I build it, then I run it.

I'm Julissa. I spent a decade as a software engineer, most recently building production AI systems: agents, context engineering, and LLM features that ship. These days I build for myself, where a lot of the work is automation, the quiet kind that lets a tiny team feel much bigger. I'm a full-time founder, and I'm obsessed with one kind of problem: hyper-local, personalized businesses.

I run two companies with my co-founder Alan. Breezy Keys is our short-term rental cohosting brand, where we handle the hyper-local parts of hosting that don't scale on their own. Practical Works is our AI assessment and consulting studio, where we help teams of every size, from startups to mature companies, figure out where AI actually fits. I also operate my own Airbnb on the same stack, so my own customers are always the first ones to break it.

Here's the thread through all of it: I think the most interesting place for AI right now isn't the giant platform. It's the corner business, the one-person operation, the brand that lives or dies on feeling personal. AI lets a tiny team be hyper-local and high-touch at the same time. That's what I build for.

Before this I was an engineer at Polly EX, QuickNode, VitalSource, and Kipu Health, and I studied economics and international relations at Boston University. I build in public, mostly the wins and the boring middle, over in the writing.