About
A small studio with a long memory.
Cauldron Labs is an AI innovation consultancy and event planning studio based in Kansas City. We help companies and their key people put AI to work in ways that keep getting better over time.
Justin Gardner
Founder
25 years in media and marketing. Builds AI systems that do the work of a team, and events that get people to use them.
- Kansas City
- 25 years in media
- Consulting + events
I help companies and their key people put AI to work in ways that keep getting better over time, and I bring people together to make it happen.
At Cauldron Labs, I design and build self-improving agentic AI stacks, company-brain knowledge bases that capture how a business actually runs, and fast website redesign concepts. I also plan events that get teams and communities excited about AI and ready to put it to use.
I come to this from 25 years in media and marketing. As Chief Content Officer at Everhance, I led publishing for a network that reaches 30M+ followers and puts out 1,200+ posts a month. I used AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude to model acquisitions, build performance algorithms and find new revenue in the data. Before that, I pioneered social media at AMC Theatres, built an award-winning video team that was later acquired by Collider, and led Film Society KC through years of events and screenings.
These days I also help the Kansas City AI Club put on new events, because many of my best ideas about AI started with conversations in a room full of builders.
Before this
Where the practice comes from.
Publishing at scale, video, and events. All three show up in how the studio works now.
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Everhance
Chief Content Officer. Led publishing for a network reaching 30M+ followers and putting out 1,200+ posts a month. Used AI to model acquisitions, build performance algorithms, and find new revenue in the data.
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AMC Theatres
Pioneered social media. Early social strategy for a national entertainment brand.
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Video
Built an award-winning video team, later acquired by Collider.
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Film Society KC
Led the organization through years of events and screenings.
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Today
Cauldron Labs and the Kansas City AI Club. Consulting, events, and helping put on the KC AI Expo.
Kansas City
The room matters.
Cauldron Labs comes out of the Kansas City AI community, not a conference circuit. We help the KC AI Club put on events, including the KC AI Expo, and the studio's work is shaped by what builders in this city are actually running into.
- KC AI Club. Helping put on events for the people building with AI in Kansas City.
- KC AI Expo. Part of the club's event calendar.
- Events as a delivery format. A room of the right people can move a company further in a day than a deck can in a quarter.
How we work
Scoped before anything gets built.
Every engagement starts with a free discovery session, usually about two hours, to find where AI will make the biggest difference. Then work is scoped in Crawl, Walk and Run phases with clear hour estimates and budgets, so you know what you are getting before anything is built.
Crawl gets knowledge out of inboxes into one place and picks one workflow that costs real hours. Walk gives a few key people agents that use that knowledge and learn from their corrections. Run connects it across teams so the system improves every week without a new project.
Wondering where AI fits in your business?
Let's talk. The first session is free, and it starts with what is taking the most time.