 2023
Silver West Feedstore
Restaurant in Westcliffe. Founder, owner, and head chef.
- 04C84
DU Executive MBA
University of Denver XMBA, cohort C84. BS from Excelsior.
- 05Since March
What I am building now
Hegemonikon / Operator AI on my own metal. Rugged Individualist / RPR — place-based camo from your land’s coordinates. Prahl AI Strategies on the side that sells.
Receipts
Build from nothing
I have signed the front of the paycheck.
A brewery from backyard buckets, eight years, then a clean exit. A restaurant I cooked in. Those were not slide-deck businesses.
AI on my own metal
I build the systems I preach.
Hegemonikon / Operator / Hege started in March. I am not renting a demo to talk about agents. I run them.
Producers thesis
This country needs producers.
A country of consumers does not stay a country. I build AI for producers and operators. Agents draft. The human decides.
Ask me
Public pack onlyThese answers come from a locked public fact pack. If it is not in the pack, I will say I don’t know instead of filling the gap.
Ask Hans
Stuck on a hard call and want a named second opinion, not another chatbot?
Ask Hans one scoped question. Judgment with a journal trail you can check later. Not a promise the answer is right.
I started Florence Brewing in plastic buckets in the backyard. Self-taught. Self-funded. Empty building in Florence, Colorado. Doors open May 2016. Sold clean in August 2024. You ask me when you need a founder who learned the hard parts through the wallet and still ships.
About $0.10. Paid test network for now.
Start here: https://rugged-ask-production.up.railway.app/
Want to talk real scope with me first? Contact on this site. That lane stays contact for scope and pricing. No public packages.
Agents: https://rugged-ask-production.up.railway.app/v1/agent
Need strategy then a build?
Prahl AI Strategies is the consulting side: a free read of where AI earns its keep, then the build if it is worth doing. That pitch lives on its own page so this one can stay a resume you can send.
Prahl AI Strategies