ToolGuyd is bringing Lauren, the founder's younger cousin, into its operations, drawing on her media, marketing and management experience to work through a backlog of deeper tool and brand stories the site has not had time to develop. She is contributing on a moonlighting basis rather than as a full-time staff member.
Lauren is not new to the outlet's event coverage. She has assisted at three Milwaukee Pipeline media events and at DeWalt's Black & Yellow event a few months ago, handling much of ToolGuyd's social media output so the founder could concentrate on questions, product deep dives and testing.
Her first Pipeline assignment grew out of a marketing conference she attended for her own job, where a DeWalt speaker presented. When the founder needed help covering Pipeline, he asked Milwaukee for a plus-one ticket, and the request was approved.
According to the founder, her role has widened beyond event support into strategy, management and execution, and her contributions are described as having had meaningful impact despite the part-time arrangement. She is also helping convert long-standing ideas into actual plans.
The founder frames the timing around AI's effect on the media industry, saying AI progress is prompting changes across the sector and is reshaping programming work. He says he remains in what he calls full panic mode over the industry's direction, but that the pair now has a focused plan and the drive to pursue it. Lauren, he adds, sees the shift from multiple viewpoints because of her marketing background.
Readers can expect more of her work on the site and considerably more on social media. The founder says further detail on the deeper stories and explorations now being planned will come later, and that he is looking ahead to 2027.