One person. One Day.
AI Native.

Strategy. Brand identity. Website. Menu. Content. Video. PR. Paid media. Email. Social. Print. Loyalty program. Admin dashboard. CRM. A complete agency go-to-market package — built in a day with AI.

See what was built
The Brand
KIRU Kanji Seal
Kanji Seal
KIRU Wordmark
Wordmark
KIRU Lockup
Lockup
#2C3E50
Deep Indigo
#E8DDD3
Washi Cream
#C0785C
Terracotta
#4A5D4F
Nori Green
#1A1A1A
Warm Black
Playfair Display
Headlines · Display · Serif
DM Sans Light
Body · Interface · Sans-serif
切る · 居酒屋
Noto Serif JP · Japanese
Nigiri Hero
Open Kitchen
Crossroads Roll
Guest at Bar
Omakase Course
Place Setting
“Born in Indy.
Sharpened in Tokyo.
Served on Mass Ave.”
The Website

The Website

The spec called for a restaurant website. What got built was a restaurant.

What started as a website became a complete business operations platform. Ordering with Stripe checkout. Reservations with calendar management. A loyalty program with QR membership cards. A CRM with customer email. Discount codes with scheduling and usage tracking. An admin dashboard with revenue reporting. 8 branded email templates that send automatically. 34 API endpoints. 14 database tables. Every system a restaurant needs to open its doors.

kirutoday.com
Homepage
Homepage
kirutoday.com/menu
Menu
Menu
kirutoday.com/our-story
Our Story
Our Story
kirutoday.com/chefs-table
Chef's Table
Chef's Table
kirutoday.com/souvenir-bar
Souvenir Bar
Souvenir Bar
kirutoday.com/reservations
Reservations
Reservations
kirutoday.com/order
Online Ordering
Online Ordering
kirutoday.com/contact
Contact
Contact
kirutoday.com/press
Press
Press
kirutoday.com/private-events
Private Events
Private Events
kirutoday.com/auth/login
Login
Login
kirutoday.com/auth/signup
Sign Up
Sign Up
24
Customer Pages
10
Admin Pages
34
API Endpoints
14
DB Tables
8
Email Templates
20
Components

Customer Experience

  • →Interactive menu with category & dietary filtering
  • →Full ordering system with Stripe checkout
  • →4-step reservation system
  • →User accounts with Google, Apple, Facebook OAuth
  • →Favorites, reviews, order history

"A Cut Above" Loyalty

  • →Auto-enrollment on signup
  • →1 point per $1 spent via Stripe webhook
  • →4-tier reward redemption at checkout
  • →QR membership card for in-restaurant scanning
  • →Birthday perk — free entree during birthday month

Admin & Operations

  • →Reservation calendar with status pipeline
  • →Order management with status tracking
  • →Full menu CRUD with availability toggles
  • →Customer CRM with order/spend/reservation stats
  • →Revenue reports with 30-day trend charts

Email System

  • →8 branded HTML templates via Resend
  • →Reservation confirmation with ICS attachment
  • →Auto-triggered order confirmation via Stripe webhook
  • →3-email welcome series
  • →Staff account notifications
Next.jsTailwind CSSSupabaseStripeResendZustand
Visit the live site →Open Admin Panel →
The original spec called for a restaurant website. We built them a business.
The Content

The Content

800+ lines of copy. Every word in the brand's voice. One session.

