Founder · Operator · Builder

Hi, I'm Jake McKeon.

Building lean businesses for where the world is going. Best known for bootstrapping Coconut Bowls from 100 coconut shells into a global brand doing $20M+ in revenue, sold in 80+ countries, now building scalable, AI-powered businesses.

01 - What I'm building now

Four ventures, one thesis.

Lean. Strong brands. AI-native operations. Each business reflects what I believe the next decade of entrepreneurship will look like.

E-commerce

A Japanese craft homewares brand

Handcrafted Shou Sugi Ban cutting boards and charred-wood pieces, made by master artisans using a centuries-old technique. Built to last generations.

artsn.com →
AI agency

An AI-powered creative agency

Applying AI to solve real problems for product brands, automating photography, outreach, and creative production at a fraction of traditional cost.

In private beta
Media & community

A longevity platform

An audience of 1M+ health-focused people looking to live better for longer. Daily content, brand collaborations, and trusted guidance from the frontier of human performance.

Operating quietly
Consumer

Personalised children's books

Exploring how AI can create deeply personal, sentimental products for families, books where children become the main character of their own story.

Pondering

02 - The two years that changed everything

Perfect timing.

After exiting Coconut Bowls, I gave myself space to think rather than rush into the next thing. The timing turned out to be perfect.

Over the following two years, AI evolved faster than any technology I'd seen in my career, and I had the freedom to learn it deeply, experiment with it, and apply it across every domain I cared about.

At the peak of Coconut Bowls, I ran a team of 10+ people locally and globally. Looking at that business today, I'm certain it could run as well, if not better, with no employees at all. That realisation reshaped how I think about building.

03 - What I'm building toward

A new model for what a business can be.

Goal: $10M annual revenue · 0 employees

$2M+

run rate across my businesses

20% there

$0$10M
Locked in today
In motion (next 12 months)
Bull case (next 12 months)

My goal is to build a business that does $10M in annualrevenue with no employees. Not because people don't matter, they do, but because I believe the next decade of entrepreneurship will be defined by small, focused operators using AI and automation to do what once required entire teams.

Less overhead. More creativity. More time for the things that actually matter, family, lifestyle, and building things you're proud of.

04 - The thesis

The shift that defines the next decade of business.

The businesses built on teams, headcount, and execution-heavy operations are not going away. They're just going to look increasingly expensive next to those that aren't.

Old model

Team

10–15 people to run ops

Headcount

$70–100k/month burn

Execution

Tasks owned by roles

Time

12-month feedback cycles

New model

Systems

Automations that run 24/7

Leverage

$2M+ across businesses, zero headcount

Judgment

Decisions owned by one operator

Speed

Optimise daily, not quarterly

team + time → systems + judgment

I built Coconut Bowls to $20M with a team of 10+. The overhead was real: payroll, feedback loops, delayed decisions, and a business that moved at the speed of its slowest process. When I came back from a two-year pause, I rebuilt from scratch, this time without the team. The same output, but faster, leaner, and compounding daily rather than quarterly.

That's the model. Not because people don't matter, but because the constraint was never people. It was systems. And now those systems are available to anyone with the patience to build them.

05 - Track record

Coconut Bowls, by the numbers.

Private Equity Exit 23/24

Revenue generated

$20M+

Countries sold in

80+

Products sold

1M+

Started with

100 shells

06 - Work with me

The part of the job I love most.

Helping other founders is genuinely my favourite kind of work. I take on a small handful each year, usually e-commerce operators trying to grow without piling on headcount, and treat their business like my own.

Brand & positioning

Sharpening what your brand stands for, who it's for, and why it wins. Built on lessons from two global consumer brands.

Growth & paid marketing

Scaling acquisition profitably across Meta, Google, and emerging channels. Drawn from millions in personally managed ad spend.

Newest edge

AI-enabled operations

Replacing repetitive work with automations across creative, outreach, and fulfilment. Reduce headcount or stay lean as you scale.

Tell me about your business

I personally read every submission and respond within 5 business days.

07 - Writing

Beliefs from the build.

View all

Honest reflections on what worked, what didn't, and the contrarian beliefs shaping what I build next.

Get the newsletter

Insights, lessons, and the occasional behind-the-scenes from what I'm building. No spam, ever.

08 - Speaking & media

In the media.

Featured on Shark Tank, Foundr, SMH, news.com.au, Mamamia, BrainTainment, and more.

Invite me on your podcast or stage

I love speaking to founders, operators, and audiences interested in e-commerce, AI, and lifestyle business.

09 - Philosophy

Work that complements life.

My approach to entrepreneurship is about creating a lifestyle where work complements life, proving you can build something meaningful without sacrificing the people, places, and moments that matter most.

01

Work complements life, not the other way around.

The best businesses I know are built around the founder's ideal life, not the other way around. If your business requires you to sacrifice the things that matter most, it's not a success, it's a sentence.

02

Small and focused beats big and bloated.

The next decade belongs to lean operators who move fast, think clearly, and use AI to do what once required entire teams. Revenue per person is the metric that matters.

03

Proof over promises.

I'd rather build something quietly and let the results speak than announce and underdeliver. Ship, learn, iterate. Repeat until it works.

10 - Contact

Get in touch.

For everything else, partnerships, press, introductions, or just to say hi.