Colin Stuckert.
I build consumer brands and the software that runs them, and I write about how to win in the AI age.
Founder. Operator. Obsessed.
I've previously founded, co-founded, and been CEO of three 7-figure CPG brands. I run Rize Brands, a CPG holding company, and I'm building Rize AI. I write the Better Human newsletter to help you win in the AI age.
Rize Brands, Founder
My holding company. Brands, capital, and operator infrastructure, all run on one system.
Rize AI, Founder
AI-powered systems and agency services. Building the infrastructure for the next wave of e-commerce brands.
Carnivore Bar, CFO
The original meat bar. Clean ingredients, no fillers. Built for the carnivore and ancestral health community.
What does Rize Brands actually do?
How is Rize AI different from a normal agency?
Are you actively taking on new clients or brands?
Why should I trust you on this?
My Work.
The brands, tools, and companies I've launched, operated, or hold a stake in.
Rize Brands
My e-commerce holding company. Where I launch, acquire, and operate consumer brands on one system.
Carnivore Bar
The original meat bar. Clean ingredients, no fillers, built for the carnivore and ancestral health community.
Your Links
The link-in-bio for operators. Built by Rize AI.
Your Tracker
The personal performance tracker. Built by Rize AI.
Better Human Newsletter
Helping you win in the AI age. Essays on ownership, moats, and operating systems.
Moat Builders
A show on building a personal moat in the age of AI.
Arena
The team performance operating system I built to run Rize, now a product anyone can use.
Noble Origins
Animal-based all-in-one. Co-founded, built, and scaled before exiting in 2024.
Wild Foods
Built from an Austin apartment into a 7-figure brand. Sold control to a PE group, then bought the business back after they nearly destroyed it, turned it around, and fully exited in 2023.
CrossFit Estero
Co-founded SW Florida's largest CrossFit gym. Built a real community and a real team. Exited after six years.
Evergreen reads.
The ideas I keep coming back to, on ownership, moats, and operating in the AI age.
Why Owning Assets Beats Earning Income in the Age of AI
The industrial age rewarded labor, the information age rewarded skills, the AI age will reward ownership. When AI commoditizes cognitive work, your salary is a commodity but your assets are not. Build assets, not just skills.
The Moat Framework: Building Businesses That Are Hard to Kill
A moat is anything that makes your business harder to compete with over time. Most businesses have none. Ask of every decision: does this widen the moat, or just grow revenue? Revenue without a moat is a treadmill.
How to 4X Revenue After a PE Group Destroys Your Company
I sold 51% of Wild Foods to the wrong PE group, then bought it back when their fund collapsed. Sixteen months of rebuilding trust, cutting what did not work, and doubling down on what did. The lesson was ownership clarity and speed.
The Operator's Edge: How Systems Beat Hustle Every Time
Working harder without systems just means you burn out faster. An operator's edge is systems thinking: document what you do twice, turn bottlenecks into projects, automate the repetitive. The AI era rewards better machines, not more grind.
Origin story.
A short version of how I got here.
MTG & Age of Empires
Started with Magic: The Gathering, then Age of Empires: Age of Kings Deathmatch. Became one of the best players in the world.
Dropped out, played poker full time
College wasn't for me. Found poker. Made enough to do it full time.
Juice bar inside LA Fitness
Used my poker bankroll to buy a franchise juice bar inside a gym. Great starter business.
CrossFit Estero
Built SW Florida's largest CrossFit gym. Six years. First exit.
Launched Wild Foods
Moved to Austin with an idea. Built Wild Foods into a 7-figure brand in 24 months. Bootstrapped and profitable.
Sold 51% to PE
Sold majority of Wild Foods to a PE group. Watched them destroy it. Stayed patient.
Bought Wild Foods back
The fund collapsed. Bought the business back for pennies, fixed it, and 4X'd revenue in 16 months.
Father of 3
Somewhere between Florida and the Carolinas.
Sold to a private investor
Sold Wild Foods to a private investor and stayed on to keep building.
Launched Rize Brands
An e-commerce holding company and operator system, built on what I learned the hard way.
Fully exited Wild Foods
Eleven years, two exits, two acquisitions. One hell of a run.
CFO of Carnivore Bar
Came on as CFO to build the next chapter of the original meat bar.
Launched Rize AI
Expanded the team to 30, going deep on building software for our brands and shipping AI agency services for outside operators.
Arena, YourLinks.Bio & YourTracker
Three live apps out of the Rize AI studio. Arena is our team OS, YourLinks.Bio is the link-in-bio for operators, YourTracker is the personal performance tracker.
Rekicked off the personal brand
Back to writing, building in public, and showing up. Better Human newsletter, X, YouTube, and the Moat Builders show.
Good books.
Books that shaped how I think about ownership, operating, and life. My thoughts on each, coming soon.
Red Rising Series — Pierce Brown
My son is named after the main character.
The Art of Living — Sharon Lebell
One of my first books on Stoicism.
Antifragile — Nassim Taleb
Things that gain from disorder.
Skin in the Game — Nassim Taleb
Asymmetry, ownership, and consequence.
Fooled by Randomness — Nassim Taleb
Luck, skill, and the stories we tell.
Extreme Ownership — Jocko Willink
The operator's mindset, distilled.
Deep Work — Cal Newport
Focus is the new IQ.
Essentialism — Greg McKeown
Less, but better.
The Slight Edge — Jeff Olson
Compound habits, compound results.
The War of Art — Steven Pressfield
Resistance is the enemy.
Mastery — Robert Greene
The long road to becoming great.
48 Laws of Power — Robert Greene
Power, plainly observed.
Never Split the Difference — Chris Voss
Negotiation as empathy.
Almanack of Naval Ravikant — Eric Jorgenson
Wealth, happiness, leverage.
Guns, Germs & Steel — Jared Diamond
Why history happened the way it did.
Sex at Dawn — Christopher Ryan
A different lens on human nature.
Tribe — Sebastian Junger
Belonging in the modern world.
The Fish That Ate the Whale — Rich Cohen
An operator's biography.
Digital Gold — Nathaniel Popper
Bitcoin's early years.
Daemon — Daniel Suarez
Fiction that reads like prophecy.
Ready Player One — Ernest Cline
Pure fun.
The Midnight Library — Matt Haig
Lives unlived.
Let's connect.
Thoughts on brand building, AI, and operator life. Find me wherever you spend your time.
Work with Rize.
Brand launches, AI systems, and operator-first capital. Very limited availability.
Email me →