I cook everything
but the books.
I started my career as a classically trained chef at the Culinary Institute of America. My first job was as a pastry chef at Disney World. From there I ran kitchens across Miami, Caracas, and beyond — and somewhere along the way, I became obsessed with systems.
Today I'm a Fractional AI Officer. I help small business owners figure out the "how" and "what" of AI — and actually implement it. I'm still that same person who bought a Compaq luggable in 1986 to stop employee theft in his restaurant. Still obsessed with finding a better way to do the work.
From kitchens to Caracas
to a Compaq luggable.
Pastry chef at Disney World's Epcot Center. Executive chef for Bloomingdale's Miami. Cooking segments on WLRN, Miami's public TV. Running kitchens is a masterclass in systems, pressure, and immediate feedback — I just didn't know it at the time.
A headhunter saw my cooking segment and offered me a job opening American-style nightclubs in Caracas. I arrived barely speaking Spanish, in charge of hiring, menus, and every operating procedure from scratch. That's where I realized I needed better tools than a notepad and a gut feeling.
I bought a Compaq luggable — it looked like a Singer sewing machine turned on its side. Two floppy disks, a tiny five-inch green monitor. I built a system to track liquor inventory using a digital scale. We weighed every bottle, calculated liquid weight, and compared it against register sales at end of shift. It stopped the theft. Another restaurateur saw it and asked for help. That was my first consulting gig. I was hooked.
After Venezuela's riots and martial law, I moved back to Miami. Spent time in software automation, then landed at Equitable Life Insurance. I became a Certified Financial Planner — but I didn't want to be a suit in a glass office. I branded myself as the "Financial Chef." I built a mobile office with a full kitchen. I'd pull up to a client's house, cook them a gourmet meal, and we'd have our money meeting right there at the table.
ChatGPT changed everything. By early 2023 I was deep in the rabbit hole — hundreds of hours on YouTube, tinkering with prompts and workflows. I wrote an article about AI for advisors that became one of the best-performing pieces the site had ever published. Software companies and advisors started calling. They didn't want a developer. They wanted someone who understood their business and knew how to make the tools work. That was me.
"I'm still that 25-year-old with the luggable computer, obsessed with finding a better way to do the work."
— David Ortiz"I cook everything
but the books."
The AI Renaissance is here.
And we're just getting started.
I still spend my mornings watching YouTube videos and turning those ideas into actionable solutions for clients. This is the most exciting kitchen I've ever worked in.
In 2024, I launched Advisor AI Partners. By 2025, I realized this wasn't just for financial advisors — every small to mid-sized business owner was staring at AI and wondering if they'd already missed the boat.
They hadn't. But the window is closing. The businesses that build AI systems now will open a gap that compounds every week they run it. That's what I help them do.
I function as a Fractional AI Officer. I help entrepreneurs figure out the "how" and the "what" of AI — and then I stay involved to make sure it actually gets implemented. Not a plan. Not a slide deck. A working system.
The tools I use — Claude, NotebookLM, Base44, AntiGravity — are the same tools I hand to every client. Connected, they let one person produce like a team of ten. I call it the Michelangelo Toolkit, because Michelangelo didn't work alone either.
Explore the Michelangelo Toolkit → Four principles from
forty years of building.
Real implementation over slide decks
I don't hand you a plan and leave. I built my first system to solve a real problem in 1986. That's still how I work — stay in it until it works.
Context matters more than frameworks
The chef who wins doesn't use a generic recipe — she knows her kitchen, her team, her ingredients. I build AI systems around how your business actually operates.
Honest over impressive
I won't oversell timelines or outcomes. I've been in rooms where the honest answer wasn't the comfortable one. I'll always tell you what's actually realistic.
The human stays in the room
AI should free people to do what they do best. The best kitchens don't replace the chef — they give the chef more leverage. That's the goal here.
Ready to have a real conversation?
No pitch. No commitment. 60 minutes to understand your business and whether AI can genuinely help. If it can, I'll tell you exactly how.