About Black Hills Consortium
One founder. 14 days. 13 companies. $52M raise.
The AI-native holding company built from a 15-acre campus in Custer, South Dakota.
The Receipts
$1.8M → $52M
Personal capital → raise (28x)
0 companies
Built in 14 days
$103.2M
Pipeline across 12 entities
51 → 255
AI does 80%. You're 5x faster.
$0K
Salary floor = $210K+ Denver
0
Licensed dispensaries in CRM
0+
Local businesses serving all 13 entities
$71.59M–$1.65B
Y1 conservative → Y5 aggressive
Luke Alvarez
Born in Paraguay, orphaned in infancy, adopted by a single mother in McLean, Virginia. Harvard and BYU-educated. The kind of story you would not believe unless you saw the receipts.
At Canvas by Instructure, Luke built the customer success operation that drove adoption to 3,000+ higher-education institutions, from APAC expansion to enterprise partnerships with Tesla and SilencerCo via Bridge LMS. Pushed their support quality score to Netflix parity. Many of Instructure's current leadership are people he trained. Canvas IPO'd at $1.5B in 2015; Thoma Bravo acquired Instructure for $4.8B.
After Instructure, Luke designed and built a custom Sprinter van conversion — his first build — loaded his family in, and drove 40,000 miles across the country during COVID. Every small town they passed through was dying the same way: young people leaving, tax base eroding, Main Street hollowing out. He made a coloring book of Black Hills adventures for his kids along the way. Then he built two more: a tiny home and a barndominium (Crate208). The Sprinter is still parked on the Grow Campus, part of the fleet. He landed in Custer, South Dakota, population 2,100, and saw what no one else was looking at: the baseline was zero, which meant every company he started would be instantly the fastest-growing in town.
The 14-Day Build: OpenClaw: 1 man, 84 days, 180K GitHub stars, acqui-hired by OpenAI. BHC: 1 man, 14 days, 13 companies, 13 websites, 18,786 accounts. In just 14 days, Luke designed 13 interconnected companies, built an 18,786-account CRM, deployed 13 production websites, and committed $1.8M of personal capital, all orchestrated by AI agent teams that shipped 267 sprints with 806+ autonomous agents generating 445,500+ lines of code.
Build Stats
- Separate companies
- 13
- Days to build
- 14
- Lines of code
- 445,500+
- CRM accounts
- 18,786
- Physical builds
- 3 (van, tiny home, barndominium)
- Personal capital
- $1.8M
- CEO comp
- 13x (one per entity)
- Capital raise
- $52M
Career Arc
- 1
Canvas / Instructure
0 to 3,000 institutions, $1.5B IPO, $4.8B acquisition
- 2
The Sprinter & 40,000 Miles
Custom van build, COVID road trip, small town thesis born
- 3
3 Builds, Licensed GC
Sprinter, tiny home, barndominium — hands-on, every trade
- 4
BHC — 13 Companies in 14 Days
13 entities, $52M raise, 806+ AI agents
The 13 Entities
Revenue from $71.71M (conservative) to $1.65B (aggressive)
Each independently incorporated and separately valued. Same 271+ local businesses feed all 13 pipelines simultaneously.
13 Entities. 13 Revenue Streams.
Same 271+ local businesses feed every pipeline. Each entity has its own CRM, its own deals, its own revenue.
BHC Parent
34 deals in pipeline
$99.4M
Seed Foundation
15 deals in pipeline
$810K
Auric Labs
15 deals in pipeline
$720K
Settle the West
15 deals in pipeline
$480K
Pass Creek
15 deals in pipeline
$378K
Outpost Media
12 deals in pipeline
$263K
Seed Academy
12 deals in pipeline
$253K
GrowWise
100 deals in pipeline
$250K
Grow Campus
15 deals in pipeline
$229K
THE CULT
15 deals in pipeline
$207K
BHC (Membership)
15 deals in pipeline
$177K
THE OP
15 deals in pipeline
$6K
Combined Pipeline
278 deals across 12 entities
$103.2M
Why Now
Three markets breaking at the same time. We built for all three.