Two ingredients. Fish and rice. Everything else is trust.
From the Kitchen · kirutoday.com
#GoToKiruToday
Signature
The Crossroads Roll
Tempura shrimp, mango, sriracha aioli. Where Midwest meets Pacific.
$18
“Every city taught me something different. Tokyo taught me precision. Osaka taught me pleasure. Indianapolis taught me warmth.”
— Our Founder
#GoToKiruToday
From the Kitchen
Seven courses.
No menu.
Just trust.
Reserve the Chef's Table
@kirutoday · kirutoday.com
#GoToKiruToday
This Thursday
Sake Tasting Night
5 guided pours · Paired with small bites
$35/person · Limited to 20 seats
Thursday, 7pm
Reserve Your Spot#GoToKiruToday
He left Indianapolis at 22. Not running from anything. Running toward everything.
01 / 05
8
Website Pages
Homepage, Our Story, Chef's Table, Souvenir Bar, Reservations, Contact, Press, 404
25+
Menu Items
Nigiri, rolls, sashimi, small plates, omakase, cocktails, sake — each with origin stories
7
Email Series
Welcome ×3, reservation confirmation, post-visit, order confirmation, newsletter
6
SMS Templates
Reservation reminders, flash specials, event alerts, limited drops
35+
Social Posts
30-day content calendar across Instagram, TikTok, and Stories + hashtag strategy
12
Ad Variants
5 Meta, 4 Google Search, 3 TikTok — each with multiple copy variants
20+
In-Restaurant
Founder's note, table cards, receipt messages, 5 chopstick sleeve stories, WiFi card, to-go insert
25
Influencer Targets
Full community playbook + outreach templates for Indianapolis food/lifestyle creators
“Looks like you got lost. We know the feeling — we spent three years lost in Tokyo. Best thing that ever happened to us.”
— 404 PAGE
800+ lines of copy · Every word in the brand's voice
Brand Application

Brand Application

The brand in the real world. In-restaurant pieces, business cards, table cards, menu cover, and chopstick sleeve — all laid out here.

Founder's Note — Menu Insert

We went everywhere to find the best sushi in the world. Tokyo kitchens at 4am. Osaka bars at midnight. A fish market in Seoul where a vendor taught us that the way you hold a fish tells you everything about the person holding it.

Then we came home. Not because we ran out of places to go — but because we saw what Indianapolis was becoming. KIRU is everything we learned abroad, filtered through everything we love about this city.

We're glad you're here.

The Founder
KIRU · Mass Ave, Indianapolis
WiFi Card
Guest WiFi
Network
KIRU-Guest
Password
massave2026
Don't worry. We won't judge you for posting before you eat. Everyone does.
To-Go Bag Insert

Thanks for taking KIRU home with you. The food was made minutes ago by someone who cares about it more than they probably should. Eat it soon — it was built for right now.

If you loved it, come sit at the bar next time. It's a different experience when you can watch it happen.

@kirutoday · kirutoday.com
Mass Ave, Indianapolis · #GoToKiruToday
Business Card — 3.5" × 2" (Front)
KIRU
Born in Indy · Sharpened in Tokyo · Served on Mass Ave
Business Card — Back
Chef's Name
Founder & Executive Chef
hello@kirutoday.com
(317) 555-KIRU
kirutoday.comMass Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Table Card — 4" × 6"
Have you tried the Souvenir in Progress?
It's the cocktail our bartender is still developing. Bourbon, black sesame orgeat, orange bitters, and something we're still deciding on. $10 while we figure it out. You get to be part of the process.
Ask your server about it.
@kirutoday · kirutoday.com
Menu Cover — 8.5" × 11"
KIRU
Born in Indy. Sharpened in Tokyo.
Served on Mass Ave.
Mass Avenue · Indianapolis
Chopstick Sleeve
Tokyo, 2019. The first cut. The chef didn't say a word. Just nodded.
kirutoday.com
The Video

The Video

A 45-second brand film. AI voiceover, AI-generated clips, stock footage, and a logo animation built in CapCut.

Voiceover · ElevenLabs

Indistinguishable from professional voice talent. Broadcast-quality output from a text script.

Video · Runway

Strong for atmospheric B-roll. ~3 usable clips out of 40+ generations. Supplemented with stock footage.

Music · Pixabay

Professional-quality tracks at no cost. The right mood was found in minutes.

Assembly · CapCut

Brand video assembled, color-graded, and exported at $8/month. Logo animation built from scratch in 15 minutes.

PR & Media

The PR & Media Package

A launch-ready media strategy. Not a plan — a package ready to execute.

For Immediate Release — Indianapolis, IN

KIRU, a New Chef-Driven Sushi Bar, Announces Opening on Mass Avenue

INDIANAPOLIS — KIRU, a modern sushi restaurant combining Pacific culinary traditions with Indianapolis warmth, today announced its opening on Mass Avenue in the heart of the city's arts and cultural district.

