“I am very blessed for the opportunities that I have been given and strongly believe that you need to help give others similar chances, so they can be successful, and hopefully do the same for others,” Brandon Powell told Voyage ATL in 2018 (Voyage ATL). He is the founder and chief executive of HatchWorks AI, an AI and data consulting firm in Atlanta, Georgia.
Growing Up in Atlanta
Born in Atlanta, he and his sister were raised by a single working mother. He started mowing lawns at 10, worked in a grocery store by 14 and graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in management information systems, the first man in his family to go to college (Voyage ATL).
Sixteen Years in Technology
He then spent 16 years in technology consulting and leadership, most notably at AT&T, where he says his team launched more than 100 digital products. He was finishing an executive leadership program at Harvard Business School when fellow entrepreneurs in his class pushed him to start a company of his own (Voyage ATL).
Starting HatchWorks
He spent almost a year on a business plan in 2016 and announced the company in early 2017 (Voyage ATL); HatchWorks dates its founding to 2016 (HatchWorks). He chose to start without a co-founder and signed his first one to three customers before leaving his corporate job (HatchWorks). After ChatGPT’s release in November 2022, he moved the whole company onto generative AI work (HatchWorks).
Nearshore Americas gave him its Nearshore Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2023. Through the HatchFutures foundation he set up, the company offers technology training, mentoring and financial help with education to at-risk young people in the US and Latin America, and it works with Girls Who Code, Year Up and Bright Futures (HatchWorks).