Conversated
Conversated is the platform I’m building to connect content, business knowledge, customer relationships, and AI. My work spans product design, architecture, engineering, and the details that turn an idea into something people can use.
Personal website of Jame Mackson. Read about his work, background, and ways to connect.
Jame
Mackson
I build technology that helps people build a stronger business.
Right now, that means Conversated. Fifteen years of small-business ownership shape the work.
Conversated
Connected intelligence
Humble Good
Independent business
petite salon
Small-business ownership
StayWorks
Hospitality tools
Stone Arch
Community & collaboration
Good work should do good
I like making complicated things useful. I care just as much about who benefits: the people doing the work, the business taking the risk, and the community around it.
What I’m building
Humble Good
Humble Good brings together my work on software, small business, and responsible profit. The aim is to put useful technology within reach and keep more value with the people and communities creating it.
Where it gets practical
StayWorks
Hospitality is where connected tools meet everyday operations. Through StayWorks, I’m working on direct booking and the systems that help rental operators serve their guests.
Stone Arch Collective
Through Stone Arch, I’m working alongside people exploring how independent expertise, useful technology, and shared value can support one another. It’s a place for learning together and turning conversations into practical work.
Small business is personal
petite salon
I’ve co-owned petite salon with my wife for 15 years, serving as CEO with a focus on business management. For roughly the past ten years, we’ve worked alongside Tom and Haley Fruen.
That experience shapes the technology I build. Small-business owners need tools that fit the work, respect their time and help them make decisions. My interest in empowering small businesses comes from being an owner myself.
The people part matters
A capable system still needs to fit someone’s actual day. I want to understand the work before deciding what to automate.
I like ambitious ideas. Progress comes from a clear next step, real use, and paying attention to what gets in the way.
Recognize contribution
Money is one way people invest. Time, expertise, effort, and early risk matter too. I’m exploring a shared value model that makes those contributions visible and looks for fairer ways to share the rewards of building together.
From drafting to software
A small company invested in teaching me to code. I’ve been making useful things ever since.
My path into software started with architectural drafting and AutoCAD. At MiniMax, a small engineering and software company in Eagan, people took the time to teach me. Programming lessons over lunch and a company-funded course gave me a way into building software. That investment in me shaped my career.
I went on to work in web engineering and marketing enablement, building systems around how businesses communicate and grow. I learned to connect the technical decisions to the work people actually need to get done.
At Upsie, I led engineering for about four years. Working across a growing product and the team building it added another layer to how I think about useful systems.
Alongside my software career, I’ve spent 15 years co-owning petite salon with my wife. My focus has been business management, serving as CEO. Business ownership continues to shape how I think about useful software and the people it should serve.
Now I’m putting that experience into Conversated and Humble Good, with a focus on practical tools for smaller businesses and better ways for people to work together.
Still making things
I still like making things with wood. The materials are different, but I enjoy the same part: figuring out how something should fit together, then making it real.
My roots are in St. Paul. Snowboarding and road trips make room for life around the work. Curiosity tends to come along for the ride.
Field Notes
Notes on building useful things, running a small business, and paying attention to the places around me.
Small business is personal
How fifteen years of co-owning petite salon shape the purpose behind Conversated.
Owning a business
The decisions, responsibilities and collaborations behind a stronger business.
Building useful tools
Product choices, connected systems, and what technology needs to understand about the work.
Places & perspective
Travel, making things, and the observations that come along for the ride.
Let’s make something useful
If you’re building a business, working through a product idea, looking for an engineering leader, or thinking about better ways to collaborate, I’d be glad to compare notes.