It’s been just a few months since Jared Bruder accepted a role to lead brand and marketing for Persona AI - a Houston based AI and Robotics start up. That meant moving (with his family) to Houston Texas after nearly three decades in New York. He checked in with himself to see how things were going.
Can you tell us a little about your journey? It’s not often you hear about creatives moving into marketing.
Sure. People always say that your own story is the hardest to tell, but I’m pretty clear about it. I actually studied graphic design. My focus was on brand identity. I always loved logos. How a little symbol could come to mean so much. I moved to New York right after college. My first real job was in the design office of an ad agency. Designers were so serious, but everyone in advertising seemed to be having so much fun. I would look into the offices of the art directors, and they were always laughing. And they were working on other things I had no idea about. TV commercials. Radio spots. And of course, the print ads had a whole different feel. Long story short, I got work at Ogilvy, and went on a little tour of Madison Ave. Digitas, Y&R are the highlights. It was a window into the marketing eco system and I learned a totally different way of communicating. I was exposed to things like media buying. It was much more exciting than building standards manuals for the rest of my life. And I loved the chess game of figuring out how it all fit together. I ended up leading marketing for a design and innovation consultancy, then to Yves Behar’s Fuseproject. Then, I got a call from a recruiter about an AI and Robotics startup in Houston. At least, that’s the short story.
So you said “Good bye to all that”?
Yes. But not in the same way. New York is amazing in every way. But after almost three decades, I was overdue for a break. I wanted a different experience. Besides, you can’t come back if you never leave.
What’s Texas like? How did you really feel about moving there?
The museums are great. That’s what I love the most. The Menil, the MFA, The Rothko Chapel. Just to name a few places I’ve been spending time.
How’s the job going?
Great. It’s exciting to be working at the forefront of an industry that’s on fire. Everyone is talking about Embodied AI. The founder is quite impressive. Nic Radford worked at NASA for years, and he worked on two of NASA’s big humanoid robot projects - Valkyrie and Robonaut. My first call was with him and the Head of Commercial Strategy, Michael Perry. The moment they showed up on screen, I knew this was going to be good.
How so?
Well, you can just tell they were cool guys. Body language still comes across on screen. The call was scheduled for 30 minutes, and it went for an hour.
So, how did you get this job anyhow?
A Recruiter by the name of Jon Hoffenberg reached out. He was great. We spoke for quite a while. He said it was rather unusual to speak to a marketing person who knew anything about AI and Robotics. He ended the call asking me how I felt about Houston? I said yes right away. I had been to Houston a few years back and was very impressed with the food and art.
I want to go back to something you said a moment ago. Tell me more about the AI and Robotics thing.
Sure. I was leading marketing for Yves Behar at the time. A lot of the portfolio had been built around AI and Robotics. The SNOO Bassinet. Moxie, the learning robot for kids. ElliQ, the robot companion for the elderly. Then there was MAXIMO, the robot for AES built to install solar panels. All of those projects were based in AI and Robotics, but from a very human centered design perspective. So, I felt very confident talking about them as something that uniquely qualified me for the job. But, I was very clear that I had category exposure. I was not a category expert. In the end, as always, it came down to team dynamic.
Yves Behar. He’s a bit of a design legend. Do you have any fun stories about Yves you can share?
Yeah. Tons. He’s wild. The studio is in SF, but I was totally remote from New York. I was never around him as much as I would have liked. But again, it was the team that I worked with that really made the job wonderful. They worked on everything, and it was always fantastic work.
I do have one story that stands out. I was launching a new site for the studio. It was a huge lift taking almost 30 years of work and moving into a new experience. It was a whole new positioning and experience from the ground up. I wrote 12 new case studies, edited, then migrated another 130. I was racing to get it all live before the unveiling of the TELO Truck in LA. I was on a call with Yves reviewing the featured case studies. He picked up on his phone while driving down the highway in his Rivian. I asked if he wanted to reschedule. He said, No. So we started going through them, one by one. I swear he was barely looking at the road while I shared my screen. For each project, it was like he had a photographic memory of every detail of every project. I was astonished at the total recall of what made each project unique. How each one created a new category. And most of all, he knew the sales and impact metrics of each project. It was amazing. Needless to say, I was relieved when we finally ended the call.
Are you still working on your novel?
Absolutely. I’ve been working on this thing every single day since the pandemic. The narrative of the story takes place within the 3 months I toured Europe after college to see all the art I saw in slide format in college, and just before I moved to New York. It’s interwoven with memories of my creative journey, and how I used art as a shelter. But it also dives into memories of my formative years in New York. So, sometimes the memories are looking back. Sometimes, they are looking forward. But the overall narrative is told from the perspective of an older “Self” looking back. The genre is called Bildungsroman. I think it was a much more technically challenging project than I was prepared for. It also took me a long time to understand that the book is really about leaving home.
What else are you reading?
I just finished Patrick Modiano’s Occupation Trilogy. I initially picked it up because I was interested in the first story ‘La Place de L'Étoile‘ about a person who inhabits several different identities at once. But the last story ‘Ring Roads‘ meant a lot more to me. The exploration of telling a story from the past perspective that feels it’s happening in real-time. The exploration of the relationship between Father and Son was an inspiring portrait of dedication.
I’m currently reading Alice Carrière’s ‘Everything/Nothing/Someone.’ I’m just at the part where she reads her own diagnosis report. I was so immersed in her own use of language, that when I read that part, I thought, wow, that’s beautiful writing. Only to have her voice enter to echo my exact thought, and follow up that she is reading it now, it only felt lonely. I had to sit with that for a while. I realized at that moment that I wasn’t there with her yet. I was all about the language, and not fully empathizing with her sense of loneliness and loss.
I also have Rachel Cusk’s ‘Life of M’. I remember reading ‘Outline.’ My favorite part was when she was laying down on the bench at the back of the speed boat with the scarf over her face. Whether or not Life of M it’s actually about Natalie Portman, no matter what the critics say, I’m eager to check it out.
What else are you working on?
I’m working on a book about a stillbirth from a father‘s perspective. A jazz age animated script about a tugboat who wants to play jazz in Paris. And a script about The Jesus and Mary Chain.
The band?
Yes. It's an incredible story of a family torn apart by rock ‘n’ roll and sibling rivalry and codependence.
Did you write this AI?
Seriously?
No, just kidding. But I wonder if you have any thoughts on the topic. We seem to be a place where I think the novelty has worn off a bit.
Yeah. I agree. Things are a bit scary right now. There are stories about AI companies buying books in bulk, scanning them, and destroying them. Reportedly, that also includes antiquarian books. I choose to remain an optimist about the value of the work. I find myself holding on to what Seth Rogen said at Cannes. “if You Use AI to Write Scripts, Then ‘You Shouldn’t Be a Writer.’ ‘Go Do Something Else.’ He followed it up with the fact that he likes writing. I feel the same. We write in order to understand ourselves. And in that, the hope is that we can share our experience with others so that we might come closer to those we will never know.
So, have you arrived?
Does anyone? But it does feel like the opening of a new chapter.
Okay. Rapid fire. What places do you miss most in NYC?
The Brooklyn Museum. I would spend at least one weekend day there with my daughter. Also, Prune.
The restaurant?
Yes. Even though it closed shortly after The Pandemic, Gabriella Hamilton achieved something really special there.
What’s your favorite place in Houston
The Rothko Chapel. A sacred space of a very different sort.
Who is your hero?
The Beastie Boys. No question. It was extraordinary to see their continued evolution. They weren’t just great musicians, they created an entire multifaceted culture.