Dan Garraway

Sovereign systems · experiences that actIt's at 9.98°N 85.65°W and I'm deep in MADESELFlive

Builds infrastructure for multiversal narrative logic

Fractional creative-technologist · for a few founders at a time

I build sovereign systems where you and your agents move as one — and experiences that act.

Twenty years putting people in the middle of the experience. Co-founded WIREWAX (Disney, BBC, FX), sold it to Vimeo, ran the go-to-market. Now I install the private AI operating system I run on myself — where you and your agents move as one — and lend the lens that won a BAFTA, two Webbys and two Clios, for a few founders who want to own their stack.

Acquired by Vimeo · 2021BAFTAWebby ×2Clio ×2

Built / shipped withDisney·BBC·FX·Nike·Google·Warner·Vimeo

Work with me · three ways in

Start small, or go straight to the build

One lens, three depths. Fixed-scope, priced on the outcome — your time back, or an experience that converts — never by the hour.

On-ramp

Signal Call

A 90-minute teardown of where you're leaking time and attention — and the one experience that could convert better.

  • Live walk-through of your stack & funnel
  • A one-page map: the 2 highest-leverage moves
  • Recording + notes to keep
$750 · 90 minCredited in full if we go further.
Book a signal call
Flagship

The Operator's OS

I install the private, sovereign AI operating system I run — tuned to your workflow — so working with your agents feels kinetic, not clunky, and hands you back hours every week.

  • Your own agents + automations, on your stack
  • A runbook so it's yours, not rented
  • 2–4 weeks, fixed scope
  • Optional monthly tune-up
Founding cohort · from $9kOptional $1.5k/mo tune-up · one client at a time.
Apply as founding client
Retainer

The Lens

A few days a month of my judgment embedded with your team — interactive experience, AI, and the GTM that took a company through a Vimeo acquisition.

  • Experience & product direction that converts
  • GTM / scale / exit-readiness
  • In the room, not a deck over the wall
from $7k/mo · 2–3 days a monthBy application. A couple of seats.
Enquire

No cold pitch, no hourly meter. The work argues for itself — and below, it's running live on me right now.


So we don't waste each other's time

Who this is for

A fit if you…

  • Want to own your stack, not rent someone's black box
  • Treat your time and attention as the real budget
  • Are building something with soul — and want it to convert
  • Move when it lines up, not after six committees

Not a fit if you…

  • Want the cheapest automation gig on Upwork
  • Need a body to bill by the hour
  • Are shopping for hype, not outcomes
  • Want me to run your whole company for you

Live · the system, running on me

This is what I'd install for you

The Operator's OS, live on my own stack right now — git, my agents, what I track. The top row counts the time saved — but the real thing is the flow: the human and the agents, moving as one.

Live feedsyncing…
9.5h
Time saved / wk
37
Distractions deflected
14
Jobs run · 0 errors
  • ·gitpushed 3 commits → madeself/dawn
  • ·openclawgateway healthy · uptime 12d
  • ·delfínreplied to 4 WhatsApp threads, drafted 1
  • ·black unicornweekly link check — 52 ok, 3 dead
  • ·usage4h 12m focused build time today
  • ·gitdelfin-push: vault synced
  • ·delfínsummarised today's mail · 2 bills flagged
  • ·selfmadeselfmade.skin — 6 sessions in the last hour
  • ·openclawBU job run complete · 0 errors
  • ·usageNFC taps logged today: 5
System layers and for-loops. The value is time saved, energy saved — and you'd own every line of it.

Why me

For twenty years I've made one move — take what a person feels in the moment and collapse the gap to what happens next, toward zero. Real-time.

The object kept changing — an interactive trailer for Disney, a BAFTA series for the BBC, a shoppable video for Nike, the go-to-market into Vimeo. The move never did. Now it's a sovereign system where a person and their agents move as one.

Same craft. Now pointed at the flow between you and your agents.


While the future was still loading

Receipts

Fifteen years turning frontier tech into things people feel — and businesses that move. The numbers behind the lens.

$5M+
new product revenue at Vimeo — 2.7× ahead of forecast
300K+
seats shipped · Fortune 100 (Google, NBC, Walmart, Starbucks)
30K+
creators built on WIREWAX · patented AI video tagging
ROI turnaround at Selfmade · first profitable year in ’23
200+
enterprise sellers trained in AI fluency at Vimeo
15+
years shipping real-time, intelligence-driven systems

1984 → now

How I got here

  1. 1984

    Born

    In the UK. A family of service.

