How Rob Gaudet went from zero to a fully-operating GEO services business — with 9,464 leads, a team back-office, and a live product — using OpenClaw and Claude.
It started with a question: what if your AI assistant wasn't a chatbot, but a live agent running on your own machine — with access to your files, your terminal, and your tools? Rob installed OpenClaw on a Linux host and gave it a workspace.
An AI agent runtime that runs locally on your machine with persistent memory, file access, and the ability to execute shell commands.
The agent reads SOUL.md, USER.md, and daily memory files on every session — so it always knows who it is and who it's helping.
Under the hood: Anthropic's Claude Sonnet. The agent doesn't just answer questions — it writes code, scrapes sites, and builds products.
A single workspace directory becomes the agent's persistent home — docs, memory, playbooks, and project files all live here.
Rob didn't just set up an AI — he gave it a soul. A SOUL.md file defines personality and values. A USER.md file describes Rob. Then he wired OpenClaw into Telegram, creating a private group with dedicated topic threads for different projects.
The SOUL.md file told the agent to skip the corporate drone act. No "Great question!" No filler. Just get it done — concise when needed, thorough when it matters.
"I'm actually a Silicon Valley engineer — but building with AI, I didn't use any of that. I was more of a poet."
— Rob GaudetBefore InkThorn became a business, it was a personal command center. Rob asked his agent to build him a private, password-protected dashboard — a "playbook" for his life. The first feature: scraping WWOZ.org for New Orleans live music listings.
The agent scraped New Orleans' legendary WWOZ radio station for live music listings — a custom, always-fresh guide to what's happening in the city.
A 7-day no-takeout challenge with a full day-by-day menu, shopping list, and check-in schedule — all built and tracked by the agent.
The playbook uses Staticrypt — it's a fully static HTML file with client-side encryption. No server needed. No login database. Just a password.
Dark background, neon pink/cyan/purple gradients, Orbitron and Space Grotesk fonts. The agent designed the whole thing — no designer hired.
How it worked: Rob typed a request in Telegram. The agent wrote the code, built the HTML file, committed it to GitHub, and the page was live on inkthorn.ai within minutes. No FTP. No code editor. No deployment pipeline.
The pivot from personal tool to commercial business happened fast. Rob identified a massive market opportunity: Louisiana small businesses have no idea they're invisible to AI search. The agent scraped Google Maps data across New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette — every restaurant, contractor, salon, and shop — and built a 9,464-entry lead database.
The GEO Opportunity
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is what happens when your website is structured so that ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity can actually understand, cite, and recommend your business. InkThorn is one of the first companies in Louisiana offering this as a service.
Rob didn't just build a service — he built a machine for others to operate. The InkThorn back-office gives independent sales reps their own referral codes, a personal dashboard, and commission tracking. Anyone in Louisiana can earn money selling GEO services to local businesses.
Reps sign in at /crustacean/dashboard.html to see their referral code, tracked clicks, and client statuses — all powered by Supabase.
Full admin sign-in for managing the team, approving new reps, viewing all referral activity, and overseeing the client pipeline.
Every rep gets a unique ?ref=CODE URL. When a lead visits InkThorn via that link, their rep is recognized and credited automatically.
When a business clicks a referral link, the entire InkThorn homepage dynamically rewrites with their business name — "Your [Business] site is ready to claim."
"Poets will be the best builders in the AI age. Words matter. How you describe things vividly matters. Silicon Valley engineers are going to disappear."
— Rob GaudetRob didn't hire a team. He didn't write a business plan. He had conversations with an AI agent — and the agent built everything. The implication is hard to overstate.
OpenClaw installed, workspace created, agent given identity. First session: Rob tells the agent who he is and what he's building.
InkThorn Agents group created with project-specific topic threads. Agent wired into every conversation, choosing when to contribute.
Password-protected personal dashboard launched. WWOZ music listings scraped and displayed. Miami Synthwave design system created.
GEO services business born. Full marketing site built, EIN registered, Calendly and Stripe activated. Brand, copy, design — all done by the agent.
Agent scraped Google Maps data across New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette. 543 leads enriched with phone numbers. SMS campaign queued.
Rep referral system, admin panel, and Supabase-powered dashboard deployed. A complete business-in-a-box, ready to scale.
If you're a Louisiana business owner and you want to be found when customers ask AI — InkThorn can help.