Justin S. Henriksen
Accepting new clients - limited availability

Justin S. Henriksen

I build AI solutions and tinker with other things.

I co-founded GetLatest AI, where we work with leaders who don't want to "learn AI" or experiment endlessly. They want to place smarter bets and see measurable outcomes. We help you identify the areas of your business where AI has the most impact and then we build the solution for you.

What I've accomplished

I've been building since 2004 - as an engineer, an architect, a GM, and a founder. Here's what that looks like in numbers.

172%
MRR increase
$440K to $1.2M in 8 months
$100M+
Customer growth
Microsoft partner ecosystem
$1.5M - $5M+
AI initiative funding converted
Sustainable partner revenue
$51M
P&L led as GM
Crayon US
200%
New customer acquisition
At Crayon as GM
95/100
Manager rating
5-year average

Programs built at scale

Named programs from the Microsoft AI partner motion.

AI Accelerate

Microsoft's partner enablement program for AI: strategy briefings, envisioning sessions, solution acceleration. Scaled across multiple countries and hundreds of partners.

Data Science Partner Program

Curriculum, maturity assessments, and graduation criteria for Microsoft partners building data science practices. Deployed across the US partner ecosystem.

AI Country Plans

Country-level AI adoption playbooks. Strategic plans for AI readiness implemented across multiple geographies.

Cloud Center of Excellence

Cloud architecture frameworks and best practices for enterprise adoption. Reference patterns the partner ecosystem built against.

Where I've been

25 years from developer to CEO - and now fractional.

Founder & CEO|GetLatest AI / Fenix Venture
Jun 2024 - Present

Building SnappyClaw, a production AI agent platform with real customers.

CEO / President|Blue Eye
Apr 2023 - Jun 2024

Grew P&L from $5M to $11M. Led team of 150.

CEO / General Manager|Crayon US
Oct 2021 - Jan 2023

Grew revenue from $43M to $51M. 200-person org.

Sr. Director, Partner Ecosystem|Microsoft
Jul 2017 - Oct 2021

Sr. Director - Partner Ecosystem (AI/ML, Data, Advanced Analytics). Led AI Accelerate, AI Country Plans, and the Data Science Partner Program. Partners scaled 10x, 14x, and 20x within four years. $100M+ in customer growth driven.

Principal Software Engineer|Microsoft
Sept 2013 - Jun 2017

Azure adoption architecture for enterprise customers and partners. Architected Cloud Center of Excellence reference patterns. Built the Azure SQL DTU Calculator early in the Azure SQL migration era.

Software Engineering Manager|Microsoft
Mar 2012 - Sept 2013

Massively distributed software systems for global data center infrastructure.

Solutions Architect|LDS Church
Jul 2008 - Mar 2012

Architecture roadmaps across .Net, Java, AWS, and Azure.

Development Manager|TaxWorks
Jun 2004 - Jul 2008

Led development team for tax software products.

What people say

From LinkedIn - direct reports, peers, and leaders across the career.

His technical depth and thought leadership in Artificial Intelligence enables him to work with the technical talent on his teams in a capacity that is highly effective and impactful. I could not recommend Justin more highly as an incredible asset to any organization.

Lauren Tran

Chief Architect @ Microsoft, Office of the CTO

Reported directly to Justin

Justin knows and understands the details of how to apply technology in ways others just don't comprehend. Beyond all his technical and business skills, Justin is an amazing person - reliable, loyal, considerate and generous. He is the kind of person you would want as a business partner and a friend.

Marian Watkins

Marketing Executive | GTM Advisor

Reported directly to Justin

In a year, he brought our attrition down over 20%, grew our GP by 20% and increased revenue by 18%. This was all possible because Justin leads with a collaborative, people-first approach. He is thoughtful, strategic, transparent and wickedly smart. Any company or board would be lucky to have his expertise on their team.

Jason Skinner

VP at Long View Systems

Justin was senior

People work harder for Justin because of how he curates performance and career success. His leadership style is thoughtful, prescriptive, direct, and relatable to both buyers and employees to drive momentum, loyalty, and big results. I would work for him for the rest of my career if the privilege presented itself because he's earned it.

