This was
Momentum.*
A fully automated AI content agency. Static posts, carousels, Reels, talking-head videos fronted by an AI avatar — generated from a business's existing brand, with no filming and no one sitting in front of a camera. Built in 2026. Shut down in 2026 — by its founder, on purpose.
The short version.*
Momentum did what it said it would. The system worked. It could turn a local business's website and style guide into a steady feed of social content, nearly automatically. The pitch wrote itself — I know, because I wrote it, and I was good at it.
It worked. That was the problem.
I'm a filmmaker. I've spent my career making things people watch on purpose. Somewhere between building this machine and selling it, I realized I'd made something I didn't want existing in the world: an engine for flooding the internet with content nobody made.
So I shut it down. Not because the technology failed — it didn't. Because I couldn't get myself to do it. There's no spreadsheet in this story.
"Not one second of filming.
Not now. Not ever.
Not once.*"
*We meant it. Eventually, that was the problem.
The full story.
Why I built it, why it worked, and why I killed it anyway — written down properly, with all the parts that don't flatter me left in.
Read the essay →
What I do now.*
Momentous
The production company. Real cameras, real craft, for brands that want work people watch on purpose. This one I'm keeping.
mmntous.com →
The Creative Economist
A weekly essay on the craft and business of being a working creative — including an honest running account of which AI tools earn a place in a real creative business, and which don't.
creativeeconomist.com →