  2. c. 1991

    Grandad's radio equipment

    I'd force my family to listen to my internal radio shows at holiday gatherings. The first instinct, never lost: make people experience something.

  3. mid-90s

    A paper round, a first computer

    Earned my way to a Windows 95 PC and started building — early web places for people to gather, gaming-league communities, a ShoutCast station of my own (talked Demon Internet into free servers).

  4. 2002–05

    Screen Production

    A degree built at the seam of television and internet. Day one, the lecturer: “We're not here to do exams — by year three you'll have built your own company.” I found a talent for camera and experience design.

  5. c. 2003

    Oak Barrel — first company

    Won a contract for a world-first video-dating website. Brought on a technical co-founder; led the experience and the build.

  6. 2006–08

    London, and a camera

    A South Bank studio for brands arriving online — and camera work I loved: Cage Warriors (before it was UFC Europe), Santana at Silverstone, and J&J's Harmonic — flying the world to film first-of-their-kind surgeries.

  7. c. 2008

    Meeting Steve Callanan

    A click-to-learn prototype on a make-up video. Underneath it was the real idea: an intelligence layer for video.

  8. 2010–13

    WIREWAX

    Funded by Passion Capital out of Seedcamp, Berlin. Hired computer-vision engineers from Leeds. We connected a dumb asset into a two-way experience of curiosity, context and action — Nike's first shoppable video; the BBC's first interactive video; easter eggs hidden in Sherlock and Luther.

  9. 2013

    New York, from scratch

    Moved to chase the largest market. Lived in the 41 Wooster office while we built it out. I failed, learned, failed, learned. I was lonely. I had to build my life from scratch. Found a bar called Shade — and a community.

  10. 2017–19

    The award years

    A Webby for Portugal. The Man. A Webby for Disney's Jungle Book. Two Clios for FX. A BAFTA for the BBC. A studio of ~15 in the US, ~60 worldwide — funding the technology underneath.

  11. 2019–20

    A Swiss army knife for video

    Recognising people across scenes, emotional analysis, AI tooling for Warner → HBO Max, and a Google TV pilot — gesture and knowledge-card interaction, before X-ray was a thing.

  12. 2021

    Acquired by Vimeo

    I brokered the deal, ran the pilot to 70% conversion, then built the go-to-market — trained 200+, brought in Salesforce, connected Walmart, hit every target in nine months, not two. Then I left to be with my Dad through his cancer.

  13. 2022–24

    selfmade

    Stephanie's gen-z wellness brand, pivoting into technology — translating psychodermatology into everyday products that help people use the time and money they already spend to regulate emotion. Experiences in LA on Abbot Kinney.

  14. now

    The real-time era

    From Costa Rica, using the AI wave to build experiences that convert feeling into action in the moment — madeself, my human↔agent interface; agents that quietly do the job; sovereign systems that hand an operator their week back.


Straight answers

Questions

Who is Dan Garraway?

Dan Garraway is a fractional creative technologist building from Costa Rica for founders worldwide. He co-founded WIREWAX — the interactive-video platform used by Disney, BBC and FX — sold it to Vimeo in 2021, and ran the go-to-market. His work has won a BAFTA, two Webbys and two Clios.

How do you work with founders?

Three fixed-scope ways: a 90-minute Signal Call ($750); the Operator's OS install (from $9k) — a private AI operating system on your own stack; and The Lens (from $7k/mo) — a few days a month of embedded product, experience and GTM judgment.

What is the Operator's OS?

The private AI operating system Dan runs on himself — your own agents and automations, on your stack, with a runbook so you own it rather than rent it. Tuned so working with your agents feels intuitive and kinetic, not clunky — with the hours saved as the byproduct.

Who is this for — and not for?

A fit for founders and creative operators who want to own their stack, treat their time and attention as the real budget, and are building something with soul that needs to convert. Not a fit if you want the cheapest automation gig, need a body to bill by the hour, or are shopping for hype over outcomes.

How do I start working with Dan?

Email dangarraway@gmail.com with what you're making. Start with a Signal Call, or apply for the single founding-client slot on the Operator's OS.


● One founding client · open now

Let's install your Operator's OS

One founding client — the only seat at the founding rate. You get the operating system I run, installed on your stack and tuned so you and your agents move as one. I get the first case study, built with you. A real exchange, not a pilot — and the rate goes with the slot.

→ Tell me what you're making

If it lines up, it lines up.


Connected work · the rest of the system

Where else I'm building

This site is one node. The studio, the products and the work board are live — and so am I, in public.