Tara DarConte

AI & Cloud Acceleration

Reported directly to Justin

Justin is an innovator, visionary, and highly technical leader who was an honor to work with in multiple capacities. He was one of the most influential career and technical mentors I've had in my career. Justin is an outstanding people-first leader who creates an empowering environment where everyone can do their best work.

Karen Trubisky

Advisor | Former AWS, Microsoft, VMware

Justin was senior

Justin is one of the most brilliant business minds I have ever met. He has a knack for knowing how to maximize business opportunities that come his way. In addition to his business acumen, he also has incredible knowledge of technology, software, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Having spent time as a talented software engineer, Justin knows and understands the details of how to apply technology in ways others just don't comprehend.

Tony Spencer

C# Cowboy | Software Engineer

Worked on the same team

What I've written

Technical takes on agent architecture, AI systems design, and what actually works in production.

Writing

The Platform the Taxonomy Demands

Why most "agent" products aren't actually agentic - and how SnappyClaw's three-layer architecture (persistent per-person memory, shared business knowledge, agent-to-agent coordination) solves the problem that model capability improvements alone cannot.

getlatest.ai/blog/snappyclaw-platform-truly-agentic-architecture
Writing

Why Most AI Systems Aren't Actually Agents

A research-backed taxonomy of what qualifies as an agent vs. a session assistant. The math is brutal: a ten-step pipeline at 90% per-step accuracy has a 35% end-to-end success rate. Reliability is an architectural property, not a model quality issue.

getlatest.ai/blog/why-most-ai-systems-arent-actually-agents
Writing

Why AI Agents Still Disappoint

The gap between automation and intelligence: why organizations actually need deterministic systems that reason at decision points - not pure autonomous agents. Compares n8n, MAF, Claude Cowork, and developer frameworks on real criteria.

getlatest.ai/blog/why-ai-agents-still-disappoint
Writing

Why Your AI Forgets You Every Time

Maps five memory architectures (semantic/vector, graph, episodic, observational, validated knowledge base) and explains why persistent agent memory is infrastructure, not a feature. The difference between an assistant and an agent that actually knows you.

getlatest.ai/blog/why-ai-forgets-you-persistent-memory-explained

What I've spoken about

Active in the community, not just building in private.

Speaking

AI Collective - Founder Panel

"Why We Built This: 3 Founders and Their Raw Decisions" - 90-minute virtual panel for The AI Collective, 200,000+ members across 100+ global forums. Problem identification, product scope, and building methodology for early-stage AI products.

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Speaking

AI for Sales & Marketing

"What's real, what's hard, and who's solving it" - practical AI applications for sales and marketing teams, cutting through the hype to what enterprises are actually deploying.

getlatest.ai/sales-and-marketing-deck
Speaking

MasterClaw Workshop

"I Just Shipped Myself: Build and Deploy Your Personal Portfolio with AI" - live workshop teaching practitioners to build and deploy real AI-powered products.

getlatest.ai/masterclaw-deck
Speaking

AI Collective - Live Build

"Digital Contact Cards: Build and ship a contact card with an AI agent, live" - hands-on session with the AI Collective community.

getlatest.ai/ai-agents-deck

Where I invest

I'm the founder of Fenix Venture, my personal investment vehicle. I invest directly and work closely with leadership teams on strategy, structure, and execution when that involvement is useful. The form varies. The goal is measurable progress, not activity.

How we give

My family and I run the Henriksen Family Giving Fund, which reflects how we think about responsibility, stewardship, and long-term impact.

Education and credentials

MBA - University of UtahBA Computer Science - Weber State UniversityMicrosoft Professional Program - Data ScienceMicrosoft Professional Program - Big DataAzure MCSEAI-900, AZ-900, DP-100, DP-900Deep Learning Specialization (Andrew Ng / Coursera)Six Sigma Green Belt

I work with people who are fun to be around, passionate about their purpose, and like to build cool things. If there's overlap, let's talk.