Emma Kilback

Why this persona fits the audience

Runs a 4-person startup in Austin building an agent that drafts support replies for small ecommerce brands. She connects OpenAI and Anthropic through a lightweight proxy, checks weekly usage against runway assumptions, and keeps a simple cap table of model costs by customer.

• Age: 34
• Location: Austin, Texas, USA
• Occupation: Founder and CTO
• Income: $145k salary plus founder equity
• Education: BS Computer Science
• Company size: 4
• Years in role: 3

““We’re building the scaffolding for AI assistance, focusing relentlessly on making it predictable and cost-effective for the businesses that need it most.””

Emma Kilback, 34, is the Founder and CTO of a seed-stage startup in Austin, Texas, developing AI-powered customer support solutions for small e-commerce businesses. Holding a BS in Computer Science from UT Austin, she dove headfirst into the startup world immediately after graduation, initially working as a software engineer at a rapidly growing SaaS company. However, the rigid structure and slow pace of enterprise development stifled her entrepreneurial spirit. She spent two years researching the pain points of online retailers struggling with customer service volume and the high costs associated with scaling human support teams, coupled with the emerging capabilities of large language models. This led her to co-found her current venture three years ago. Emma’s approach is deeply rooted in pragmatism and lean principles; she meticulously tracks every dollar spent, especially on API calls to OpenAI and Anthropic, and maintains a detailed internal ledger of model costs per customer. Her technical expertise lies in distributed systems and LLM integration, enabling her to build a proxy service that optimizes AI agent usage and prevents unexpected billing shocks for their clients. She lives alone in a modest apartment, viewing her personal finances with the same rigor she applies to the company’s burn rate, prioritizing long-term financial security over immediate gratification. Her current focus is on achieving product-market fit and demonstrating efficient scaling to attract further investment, often working late into the night to iterate on the product and analyze usage data.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Emma's typical weekday begins around 6:30 AM with coffee and reviewing overnight system metrics and support tickets. By 8:00 AM, she's in their co-working space, diving into code or architecting new features for the AI agent. Mid-morning often includes a sync with her engineers to unblock them or review pull requests. Lunch is usually a quick, healthy meal eaten at her desk while scanning industry news. Afternoons are a mix of customer calls, financial modeling (tracking API spend against runway), and strategic planning. Evenings often involve late-night coding sessions or attending a local tech meetup if her schedule permits, before winding down around 11:00 PM.

Lifestyle

Emma's life revolves around her startup. Her Austin apartment is functional and minimalist, reflecting her lean spending ethos – no unnecessary furniture, just what she needs for comfort and productivity. She typically wakes early, fueled by black coffee, and spends most evenings coding or reviewing analytics until late. Weekends are a mix of catching up on personal projects, occasional hikes in the Greenbelt, and dinners with a small circle of founder friends. She prioritizes efficiency, viewing time as her most valuable, non-renewable resource, and meticulously tracks personal expenses as rigorously as company burn rate.

Work life

As Founder-CTO, Emma wears multiple hats. Her core technical focus is on building and refining the AI agent's response drafting capabilities, managing the integration layer that proxies requests to OpenAI and Anthropic. A significant portion of her week is dedicated to financial oversight: monitoring API usage against their runway projections, optimizing model costs, and meticulously updating their internal cap table for model expenses per customer. She collaborates closely with her two engineers and a part-time customer success rep, fostering a culture of rapid iteration and accountability. The constant pressure to demonstrate traction and efficient resource allocation is palpable.

Relationships

Emma maintains a close-knit circle of founder peers in Austin, with whom she shares war stories and technical insights. Her parents, retired academics, offer emotional support but have limited understanding of the startup grind. She's single, occasionally dating but prioritizes her company's trajectory above most personal pursuits. Her relationships are built on mutual respect, intellectual curiosity, and shared ambition.

How they decide

Emma approaches decisions with a blend of data analysis and calculated risk-taking. She thoroughly researches technical options, benchmarks performance, and analyzes cost-benefit scenarios. When data is insufficient, she relies on the judgment of her small team and trusted advisors, but ultimately trusts her own informed intuition. She favors iterative deployment and learning over exhaustive upfront planning, especially for product features.

How they sound

Speaks clearly and precisely, with a moderate pace. Tends to use technical jargon naturally but can simplify for less technical audiences. Avoids hyperbole and overly emotional language, preferring factual descriptions. Her tone is generally calm and measured, even when discussing challenges, conveying a sense of controlled urgency. Occasionally uses understated humor related to the absurdities of startup life.