Joaquin Abondano
Twenty years building businesses. Three years deploying AI to run them.
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 the operating infrastructure for a public company using AI agents. Not as an experiment. As how the company runs. The team gained leverage without adding headcount. The organization learned to operate faster than it had before.
What I believe: AI will do for decision-making what electricity did for manufacturing — not replace the people who run things, but fundamentally change what one person can do. That transition is happening now. Spring 2026 is not a forecast. It is an inflection point. The companies building these capabilities in the next six months will be the ones with the advantages that compound. The ones watching will spend years trying to catch up.
jbot protocol
JBOT Protocol
The system I built to deploy AI agents across enterprise divisions. Open-sourced because the architecture should exist, and because building it in public holds me to a higher standard. Includes the templates, decision frameworks, and operational patterns I use at Lucyd.
recent thoughts
Every Company Needs a Chief AI Officer. Most Don't Know What That Means.
AI projects fail at the organizational layer, not the technology layer. No one owns it. Here is what building an AI system actually requires — and what the person who does it well looks like.
Designing Systems That Learn: Fleet Bots and Self-Recycling Memory
How I deployed three specialized bot fleets with memory systems that get smarter over time. It's not about what AI can do today — it's about designing systems that generate their own intelligence.
Building a Fleet of AI Agents for Enterprise Operations
How I deployed 5 specialized AI agents across a public company's operations. Division-based architecture, human-in-the-loop design, and why specialists beat generalists.
advisory
I work with a small number of executives and companies each year. The work takes different forms, but the starting point is always the same: what does your organization actually need from AI, and what's the most direct path to getting it?
AI Executive Briefing
One-on-one education designed for senior leaders. Not a PowerPoint about ChatGPT. A candid conversation about what AI can and cannot do for your business, what your competitors are likely doing, and where the highest-leverage opportunities are. Built around your industry, your questions, and your pace.
AI Operations for Your Business
For companies ready to move from curiosity to implementation. I assess your current operations, identify where AI agents create the most value, and guide the build. I have done this at a public company. The same architecture is available to private businesses at any stage.
1:1 Leadership Development
For executives who want to develop personal fluency with AI — not just understand it conceptually, but use it. A structured program built around your role, your decisions, and your day. The goal is that AI becomes part of how you think and work, not something your team manages on your behalf.
If what you are building warrants a conversation, reach out directly: hello@jabondano.co
ai & technical projects
Below is the work. Built at a public company, under real pressure, with real accountability.
Agentic Operating System
I built a structured AI operating layer for Innovative Eyewear — ten specialized agents, each with defined responsibilities, institutional knowledge, and decision frameworks. The system runs daily operations across six departments. It generates its own training data over time. The goal was not automation for its own sake. It was organizational leverage.
MCP Servers & Integrations
Connected Claude to the enterprise stack — NetSuite, Shopify, Airtable, ShipStation. What used to require pulling reports across four systems now surfaces as a morning briefing. Custom agents handle content, supply chain signals, and trade show strategy. The protocol is Model Context Protocol (MCP), and it is changing what enterprise AI is capable of.
Enterprise Systems
Full NetSuite ERP implementation for a NASDAQ-listed company. CRM infrastructure for B2B and DTC channels. Executive dashboards built for real-time decision-making. The measure of success was not the software — it was whether the leadership team made better decisions faster.
Supply Chain & Operations
China factory relationship development, AQL inspections, BOM optimization. Global logistics across ocean, air, and land fulfillment. Led ANSI Z87.1+, CSA Z94.3, EN 166 safety certifications for smart safety eyewear.
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.
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. Under his leadership, the company has grown revenue 65% annually and expanded 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 and companies on AI strategy and implementation. He is not for everyone.
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.