NICK HANDLEY
My Story Work Résumé

Hi, I'm Nick.

I've built businesses, produced videos, live experiences, and developed software to solve problems. I like being creative, and I love getting involved, figuring out how things work, and taking an idea far enough that it becomes something people can actually use or enjoy.

This is a collection of that work — and some of the stories behind it.

My Story

I Make Things.

Songs. Content. Experiences. Businesses. Software. I've always been pulled toward whatever genuinely interests me — music, video, business, new technology — and once I'm interested, I tend to go deep.

That curiosity has led me to make records, build companies, create content, work with major brands, and explore what's possible.

Looking back, there's a pattern. I usually find something early, get a little obsessed with understanding it, and then start building. Drones became FlyGuys. Simulator golf became BetterGolf. AI is where that curiosity has taken me now.

The common thread is pretty simple: I like making useful, interesting things that matter to real people.

Corporate Content Building Businesses Music & Audience
Corporate Content

Work Built for Enterprise Audiences

Some of the best creative work I’ve done has started with decidedly un-cinematic subject matter: industrial security, mainframes, OT compliance.

The job is figuring out how to make it clear, engaging, and worth someone’s attention.

That’s led to films, interactive tools, gamified experiences, executive content, and a wide range of enterprise work. I’ve worked across the process from concept to launch, often in partnership with agencies serving large organizations — balancing creative execution, technical complexity, stakeholder management, and fast-moving production.

Proven across brands
Rockwell Automation
Broadcom
Palo Alto Networks
ServiceNow
Honeywell
Verizon
Texas Department of Transportation
Granite Construction
Visit California
Story-driven film
Interactive media
Education & thought leadership
Brand, commercial & social
Building Businesses
1. FlyGuys

From Early Adopter to Co-Founder

The year was 2015.  I pitched FlyGuys for a spot on the tv show Shark Tank. At the time, we were seeking $250,000. Ten years later, the company announced a $13 million Series A investment from Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary . A pretty wild full-circle moment, ten years in the making.

It started as one idea — use drones to shoot aerial photography of golf courses — and kept finding bigger problems to solve: surveying, agriculture, utilities, mapping. I ran production and operations as it grew to thousands of pilots, enterprise clients and institutional investment. At a certain point, my chapter as an operator came to an end. I remained a significant shareholder after leaving the day-to-day business, and in 2024 sold a large portion of my stake. I still own a minority position today and am proud of what the company has become.

2. Santa Cruz Live

The show must go on

Fifteen years of learning how to deliver when there are no second chances.

WeddingsCorporate eventsLive production

A wedding doesn't get rescheduled because your gear failed — the ceremony happens once, and whatever you captured is what that family has forever. I did that work for about fifteen years: video, photography, audio, music and AV for private and corporate events. It taught me how to work under real pressure, run crews, and manage clients through something emotional. Everything I know about production management started here.

One take. That's all you get.
45
Five-star reviews on Yelp
Read them here
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Read on Yelp
3. BetterGolf Enterprises

Turning a personal obsession
into something people love

In the press
Santa Cruz Sentinel article: Golf simulator BetterGolf opens in Capitola Mall
Santa Cruz Sentinel · October 2025

BetterGolf started with a simulator in my living room and a pretty simple realization: this was too good not to exist somewhere people could actually use it.

I brought in my friend Daniel, someone I'd already spent years working alongside, and together we built the place we wished our community had.

It became profitable faster than we expected, but that's not what I'm proudest of. I'm proud that people genuinely love being there — golfers coming back to the game, older players finding a way to keep playing, juniors learning, schools coming through, and a little community forming around the thing we built.

What people say · Google
5.0 · 38 reviews
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Read the reviews →
Players in the BetterGolf simulator bays
Kids playing a dinosaur course in a bay
Guests at a BetterGolf community event night
Music

My first true love, and the beginning of my career as an entrepreneur

Music was where all of this really started.

I went to school for music production, spent four years managing a musical instrument store, taught lessons, and eventually made the jump into playing professionally. For the next four years, I made my living as a musician.

Along the way, I played in an original band, wrote and recorded four or five albums, and released music that's still out there on Spotify.

It was not the most practical path, but it taught me something I've carried into everything since: if I care enough about an idea, I'm usually willing to take the leap before I know exactly where it's going.

65K Views on this video
855 Likes
1.04K Channel subscribers
YouTube

Finding an Audience

The channel started as a hobby: me reviewing music gear I was already interested in.

I wrote, shot, presented, and edited every video myself, and eventually grew it past 1,000 subscribers and into monetization.

It was a small project, but I loved the proof in it — if you make something useful and interesting enough, people you've never met will choose to come back.

Visit the channel →
Currently

Using AI to build, automate, and simplify

AI agents & workforces

Build a team without adding a team.

I design and deploy AI agents that research, organize, monitor, write, analyze and hand work between roles — essentially a digital workforce around a founder or small team, rather than one chatbot doing everything.

Custom software & automation

Build the tool instead of working around the problem.

When off-the-shelf software doesn’t fit, I build lightweight custom tools, apps and automations. Most of them started by solving something inside BetterGolf — booking, operations, coaching, job tracking, content.

Workflow & efficiency

Find the friction. Fix the system.

I look at how work actually gets done, find where time is going, and pick the simplest fix — AI, automation, better software, a different process, or sometimes nothing at all.

I've always been obsessed with efficiency. When you've spent most of your career working for yourself, output matters more than hours — so finding better ways to work becomes second nature.

AI has taken that idea much further. I've gone deep on the tools, learned how to make multiple models and agents work together, and built systems I use every day across my own businesses. Now I'm applying that same approach to help other founders and small teams do more with less.

What's next

Good people. Interesting problems. Let’s see what we can build.

If you're building something and think I could help — Let's connect.

Email
NickHandley831@gmail.com
Phone
831-325-3609
LinkedIn
/nick-handley
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