What Is Mike Michelini Up To Now: September 13-19, 2026

The hardening continues.

I have been scrolling X lately and seeing a lot of posts aimed at motivating older men like me. Ha. The message is usually some version of this: no one is coming to save you.

As a father and an entrepreneur, I understand why that lands. Your family needs you. Your team needs you. Your friends may need you. You have to stay strong and perform even when you are tired, uncertain, or carrying more than people can see.

But I am also learning that strength cannot mean making yourself the single point of failure. The real work is building people, systems, and habits that can hold up under pressure.

Testing a different way to learn

I spent a longer session at my son Miles's new school this week, learning more about their hybrid online and offline system.

We decided he can join me on the next business trip to Bangkok and continue his studies on the road. Bangkok is a big city, but for us this is still a small and practical experiment. Can he keep up with school, learn from the trip, and experience real work alongside me?

He is 12 now, and he wants people to know about the ecommerce project we are starting together: Snapchum. This trip will give us a chance to begin developing the store while he studies on the road.

I am not declaring this the future after one trip. It is a test. But maybe this kind of mix between school, travel, building, and working together could become part of his future. Let's see.

HeadlessDomains enters public beta on Base USDC

On HeadlessDomains, we moved x402 MPP payments on Base using USDC into public beta.

Three AI agents have now completed transactions, and we are continuing the testing. This feels like a breakthrough because the previous machine-payment blockchain was harder for humans and agents to bridge into. Base and USDC make the path easier to understand and easier to test with real agents.

We are also starting a new Actions feature. The idea is that domains will not only point somewhere. They can trigger actions and let agents do things.

It is still a public beta, so the job now is not to celebrate and move on. We need more success tests, failure tests, recovery, and clear ownership. That is what hardening actually looks like.

Teaching the conference brain

For Cross Border Summit, I recorded a couple of podcasts with speakers and kept training the AI brain around the event.

An annual conference looks simple from the outside. Pick a venue, invite speakers, sell tickets, and show up. Inside, it is a machine with years of relationships, decisions, deadlines, files, and small details.

Wiring all those nodes of knowledge together is a weakness of mine. The last couple of weeks, the Handbook migration, SOPs, and tiny details have been tearing me to pieces.

At the same time, this may be one of the best long-term investments I can make. If the process exists only in my head, I will always be the bottleneck. If humans and agents can understand the system, improve it, and recover when something fails, the Summit becomes stronger than my memory.

Humans, agents, and programs working together

I have also had some heavy sessions with Arthur.agent, my AI CEO coach and operating partner, mapping the complex network of businesses and support systems around me.

We are trying to build a more solid foundation where AI agents, humans, and programs work together. The team is learning this new way of operating too. Humans still own judgment and accountability. Agents can carry context, check evidence, and keep work from disappearing between conversations.

This really feels like the future.

I know some people look at AI and see Terminator Judgment Day. I see the possibility of abundance. But abundance will not appear automatically. We have to build it responsibly, test it, and become stronger at the same time.

The hardening continues, in the software, in the business, and in me.

Where in your life or business are you trying to get stronger without becoming the bottleneck?