Pam Hagge
Founder
Pam brings in the clients, leads the conversations, and makes sure we build what the organization actually needs.
About
Why we're called Marigold
Marigolds are companion plants. Gardeners plant them beside tomatoes, peppers and beans, not for their own sake, but because everything planted near them grows better. We are not the garden. We are what you plant beside it.
Trent
He loves technology
Trent is the builder. He grew up alongside the internet, spent years as the consultant companies called when the digital ecosystem got complicated, and saw what AI would mean earlier than almost anyone around him. He will not build what he does not fully understand.
Pam
She loves people
Pam is the connector. She spent years in staffing and sales watching slick vendors sell promises they never delivered, and decided Marigold would be the opposite of that. She leads the conversations and makes sure that what gets built is what the organization actually needs.
The story
It started in a backyard
Pam and Trent had known each other for seventeen years. She had pulled him out of more than one bad job. He had pulled her into a startup that was building something clever on top of Shopify. While the technology took its time getting built, the two of them did what came naturally: they consulted. Real help, for real businesses, and it was working. They had nearly consulted their way to break even when the startup's funder made some bad bets and shut the whole thing down.
So there they sat, in Pam's backyard, newly laid off, deciding what came next.
It did not take long. They both wanted the same thing: to help meaningful businesses grow. Sitting there, it felt like the most natural and true thing in the world. They named the company Marigold and got started.
The plan, at first, was to help ecommerce businesses. Then the clients showed up: nonprofits, professional services, mission driven organizations of every kind. The offering evolved because the people who needed it most told us who we were. Strategy first. Then storytelling. Then technology. Then AI. We have been listening ever since.
The work
Why mission driven organizations
Early in his career, Trent worked for one of the largest online retailers in the country. One September he spotted an opportunity, built it, and delivered a nineteen million dollar lift going into the holidays. At his next review, he got a nice compliment and a three and a half percent raise. That was the moment he understood where he did not want to spend his life.
Pam's version of the same conviction is simpler. Personal ambition is fine, she will tell you, but when someone builds something for the benefit of people beyond themselves, that is delightful, and worth protecting.
The leaders doing the most important work are carrying the whole organization with the fewest resources. A win for them multiplies. Helping them is simply more delightful.
The people
The team
Trent Minneman
Founder
Technologist. Trent architects the systems, builds the hard parts, and makes sure what we ship still works a year from now.
Megan Wasley
Bookkeeper
Payroll and bookkeeping. Megan keeps the books clean so the rest of us can do the work.
Kurstin McPhillips
Engineer
Websites, front end and back end automations, and the systems clients actually use.
Molly White
Project Manager
Project management, quality, and the person clients hear from. Molly keeps the work on track and the communication clear.
Camryn Burkhalter
Brand Designer
Graphic design, marketing emails, and campaign creative. Camryn makes Marigold look like Marigold.
The standard
When you hire a Marigold
Every person on this team is a Marigold. That is not a metaphor. It is a standard. We grow alongside, never above. We protect what matters. We strengthen without creating dependency. We seek context first. We stay for every season. We leave you stronger.
AI Omaha
Come see how we think
Marigold co founded AI Omaha in 2023, a free community meetup with more than 1,800 members. If you want to see how we think before you ever hire us, come to a meetup.
Come grow with us
If you lead a mission driven organization and any of this sounds like the kind of partner you have been looking for, the next step is a conversation. No slides. No pitch.