Joaquin Abondano
Forward-deployed AI operator and public-company COO.
I deploy AI into the operating core of real companies. As COO of Innovative Eyewear / Lucyd (NASDAQ: LUCY), I own forward-deployed AI operations across ERP, CRM, ecommerce, supply chain, finance, reporting, and executive workflows. The system I designed runs ten agents across six departments, monitoring, drafting, routing, and escalating real work every day.
- NASDAQ COO
- 65% sales growth in 2025
- 11 consecutive months of revenue growth
- 27+ countries
- 10-agent ops fleet
- 101 daily automations
- $20M+ prior company scale
- Walmart / Target / Amazon
COO at Innovative Eyewear (NASDAQ: LUCY). Based in Miami.
current
COO at Innovative Eyewear (NASDAQ: LUCY)
Building smart eyewear for the voice-first future.
Business decisions have never been faster or more consequential. The executives who will lead the next decade are not waiting for AI to mature — they are deploying it now, inside real organizations, against real problems.
At Innovative Eyewear, I built operating infrastructure for a public company using AI agents. Not as a side experiment. As practical leverage for the work itself. The system runs across sales, marketing, fulfillment, supply chain, finance, and executive operations, helping the team move faster without adding proportional headcount.
What I believe: AI will do for decision-making what electricity did for manufacturing. It will not replace the people who run things, but it will fundamentally change what one capable person and a small team can do. The advantage will belong to companies that learn how to deploy these systems with judgment, controls, and operating discipline.
featured deployment work
JBOT Protocol
The forward deployment methodology behind my AI work: principles, architecture, deployment sequence, outputs, and governance for moving AI from demos into real business operations. It starts with business divisions, maps recurring decisions and workflows, then builds specialized agents with shared memory, tool access, human approvals, and executive escalation paths. This is what a full-stack AI deployment looks like in practice. Read the protocol →
The point is not unsupervised automation. The point is controlled leverage: routine work goes to agents, exceptions go to humans, and consequential decisions stay with executives.
Forward-Deployed AI Operations in a Public Company
A public-safe case study on deploying agentic workflows across supply chain, ecommerce, CRM, ERP, finance, reporting, and executive operations inside a lean operating company. Read the case study →
operating focus
My work sits where AI strategy becomes operating reality: messy workflows, fragmented systems, vendor dependencies, customer channels, reporting rhythms, and executive decisions.
AI Deployment Ownership
Designing and operating agentic workflows across real business systems with human approval layers and executive accountability.
Supply Chain & Vendor Systems
Coordinating manufacturers, logistics, inventory, compliance, and vendor follow-up across consumer hardware operations.
Ecommerce & Multi-Channel Growth
Operating across Shopify, Amazon, marketplaces, B2B channels, retail partners, and product launch workflows.
ERP, CRM & Reporting
Connecting NetSuite, HubSpot, ecommerce, finance, and internal reporting into practical operating loops.
Public-Company Execution
Building systems and rhythms that work inside lean, high-accountability public-company environments.
recent thoughts
Building AI Operations in Reality
What it actually looks like to deploy AI agents in a real company. No theory. Just the parts (runtime, fleet, shared brain, channels), how they work together, and what I learned trying to make bots productive employees. Discord for the work floor. Telegram for the exec layer.
The Systems Flywheel
How AI operations get better with every deployment — and why each implementation makes the next one faster, cheaper, and more valuable. The real power isn't in the tool. It's in the methodology flywheel.
The Control Problem: Managing 4 Brands with AI Agents
When you run multiple product lines with a small team, the bottleneck isn't talent or budget. It's coordination. Here's how I'm building a system where the agents do the status tracking and humans just talk.
ai & technical projects
Production AI systems. Forward-deployed inside a public company. Running operations across six departments. These aren’t prototypes or demos — they run every day.
AI Agent Fleet — Forward Deployed into Production
Ten specialized AI agents running daily operations at a NASDAQ-listed company — sales pipeline monitoring, fulfillment tracking, marketing intelligence, supply chain alerts, content generation, and financial monitoring. Each agent has defined responsibilities, institutional memory, and escalation logic. The system generates its own training signal over time. Built with Claude, deployed on VPS infrastructure, integrated with NetSuite, Shopify, HubSpot, Meta Ads API, and Amazon SP-API. This is full-stack AI deployment: architecture, infrastructure, integration, and operations — in a real company, running live.
Production · Multi-Agent · 10 Agents · 6 Departments
EOS Operating System — AI-Powered Weekly Rhythm
Implemented EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) for a 6-person exec team using AI agents instead of manual tracking. Agents collect scorecard data across all channels, generate the L10 meeting agenda Sunday night, and send the Monday exec email automatically. Execs update their Rocks by replying to the email — no dashboard, no login. Built on Supabase, Gmail API, and Claude Haiku for intent parsing.
