Email to Evan Baehr — Applied AI Collaboration

Draft: November 20, 2025

To: Evan Baehr
Subject: Going all-in on Applied AI + potential Arena Hall collaboration

Hey Evan,

Hope you're doing well and that the South Congress location is thriving!

Wanted to share a quick update: I'm going all-in on Applied AI. Not building AI SaaS products or doing research—but helping real businesses apply existing tools to cut costs, save time, and run leaner operations. The practical stuff that actually moves the needle.

Two things I wanted to float:

1. Any operational pain points at Arena Hall?

As you scale to multiple locations, are there repeatable tasks that feel annoying and manual? Maybe something related to member communications? I'd love to build you a custom AI agent to handle it—free of charge. In exchange, I'd just ask for a testimonial and maybe some referrals if you're happy with the work. Trying to get some early wins under my belt as I kick off the consultancy.

2. Applied AI programming at Arena Hall

I think your entrepreneurial members would love events focused on practical AI application for business owners. No hype, no AGI speculation—just "here's how to actually use these tools."

I'm launching a community called the "Applied AI Society" with Travis Oliphant, who created NumPy and some of the most widely-used open source AI libraries in the world.

Travis and I could help put together programming at one or both locations. Feels like a natural fit for the "in the arena" ethos. Win-win: great content for your community, and exposure for what we're building.

Let me know if either of these ideas sparks interest. Would love to grab coffee after Thanksgiving if you're up for it.

Talk soon,
Gary