Founded by an Indianapolis native who spent years training in kitchens across Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, and Bangkok, KIRU brings world-class sushi technique to a neighborhood that's quickly becoming one of the Midwest's most exciting dining destinations.

[Full press release continues...]

Tier 1
Major Indy Food Media
Tier 2
Lifestyle & Culture
Tier 3
Podcasts & Blogs
Tier 4
National & Trade

PR Playbook

Community Response Playbook

AP-style press release · 20+ media targets · 3 pitch variants · Crisis framework · Distribution-ready
The Numbers

The Numbers

9–12 months
Traditional Agency
VS
1 day
In a Day
$500K+
Traditional Engagement
VS
~$390/mo
AI Tool Stack
15+
Specialists across 6 disciplines
VS
1
Brandon Travis, VP of Development
40+
Pages Built
34
API Endpoints
800+
Lines of Copy
50+
Images
8
Email Templates
1
Brand Video
14
DB Tables
0
Freelancers
AI Tool Stack
ToolRoleCost
Cursor ProWebsite + showcase build$200/mo
Claude MaxStrategy, copy, specs, all written content$100/mo
Runway ProAI video clip generation$28/mo
ElevenLabsVoiceover$22/mo
ChatGPT PlusIdeation, brainstorming$20/mo
MidjourneyBrand imagery, food photography, environmental mockups$10/mo
CapCut ProVideo assembly, logo animation$8/mo
PixabayMusic, supplemental mediaFree
iStock / Adobe StockStock photography & videoExisting
New subscriptions total~$388/mo
Honest Assessment

The Honest Assessment

Not a sales pitch. A field report. Here's what worked, what didn't, and what surprised us.

Claude★★★★★
The backbone. Agency-quality strategy, copy, and specs. The limiting factor was prompting skill, not the model.
Cursor★★★★★
Critical and essential tool.
Pixabay★★★★★
Used for images, videos, and music. No complaints.
ElevenLabs★★★★☆
Indistinguishable from professional voice talent. Broadcast-quality. I wish that it was easier to find the voice I wanted.
Midjourney★★★☆☆
Cinematic food photography was stunning. Environmental mockups were beautiful. Cannot render specific text or logos — every brand application image required designer finishing.
CapCut★★★☆☆
Surprisingly capable for $8/mo. Handled brand video assembly and logo animation. Still very manual, not AI or automated.
ChatGPT★★☆☆☆
The lovable punching bag. Use for general discussion and exploration.
Runway★☆☆☆☆
Not ready for production.
Key Takeaways

AI has essentially solved the production layer for strategy, copywriting, and code generation. The outputs were agency-quality from the start. The bottleneck was never the model — it was the quality of the prompting and the taste of the person reviewing the output.

Image generation is powerful but context-dependent. For controlled scenarios — food photography, atmospheric interiors — Midjourney produces stunning results. For branded environments with specific text — it remains unreliable and requires human compositing.

Video generation is the youngest technology in the stack and the most visible gap. A $50/day stock footage budget produces more reliable results than unlimited AI video credits.

The most important takeaway: the job has shifted from production to curation. The person in the loop is no longer spending days creating — they're spending hours choosing, refining, and quality-checking. Taste, judgment, and strategic thinking are the new bottleneck. Not creation speed.

The Implication
This is not a threat to our team. It's a preview of what our team becomes.

The strategic thinking, client relationships, creative taste, and quality judgment that define JDA are irreplaceable. AI doesn't do client dinners. AI doesn't read the room in a brand workshop. AI doesn't know when a campaign is trying too hard or a logo isn't quite right. These are human skills, and they are more valuable now, not less.

What has changed is the 80% of agency work that is execution. The 47th email variant. The 12th website page. The 30th social post. The three rounds of revision on a press release. This work — the work that consumed weeks — now happens in minutes.

The agencies that figure this out first will win. Not because AI output is perfect — this case study proves that it isn't. But because the iteration speed fundamentally changes the economics of quality. When a first draft takes five minutes instead of five days, you can afford to throw it away and start over. You can explore four directions instead of one.

JDA has always punched above its weight. Strategic, relationship-driven, premium. AI production doesn't threaten that positioning — it amplifies it.

Read Dreams. Slay Giants. — Now with AI.