Brett Ridenour
AI marketing specialist & fractional CMO in Austin. I write code that scales businesses — marketing, automation, and products, from scratch.
Recent Writing
all →Fractional CMO
Austin · 3 clients maxMarketing leadership for local businesses. Weekly meetings, ads across every platform, and custom AI tools built for your team. $2,500 / mo.
The story so far — scroll
CS Student
Started in computer science. Learned to build things. Dropped out to go build things.
40 Countries
This is the cool part. I co-founded Ten Second Promotions, an Instagram growth SaaS, and ran it remotely while traveling through 40 countries. Running software from Amsterdam. Reading Roman history on a hotspot on the train to Pompeii. Learning to drive manual in a rental car from the Santiago airport to the Andes Mountains (sorry to the owner of that car). Forty countries, a lot of lessons, and a completely different perspective on everything.
Code Meets Marketing
Wrote software that bought ads. Turns out knowing how the machine works gives you an unfair advantage running it.
Trolley Pub → Franchise Empire
Joined a small pedal-tour company as the marketing and tech guy. Worked directly with genius co-founders who mentored me. Scaled media buying, built automations, and helped turn a local operation into a real business. Then helped create and launch Paddle Pub, Tiki Pub, and Cruisin' Tikis — built the marketing playbook, scaled it across locations, and turned one brand into a franchise portfolio. I laid the foundation that took the company from 4 locations to 41 before I left.
85
Open business operations
75
Cities & markets served
25
States coast to coast
62K+
Five-star reviews
Used AI Every Day for a Year
Committed to building with AI every single day — and shipped like it. BookJack, a native iOS audiobook player built from scratch: 500+ active users, 4.8-star rating. Freebo, an operator-first booking platform for tour companies: live and taking beta users. SiteRevisions, a website feedback and annotation tool. The receipts are public.
What I'm Building Toward
Two things. Onboarding tour operators onto Freebo — if you run tours and want booking software that works for you instead of against you, I want to talk. And taking a small number of fractional CMO clients: local businesses, churches and ministries, tour operators, restaurants, home-service companies, nonprofits — people doing real work who need marketing leadership without the full-time hire.
In Austin? Let's grab coffee ↓Meet me in Austin
or email →Breakfast, coffee, lunch — or a 30-minute call. Free. No pitch.
See calendar & book a time →