Zero to Production Architect
18 months from "What's a variable?" to enterprise systems in production
The Numbers
18 months
Timeline
March 2024 - Present
10+
Production Systems
Live and serving users
Zero
Prior Experience
Photography background
The Timeline
The Starting Point
Photography studio business. AI image generation makes it obsolete. Can't code. Don't know what a variable is. Fighting custody battles. Dad dying. Mom paying rent.
Decision Point
"The thing that killed my business can build the next one." Decided to learn coding using AI as teacher. Started with Claude. 16-hour days, 5 AM to 1 AM.
First System Ships
Built first AI book generation prototype. Not polished, but working. Generated first book in 30 minutes. Realized: This could actually work.
Teneo Registered
Registered Teneo as LLC. Onboarded first 9 partners to Published Authority. Generation time down to 5 minutes per book. 100+ books generated.
Enterprise Infrastructure
Built Teneo Auth platform. 6+ services integrated. BookCoverGenerator.ai live. ProfileEngine operational. 10+ apps at various stages. traviseric.com rebuilt.
Production Architect
10+ systems live. $450/mo revenue. 3 months from $10K/mo. Still learning, still shipping, still building. The journey continues.
What Made This Possible
AI as Co-Architect
Not using AI for productivity. Using AI as a collaborator who knows what I don't. Every line of code, every architecture decision, every debugging session: AI as pair programmer.
- • Claude Code: Primary development environment
- • Multi-model approach: Claude for architecture, GPT-4 for specific tasks
- • Real-time learning: "Why did you do it that way?" after every solution
- • Pattern extraction: Understanding principles, not memorizing syntax
16-Hour Days
5 AM to 1 AM. Every day. Not because I'm a workaholic. Because my children's future depended on it.
Most people can't sustain that. I could because:
- • Stakes were real: Not building a side project. Building survival.
- • No distractions: Basement. Kids asleep. World quiet.
- • Flow state: AI collaboration creates continuous momentum
- • Compound learning: Each hour built on the last. No context switching.
Ship, Don't Perfect
V1s ship ugly. First book generator took 30 minutes. First auth system had bugs. First designs were rough.
But they shipped. Then V2. Then V3. Iteration in production beats perfection in development.
From idea to shipped: Usually 2-3 days. From shipped to polished: Ongoing.
Systems Built
Teneo Book Generation
80,000-word books in 5 minutes. 200+ books generated.
Teneo Auth Platform
Enterprise authentication. 6+ services. 20-min integrations.
BookCoverGenerator.ai
AI design platform for book covers. Live and working.
ProfileEngine
Psychological profiling. 798-line Intelligence class.
Plus 10+ more at various stages of completion
What I Learned
You don't need formal training to build production systems
AI changes everything. With Claude as co-architect, I built enterprise systems in weeks that traditionally take months with teams. Not because I'm special. Because AI collaboration works if you understand systems thinking.
Pressure reveals capabilities you didn't know you had
I didn't "learn to code." I learned to architect systems because my kids' future depended on it. The urgency unlocked capabilities I didn't know existed. Crisis as construction material.
Ship beats study
Zero tutorials. Zero bootcamps. Zero courses. Just: "Build this." Then ship it. Then make it better. Real users, real feedback, real iteration. Production is the best teacher.
Want to Learn This Approach?
I'm teaching the exact methodology that took me from zero to production architect in 18 months. Not theory. The actual collaboration patterns, thinking frameworks, and shipping strategies that work.
Zero to production • AI collaboration at depth • Ship, don't perfect
The methodology battle-tested under fire