EOS · Real-time Ops · Supabase · Gmail API
Enterprise Systems — NetSuite, CRM, ERP
Full NetSuite ERP implementation for a NASDAQ-listed consumer hardware company. CRM infrastructure across B2B wholesale and DTC channels. Executive dashboards for real-time decision-making. Amazon SP-API, Shopify, and HubSpot integrations. The measure was not the software — it was whether leadership made better decisions faster.
NetSuite · Shopify · HubSpot · NASDAQ
Supply Chain & Global Operations
China factory relationship development across multiple product lines. AQL inspections, BOM optimization, and cost engineering. Global logistics across ocean, air, and land fulfillment at scale. Led ANSI Z87.1+, CSA Z94.3, and EN 166 safety certifications — getting complex hardware compliant across three regulatory regimes simultaneously.
Supply Chain · Compliance · Global Logistics
Legacy Products
X Drone: DTC drone brand with $20M+ in sales. WebRC: First toys-to-virtual-world platform built on Unity (licensed by Toyota, Hummer, GM). AppRC: iOS/Android apps with Bluetooth dongle to control RC helicopters. These products shipped at retail scale — Walmart, Target, Amazon, Canadian Tire.
Consumer Hardware · DTC · $20M+ Revenue
Most of this work is internal by nature. What's public is at github.com/jabondano.
→ lore — cultural record — books, games, films
press & publications
- Jan 2026 "Record-Breaking 65% Annual Sales Growth in 2025". $2.7M revenue, insider buying announced
- Nov 2025 "Unveils Four New Lucyd Armor Smart Safety Glasses". Top 5 global logistics company order
- May 2025 "Q1 2025 Financial Results". 19% revenue growth, Reebok launch
- Mar 2025 "Full Year 2024 Financial Results". 42% YoY revenue growth
- Aug 2024 "Lucyd Smart Eyewear Now Sold on Target.com". Major retail expansion
- Jun 2024 "Significant Progress in International Expansion". First COO quote
timeline
COO, Innovative Eyewear (NASDAQ: LUCY)
Joined to build operations infrastructure for a public company. Deployed the company's first AI operating system — ten agents across six divisions. Expanded distribution across 27+ countries. First COO at the company to integrate AI at the operating layer.
Co-founder & VP Product, Groovy Toys LLC
Built from startup to $20M+ in annual revenue. Five hundred consumer products across mobile apps, multiplayer games, and IoT hardware. Clients included Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Canadian Tire. Operated across Hong Kong, Colombia, and Florida. This is where I learned that operations is the company.
CEO, Funky Planet
E-commerce operation serving Target, Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Macy's. 200% increase in online orders. Led digital marketing across Google, Facebook, Amazon Ads yielding 20% ROI improvements.
Business Development, Millbrook Ventures
Secured Environmental Impact Statement approval for $1.2B mixed use development in upstate New York. Created DCF valuation models and investor pitch books for hedge fund partnerships.
Purdue University
BS Management with Minor in Finance. Graduated in 3.5 years.
expertise
AI & Automation
- JBOT Protocol
- MCP Servers
- Claude/LLM Agents
- Workflow Automation
- NetSuite/Airtable
Operations & Supply Chain
- China Manufacturing
- Global Logistics (3PL)
- ERP Implementation
- Process Optimization
- Vendor Management
Product & Commerce
- Product Management
- Mobile/IoT Apps
- Multi-Channel (B2B + DTC)
- Amazon/Shopify Plus
- GTM & Distribution
Finance & Strategy
- Financial Modeling
- Investor Relations
- SEC Reporting
- M&A Due Diligence
Interests
- Stoic Philosophy
- History & Civilization
- Systems Thinking
- Human Nature
Real Estate Development
- Commercial Projects
- DCF/IRR Modeling
- Investor Pitch Books
- Entitlements
library
Books that shape how I'm thinking right now. These aren't beliefs set in stone—they're lenses I'm looking through, subject to revision. Intellectual humility means holding ideas loosely while engaging with them seriously.
Philosophy & How to Think
0How Leaders Built Things
0Systems & Human Nature
0Business & Strategy
0Literature
0bio
Joaquin Abondano is the Chief Operating Officer at Innovative Eyewear Inc. (NASDAQ: LUCY), where he leads operations and the company's AI transformation. The company posted 65% sales growth in 2025 and expanded distribution to 27+ countries.
Before Lucyd, he co-founded and scaled Groovy Toys to $20M+ in revenue — 500 products, three continents, a decade of building things that shipped. He holds a BS in Management with a Finance minor from Purdue University.
He is based in Miami. He advises a small number of executives, companies, and family offices on AI deployment strategy and operational transformation, with an implementation-first bias shaped by operators who have to make systems work in reality.
He reads obsessively — 200+ books across philosophy, history, systems, and strategy. He gravitates toward people who bring solutions and have skin in the game.
roots
Caribbean upbringing in a bilingual household. Eldest of brothers. Started working in the family business as a teenager, first trips to Asian factories before university. Competitive equestrian through adolescence.
Born in '83—analog childhood, figured out the internet as a teenager, built my first databases before most people had email. Now AI. I've watched companies adapt (or not) through each wave. That pattern recognition shapes how I think about tools and the people who choose them.