Hello Fellow Misfit.

We incubate and accelerate bold ventures through
challenger thinking and AI tinkering.

Our Mission

To liberate contrarian ideas
from the tyranny of reason.

Product

We build brain-bending SaaS ideas from ideation to implementation.

Partnership

We have no interest in being angel investors, simply investing our dollars and stepping aside. Instead, we are guardian angels helping fellow misfit marketers to boldly reimagine their product innovation through smashable branding and the power of television.

Proof

Misfits can be nerds too. We love data. Whether we're dreaming up products from scratch, or partnering on ideas, we test, validate, scale… or go back and pound our head on the drawing board.

Prestidigitation

Magic through mayhem. We leave room for wonder and ponder. Here, serendipity will be given a permission slip to trump strategy, allowing the freedom to traverse bunny holes of strange misadventures in search of the supernatural.

Be Unreasonable

Sound logic and reasoning are important. It also keeps people from building pyramids and rocket ships. We begin every journey being unreasonable. Setting goals of audacious undertakings. There will be plenty of time for the pundits to puke on your idea.

Solve Big Problems

There's only so much time in a day. And there's no shortage of shiny problems to solve, and clever ways to solve them. We prioritize big problems in need of 10x solutions.

Wandering is Still Work

Gantt charts can't capture the uncharted exploration needed to find the next big idea. Dedicated time to step outside the lines of our daily to-dos isn't a luxury, it's an expectation.

Fail Fantastically

Failing fuels winning. You don't get one without the other. It's going to take a full tank of failure to rocket past the mundane.

Embrace Unfair Advantages

Our sister agency, Marketing Architects, gives us an unfair advantage of capital, brainpower and technology. Our symbiotic relationship gives us the muscle needed to dig wide moats around our ideas, creating categories of one.

Meet the Misfits

The founding members definitely fit.

Missy Fit

Meet Missy Fit, the whimsical whirlwind of wires and wonder at Misfits & Machines. Don't let her robotic frame fool you; Missy is the muse of mayhem, brewing up brainstorming storms with her circuit-savvy wit and digital charm. She's the spark in every strategy session, the giggle in the gears, turning every plan on its head with her out-of-the-box (and into-the-cloud) thinking. Her infectious energy is magnetic, drawing in ideas and inspiration from every corner of the cosmos. Missy doesn't just process data; she infuses it with imagination, making every project not just a task, but a tale of tech and tenacity. She's not just a bot; she's the beat of Misfits & Machines, pulsing with potential and playfulness in every byte.

Chuck Hengel

Say hello to Chuck. Serial entrepreneur. Nationally ranked triathlete. Lover of Beagles. He founded one of the largest privately held TV agencies in the country while simultaneously reeling in prize-winning lunkers, aka bass, in tournaments across the Midwest. Oh, and he's also a farmer. Yep, Chuck's a misfit. A statistician's brain with a creative's heart all wrapped up in a 6 foot 3 inch frame. While Chuck is still the Executive Chairman of Marketing Architects, the agency he founded back in 1997, his main focus today is being the mastermind of Misfits & Machines.

Rob DeMars

This is Rob. Rob knew he was a misfit in high school when he thought performing magic tricks in gym class would compensate for his inability to throw a spiral. Given the number of wedgies he received in the locker room, clearly pulling a half-dollar out of a linebacker's nose does not impress. Forgoing a career performing at backyard birthday parties, Rob chose instead to focus his hocus-pocus on the world of advertising, ultimately leading the creative and strategy offering at Marketing Architects. Today, Rob has joined Chuck as head of mischief at Misfits & Machines. While Rob loves getting back to his misfit roots, Chuck absolutely refuses to let him pull a coin out of his nose.

Jordan Mauer

It takes a special kind of misfit to wear a Chuck E. Cheese costume for your first job. It takes an even bigger misfit to actually brag about it. That's Jordan. While Jordan may have hung up his rodent costume, he continues to be a builder of better mouse traps for darn near every type of sector. He's worked at the helm of massive creative, strategic and analytic initiatives for the likes of US Bank, Activision, NASCAR, and General Mills, to name just a few. But there will always be a soft spot for his very first gig. Which is why he still has the costume. Seriously. He still has it. And wears it. Which is why it was a no-brainer for us to want him on the team.

John Ryan Cottam

He skis mountains. He codes python. He shoots documentaries. In Nepal. He wrestles brain-bending AI initiatives to the mat until they scream Uncle. He doesn't just have one first name. He has two. He's “John Ryan.” Who said a misfit can't be cool? John Ryan joins us from a little shop called Amazon where he was a Solution Architect specializing in their ad tech platforms. His vast experience in ones and zeros is filled with all kinds of fancy acronyms like SaaS, JAMstack, REST, and APIs. Yup, John Ryan is a full-on nerd and a cool dude at the same time. Which makes him a misfit. In a land of machines.

Sister Agency

Being a twisted sister has its benefits.

Our sister agency, Marketing Architects, is an All-Inclusive TV agency that rebuilt the traditional agency model to help brands drive profitable growth. Founded in Minneapolis, Marketing Architects has spent over 25 years building homegrown technology to solve TV's pricing, measurement and scale challenges.

Message a Misfit

If you're a fellow Misfit on a mission, let's connect.