MEET ERIK · FOUNDER, THE COVER NETWORK · 28 YEARS OF SHIPPING
I take the sales call, I write the code, and I coach wrestling on Thursday.
Same person. I have spent 28 years on the same job in three costumes: understand a business the way its owner does, understand the technology the way its engineers do, and build the bridge between them. Enterprise cybersecurity in New York taught me the “serious business” muscle. That meant running zero-trust and tabletop DR exercises inside top-tier private equity funds, national law firms, and a Fortune-scale telecom, with hundreds of billions in assets under management between them. The Cover Network is where I apply that discipline to businesses that could never afford a room full of consultants but need the same clear thinking.
What actually makes this rare.
CEOs get pitched by consultants who cannot code. Dev teams get led by managers who cannot sell. I do both, in front of both, and have for a long time. That is the pitch. You get one operator, not a translator layer.
THE THREE TRACKS
One career, three parallel skills. Each one sharpens the other two.
The enterprise-security years drilled in what “done” looks like when the stakes are hundreds of billions of dollars. Photography taught me to see. Coaching keeps proving that people learn by doing the reps, not by hearing the theory. All three show up in every client engagement.
How the tracks reinforce each other
The security seat: zero-trust policy, tabletop exercises, DR planning at firms managing tens of billions in assets and the most sensitive legal work in the country. You do not fake your way into those rooms. You also do not walk out casual about how a system fails.
The camera: since age five, when a camera got put in my hands and never really came out. Racing, drone work, media production. All the same discipline: frame the thing so the viewer sees what the operator already sees.
The mat: ten-plus years coaching youth wrestling, now a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt, teaching wrestling weekly. Coaching keeps me honest. You cannot bluff a wrestler on the difference between telling them and showing them.
What that has actually looked like.
Enterprise cybersecurity in New York
Zero-trust policy, tabletop DR exercises, and network engineering inside some of the most demanding firms in finance and law: multi-billion-dollar private equity funds, top-tier NYC law firms working on the most sensitive legal matters in the country, plus a Fortune-scale telecom. Hundreds of billions in assets under management between them. This is where I learned that a serious business runs on process discipline, not heroics. It is also where I got the habit of documenting the decision, not just executing it.
The Cover Network: the agency
Founded and running. Digital marketing, websites, event promotion, SEO, and now AI, for local New Jersey businesses that need the same clear thinking a Fortune firm gets but without the retainer that comes with it. Published pricing, 6-month minimums, no vanity metrics. Case studies from Duro, DSOS, New Egypt Speedway, Acclaimed, Vine & Oak, and more, every one anchored to a live URL.
AI systems, running in production
OpenClaw: an MCP integration server on Cloudflare Workers that hands my AI tools controlled access to my own operations data. MOSS voice-AI cutover on a hardened call-intake pipeline. The MTR nightly ad-analysis loop: a scheduled script that pulls ad data, aggregates in code, and calls the model only for the interpretation. A custom training platform built and hosted for a client. Live dashboards checked every morning. All shipped, all live, all mine.
The photographer’s eye
Camera in hand since age five. Photography grew into media production, then drone operation, then video. Configuring a camera is the same discipline as tuning a race car: a lot of small deliberate choices adding up to something the viewer never has to think about. The eye trained on shot composition is the same eye that catches when a client website is not showing what it is actually selling.
The racing years
Renninger Racing was mine. Cars, tracks, the whole operation. What racing taught me, besides the mechanical patience and the willingness to break things to learn how they work, is that a small team executing simple procedures perfectly beats a big team executing complicated procedures loosely. That belief runs through every agency engagement I take now.
The mat: wrestling coach, BJJ blue belt
Ten-plus years coaching youth wrestling. Currently a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt, teaching wrestling weekly with Jake. Still close with Duro Wrestling & Martial Arts (a TCN client). Coaching is the counterweight to office work. It forces you to teach in a room where nobody will pretend to understand something they do not. That habit made me a better consultant.
WHY THIS ADDS UP
Same discipline, smaller room.
The security work put me across the table from CIOs and general counsels of firms managing tens of billions. The agency work puts me across the table from owner-operators of local businesses fighting for their next fifty customers. The tools are different. The discipline is not. When I tell a small-business owner that a shiny AI vendor is selling a demo that will not survive their real customers, that read comes from the same seat as the security work, and it is right for the same reasons.
What each track adds to a client engagement
Security seat: a serious read on risk, process, and what a mature vendor engagement is supposed to look like. No hand-waving on data policy.
AI systems: field-tested opinions on which tools to trust in production and which are demos. The advice comes out of running the stack, not reading about it.
Camera: I see how a site or ad actually presents to a customer, not how the owner wishes it did.
Mat: teaching by demonstration, not decks. If I recommend a system, I have run it. If I say “don’t build that,” it is because I have built it and watched it fail.
WHERE I ENGAGE
Four ways to work with me.
AI Consulting
Audits, architecture, cost control, vendor reality. The shortest path to a good decision. Draws directly on the AI systems above.
AI Solutions
Builds, for when the consulting answer comes back “yes, build it.” Same cost discipline, no vendor lock-in.
AI Training
Team teaching at $250/hour. Taught by the person doing the work, not a curriculum reseller.
The Case Studies
Every client engagement TCN has published, with the live URLs and the honest story of what we built.
HOW I ACTUALLY OPERATE
Four things I do the same on every engagement, big or small.
1. Understand the business first.
Before the technology conversation. Where the hours go, where the revenue comes from, what the owner is actually worried about.
2. Document the decision, not just the work.
Habit from the enterprise years. You leave with a written spec, not just a bill.
3. Run everything I recommend.
I do not sell tools I have not shipped with. If it is in my proposal, it is in my own stack first.
4. Publish the price.
Every TCN service is priced on the site. No mystery estimates. Real numbers, real math, no rug-pull on the invoice.
Questions people ask
Which is your real background: security, marketing, or AI?
All three. The security work funded my time to build the agency; the agency became the sandbox where I tested the AI systems. They are not phases. They are parallel tracks I still work on. Different clients touch different tracks.
Why should a small business hire someone with a Fortune background?
Because the discipline scales down cleanly and the price does not. You are getting the process rigor of a serious consulting practice at a local-agency rate, which is what I chose to build after seeing how the big ones worked.
Do you personally do the work, or do you hand it off?
I personally do the work on strategy, architecture, and anything AI-related. Delivery work (production, dashboards, ongoing content) runs through TCN’s team, but I own the plan and the outcome. You will never be handed to an account manager you have not met.
Is the wrestling / racing / photography stuff relevant to me hiring you?
Yes. It is why the work is honest. I have too many places to spend my time to sell you something you do not need.
Are you actually available, given all of that?
Yes. TCN is my primary business; the rest is my life around it. If you can reach the phone number below, you can reach me directly.
Want to talk?
Tell me what you are building, what you are being pitched, or what is not working. You will get a straight answer from the person who is actually going to do the work. Not a discovery call with someone whose job is to hand you off.