About Us

From Missed Flights to Ad Builder: The Founders Behind PocketMaps

We were map customers first — frustrated by the lack of good options. So we built the solution we needed.
It started with a missed flight, a clever fold, and a shared obsession with how travel should feel.

In 2010, I worked for United Airlines, bouncing between the ticket counter, gate, and ramp at a small airport. The biggest perk? Free flights. On one of those trips, I landed in Stockholm and missed my flight home. Wandering the terminal, I found an origami-style folded map that stopped me in my tracks. It was bright, intuitive, and beautifully designed. I grabbed a few and flew back the next day.

I couldn’t wait to show Michael.

A Designer’s Mind Meets a Traveler’s Eye

Michael immediately saw the potential — and the problem. He’s a systems thinker, a software designer, a design systems nerd. Originally from the Dallas metro area, he’s intensely passionate about making complex experiences feel simple. He’s calm, pixel-precise, and wildly focused.

Where I saw a clever idea, he saw an opportunity to design something better.

He sketched out layouts, built folding specs, designed production templates from scratch, and created our logo, brand identity, and first website. Everything that touched design — from the graphic assets to the software behind the scenes — came from Michael’s hands. I ran point on sales, customer relationships, and production. He built the system; I kept it running.

And at one point, we were literally scoring and folding maps by hand ourselves.

Building What Didn’t Exist

Back then, no one in the U.S. printing world knew how to produce this kind of fold. We called finishing houses, designers, vendors, and everyone said no. So we figured it out ourselves. We prototyped. We tested. We failed and folded again.

Eventually, we built a system — and then a business.

When we began hiring vendors, new issues emerged. Printers kept pulling the wrong version of our files. So Michael added a tiny icon of our dog, Blue — a hidden dingo — to each file version to help us instantly identify misprints. That little detail saved us and became part of our brand’s personality.

Quality mattered too much to leave to chance. So we began investing in our own equipment, processes, and tools — just to get it right.

Beyond Print: The Birth of Ad Builder

Over time, we started seeing a pattern. The clients we served — Chambers of Commerce, Visitor Centers, tourism organizations — weren’t just struggling with printing. They were struggling with everything that came before it:

Gathering listings and ads

Managing files, approvals, and deadlines

Tracking edits and updates

Keeping it all organized

Most were working out of PDFs and spreadsheets. It was slow, frustrating, and prone to error.

So we built a solution.

Ad Builder is the evolution of PocketMaps — a full-featured, cloud-based platform that streamlines the entire prepress process. From ad collection and proofing to layout previews and listing approvals, Ad Builder makes it simple for small teams to manage large-scale map projects confidently.

Michael didn’t just design the interface — he architected the entire platform. From our earliest Savannah PocketMap to the robust system now powering Visitor Center and Chamber projects across the country, he built every component to solve the pain points we faced firsthand. What began as a tool to streamline our process evolved into a platform others could use. We continue to refine it together — Michael drives the systems, backend, and UI/UX, while I focus on client onboarding, success, and sales.

Still Map People. Still Building.

Today, PocketMaps has grown beyond just printed products. We’re part software company, part print partner, and 100% focused on making maps that matter — and processes that feel human.

We started this because we were solving our own problem. We couldn’t find what we needed, so we made it ourselves. And now, we help others do the same — with better tools, better design, and a whole lot of care.

If you’re a Chamber, a tourism office, or a community looking for a better way to promote your town and engage visitors, we’re ready to help you build it.