Cannabis POS Collapse
Dutchie collapsed 89%. Flowhub has zero AI. 278 operators switched POS in 2024. The market is moving.
Remote Work Is Permanent
South Dakota and Wyoming: 0% state income tax. $145K in Custer equals $210K+ in Denver. Workers are already leaving cities.
AI Hit the Inflection
OpenClaw: 1 man, 84 days, acqui-hired by OpenAI. BHC: 1 man, 14 days, 13 companies. The tools exist. The timing is now.
The Flywheel
Revenue funds population. Population funds content. Content funds revenue. Every dollar circulates.
Revenue Engine
GrowWise generates $60.52M Year 1 — 82% of the ecosystem's $71.71M total. 7% equity flows permanently to Auric Labs, Seed Foundation, and BHC — $42.5M per year by Year 5.
Population Engine
Tulsa Remote proved $170M+ impact from one city. BHC replicates across 9 cities with a full ecosystem: housing, education, employment, and community.
Content Engine
Every milestone gets documented. Every entity gets content. Every investor gets proof. AI-powered production from THE BARN — the barndominium-turned-studio on campus.
“If one person with AI can compress a decade of economic development into two months, are we running out of excuses for leaving these towns behind?”
Why the Incumbents Can't Catch Up
Structural advantages over every comparable model
Tulsa Remote: $170M+ impact from one city with $10K grants. BHC: 9 cities with a full ecosystem — housing, education, employment, community. Plus 0% state income tax in both South Dakota and Wyoming. That's $15K+ in annual tax savings before you count the $10K grant.
Rooster Teeth: 400 employees, dead. BHC: 51 employees running 13 companies. AI replaced the other 349. Same content volume from a $2M campus instead of $50M+ in annual overhead.
WeWork leased $47B worth of real estate and went bankrupt. BHC owns 15 acres for $2M and will never pay rent. Every entity operates from owned property with zero lease risk.
Dutchie raised $603M — valuation collapsed 89%. Flowhub raised $50M with zero AI. BLAZE launched "Herbie" in January 2026. GrowWise was built from day one with Sage AI, replacing $50K/yr of dispensary manager labor per location. The incumbents raised $728M combined and still cannot match a team that started 14 days ago.
OpenClaw proved one person with AI can build a global product in 84 days — 180K GitHub stars, acqui-hired by OpenAI. BHC proved one person with AI can build an entire rural economy in 14. Same thesis. Different arena. Bigger market.
The Campus
15 acres in Custer, South Dakota. Fully owned.
The Grow Campus sits on 15 acres of owned land in Custer, South Dakota (population 2,100), gateway to Custer State Park and the Black Hills tourism corridor. THE BARN houses Outpost Media's production studio. THE OP serves as the community coffee shop and tourist stop. Residential units house Settle the West relocators and team members.
$145K minimum salary, barista to CEO
In Custer, $145K is equivalent to $210K+ in Denver. Every employee earns at least this, with zero state income tax on top.
Campus Features
- THE BARN: production studio for Outpost Media
- THE OP: coffee shop, merch, tourist stop
- Co-working spaces for remote workers
- Residential units for relocators and team
- Seed Academy classrooms and training
Location Advantages
- Gateway to Custer State Park and Black Hills tourism
- 0% state income tax (SD & WY)
- $2M+ property value, fully owned
- $0 rent — all entities operate from owned property
Partner Cities Network
9 communities across South Dakota and Wyoming. 271 businesses enriched.
Each city selected for zero state income tax, population under 4,000, and proximity to tourism infrastructure.
Black Hills Passport
191 local businesses. 5 categories. $100 per category. $500+ annually.
$100
Per completed category
$500+
Annual potential per member
Annual program. Refreshes yearly with new categories and bigger payouts. Open to locals as a social club membership. More signups means more foot traffic, more revenue for businesses, bigger bounty pool.
$52M raise. 13 entities. One flywheel.
The deck is at /investors. The data room is open.