Parker Rex

Early Life

I grew up in South Florida, in a really nice part of town surrounded by trust fund kids and wealthy folks. It was a good setup until 2008 hit. The financial crisis shook things up for my family, and while we weren't in a bad spot, it knocked me out of the "fancy school" crowd. So, I ended up at FSU. School was never my thing—I was a terrible student unless something grabbed me. If I got hooked on a subject, though, I'd dive in deep and get good fast.

Take computers, for example. At 13, I got obsessed and built my first gaming rig—a knockoff Alienware. I messed around with basic scripting and server management using FileZilla, all because I was addicted to Counter-Strike 1.6. I even learned design tools like GIMP to make blocks for a mod called Hide-and-Seek. That's when I started downloading code files, trying to figure out what the hell they did.

Then there was pyrotechnics. I found a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook on The Pirate Bay and went nuts. I learned how to make smoke bombs, extract KNO₃ from stump remover at Home Depot, and pull sulfur and iron oxide using electrolysis with a car battery to make thermite. I made flash powder, built rockets with homemade gunpowder (ball mill included), and grew a YouTube channel called "Parker the Pyro" to 13,000 subscribers by 15. Wild times.

Avicii's Prodigy

At 15, I heard Avicii and thought, "I can do that." So, I torrented Ableton off The Pirate Bay and spent the next four years obsessed with music production. (Check out my launch pad video if you want proof.) I produced tracks, DJed at parties, and started throwing my own at my parents' house when they were out of town. Made up to $500 a night in high school—pretty sweet gig. My parents were always at our second home, so I had a lot of freedom back then.

Parker Rex · Merlin

By the end of high school, my grades sucked. I went to FSU for a semester and a half, but every summer, I'd work for my cousin at a creative agency called Humanaut. They've won a ton of awards, and I got to work under Mike, who later founded Liquid Death. Back then, he was just Mike, and we were tasked with naming a water brand. He came up with "Liquid Death"—coolest thing ever. That showed me you could just dream up an idea and make it real.

Halfway through sophomore year, I said screw it to college. My sister's boyfriend was delivering pizzas, so I joined his company, Delivery Dudes. We started small, delivering steaks for fancy restaurants in Delray Beach. I was learning way more there than I ever did as a frat bro, so I stuck with it.

Delivery Dudes and the Grind

I got into design, flyering, and guerrilla marketing for Delivery Dudes. At 19, I was making strong $2,000 a month—huge for me back then. We kept growing, opening new locations and letting drivers franchise their own spots. As we scaled, we needed tech. I learned user experience design (didn't even know it had a name at first) and built our driver app. The first version was so bad I had to bribe people with gift cards to use it. Then we made a website, a restaurant app, and custom iOS and Android apps.

Long story short, we went from zero tech to supporting $73 million in annual business in a three-sided marketplace, all while dodging punches from Uber Eats and DoorDash. I handled everything: UX/UI design, graphic design, apparel, car wraps, some front-end dev, hiring engineers (onshore and offshore), sitting on the executive team, leading offsites with EOS, and throwing charity and promo events.

We tried other ventures too. Delivering weed? Total nightmare—Florida's got too few licenses, no payment rails, and you need two drivers per drop. Unit economics were trash. (I'm not even a big smoker.) Then COVID hit, and weirdly, it saved us. Florida mandated takeout, and our business blew up. But we were still under attack—drivers and restaurants got poached, and companies that once offered big multiples turned on us. We sold to a lesser-known delivery outfit for about one-fifth of what we could've gotten earlier. Tough lesson.

I vlogged the buildout of our PPE delivery service that we spun up in 72 hours

The Sale and What Came Next

The sale was messy. We pissed off DoorDash after calling them out at a conference—dumb move. They hit back, and our revenue dropped from $73 million to $47 million. COVID kept us alive, but after selling, I became the product leader at Waitr (the company that bought us). It was chaos. I convinced them to give me a $2.3 million budget for engineers, built a team, then bailed.

I'd pitched Y Combinator a few times—once flew out to pitch Paul Buchheit (Gmail's founder, which Google acquired for $1.65 billion), but the idea was illegal. Then I made a course, Product Management for Beginners, to teach others and make some cash. I had a YouTube channel documenting my product manager life—daily videos during COVID from a dope office. Launched the course in Italy and pulled in nearly $20,000 in five days.

I worked with engineers from Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Tel Aviv on some products, but they flopped. Here's the graveyard of startup ideas:

Rapture: On-demand entertainment marketplace. Awful name, but my cousin picked it—he also helped name Liquid Death, so I trusted him. (View Pitch Deck)
Venu: Payment and booking platform for musicians. We built a mobile app to replace multiple non-music specific tools, reducing monthly costs by 75% while providing specialized software. Did $30k GMV but couldn't scale. (View Pitch Deck)
MGMT: Business Software for Talent Management. A complete business management platform to provide actionable data and tools for customers to grow revenues, engage with their audience, and operate day-to-day. (View Pitch Deck)

After a year and a half, I was burning savings in Austin, so I moved back and got serious about coding. I'd tried at 15, 18, 21, and 25, but at 28, it stuck. Learned TypeScript and Next.js (right when the app router dropped—total mess). Built some stuff, nothing big commercially—just used AI as a tutor to learn.

Where I Am Now

Today, I'm working on a SaaS product called Map, an all-in-one productivity platform with an AI agent. This agent's your peak self—what you'd be at 100% potential. It sets goals, breaks them down, and gives daily tasks, tying in biometric data. I also run Trouble Free, an AI education company, and RexBuilds, a service provider building websites and AI automations for clients.

A demo of Map, my AI-powered productivity platform

The Three Major Risks in Startups

Through all this, I've learned there are three big risks when starting a company:

Market Risk: Is there demand?
Technical Risk: Can you build it?
Execution Risk: Can you make it work and scale?

Every chapters taught me something about those, and I'm using it now. That's my story—31 years of chaos, from gaming rigs and smoke bombs to SaaS and AI. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did living it.

My Tech Journey

After the startup acquisition, I immersed myself in coding and AI development. The same curiosity that drove me to build rockets now drives me to build technology. I've created a diverse portfolio of tech businesses and products:

MAP - My health and productivity platform that integrates AI with biometric data (Learn more)
The REX Firm - My AI-first software development agency serving clients worldwide
REX Media - My media company focused on AI news and developer education
TroubleFreeAI - My paid community helping people master AI tools and workflows (Learn more)

Sharing What I've Learned

I'm passionate about sharing knowledge. That same kid who wanted to understand how things worked now wants to help others understand too. I've built a substantial following through:

My YouTube channel with 5,000+ subscribers where I break down complex tech concepts
Educational products including a Product Management course that generated $18,000 in under two weeks
Speaking engagements on AI, product development, and the future of technology

My Philosophy

I believe technology should empower people, not overwhelm them. My approach combines:

Deep technical understanding with practical applications
Breaking down complex concepts into accessible pieces (just like I broke down chemical processes as a kid)
Continuous experimentation and learning
Building products that genuinely help people achieve their goals

What I'm Focused On Now

These days, I'm channeling my energy into:

Still focused on getting MAP to users, but realizing it's too capital intensive to reach its full potential. I'm pivoting to provide AI services for businesses to fund MAP's R&D and future development
Growing the TroubleFreeAI community and helping members master productive AI workflows
Creating educational content that bridges the gap between technical AI capabilities and practical applications

Let's Connect

I'm always open to conversations, collaborations, and new ideas. Reach out through:

Hi, I'm Parker Rex