Zane Roman Cooke
Work

Head of Operations & Innovation, Ultranative · Austin, Texas

I build the operating layer for early-stage companies.

The ops platforms, agents, and runbooks a small team runs on — built at a venture studio in Austin, across several companies at once, and documented so they outlast me.

This year: ten production apps, a 29-module studio platform, and the agent infrastructure a five-person studio runs twenty projects on. Before that: medical-device R&D, an EMT shift through COVID, most of an MD, and a company I co-founded that reached cash-flow positive in twelve months.

Selected work
Say hello
Shipped
  • Sep 21Site rebuilt: one-screen summary, six selected works, motion
  • Sep 19Portfolio live at zanercreative.com
  • Sep 18Portfolio registry started
  • Sep 15Quarterly context refresh
  • Sep 14Principal build-workshop series started
  • Sep 12Entity brain architecture

Selected work

Six things, with an outcome each.

Everything here runs today or has shipped. One company is described rather than named. The other twenty-one builds are on the full index.

Built for Ultranative · ERRA Certified · Akture. Earlier: Medtronic · Cardinal Health · Mozarc Medical · Dell Medical School. Public surfaces: erraops.site · erracertified.org.

By the numbers

Measured, not estimated.

10
production apps shipped in a quarter (Jun–Aug 2026)
~860
commits across 14 repos in ten weeks
29
modules on the studio platform — two platforms, one template
90–98%
precision, reconciliation engine vs. the real books
12
months from zero to cash-flow positive at Akture

Now · September 2026

What's on the bench.

Running the Build Program's execution layer at Ultranative: shipping the studio platform and the agent fleet around it, keeping a school kiosk alive every weekday, and running a monthly what-shipped session for the principal. Happy to talk about agent infrastructure for small teams, venture-studio platform work, and applied-AI deployments where one person has to own it end to end.

How I work

Three habits.

  1. 01

    Document first

    I've been the person who inherits undocumented systems. Every project has a resume-here file, a rules-and-hazards file, and a runbook with the gotchas in bold.

  2. 02

    Measure before proposing

    When the workload question came up I parsed eight weeks of calendar, meetings, mail, and build records rather than estimate.

  3. 03

    Never be the only one who can run it

    Handoff packages, custody runbooks, and a monthly what-shipped session for the principal.

Background

Engineer by training. Clinician by reasoning. Operator by habit.

I'm Zane. I run the execution layer at Ultranative, a venture studio in Austin: when a founder needs a process, a tool, or a team that doesn't exist yet, I build it, document it, and hand it off. This year that's meant ten production apps, a studio-wide operations platform, and the agent infrastructure a five-person team runs twenty projects on — plus a stretch where the seat spanned sixteen functions, which I measured rather than guessed at. Before this: biomedical engineering, EU MDR remediation at three device companies, an EMT shift through COVID, most of an MD, and co-founding Akture, which reached cash-flow positive in twelve months. I hand off marketing and design; they're not my strengths.

  1. 2026 →

    Ultranative — Head of Operations & Innovation

    The execution layer of a venture studio's Build Program, across several incubations at once.

  2. 2024 →

    Akture — co-founder & COO

    Action-capture video for rec-sports facilities; MVP in six months, cash-flow positive in twelve.

  3. 2019 – 2025

    R&D engineer — Cardinal Health, Medtronic, Mozarc Medical

    Repeatedly handed EU MDD/MDR remediation for revenue-bearing device portfolios across teams in the U.S., China, Mexico, Ireland, and Singapore. That's where the process mapping and controlled documentation come from.

  4. 2020 – 2024

    EMT through COVID, then most of an MD

    500+ patients on the ambulance; then Dell Medical School at UT Austin, including trackside medicine at 30+ Formula 1, MotoGP, and NASCAR races. That's where the flag-what-you-don't-know habit comes from.

  5. Education

    M.S. and B.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut · MD coursework, Dell Medical School, 2021–2024

Off the clock

The maker bench.

Maker bench at home: Raspberry Pi, ESP32, I2S audio, 3D printing. I fly drones. I make onboarding packets and research briefs for friends, and I trained 400+ people in bleeding control as a city chair for a tourniquet program.

Contact

Say hello.

If you run a studio or an applied-AI team and want to compare notes on agent infrastructure for small teams — say hello. Reactions welcome — including "this one doesn't fit."
What's this about?
zane.roman.cooke@gmail.comlinkedin.com/in/zanecookegithub.com/ZaCooke

Recently shipped

  • Sep 21Site rebuilt: one-screen summary, six selected works, motion
  • Sep 19Portfolio live at zanercreative.com
  • Sep 18Portfolio registry started
Full changelog →