Keelworks
About · Michael Rausch · Founder

Builder. Advisor.
Wilmington local.

I help businesses get steady, modern, and ready for what digital actually demands. No jargon, no hype.

$40K+
Raised for MMRF
4 of 6
World Marathon Majors
10yrs
Enterprise experience
100%
Carolina-based

We lay the keel.

I started Keelworks because the gap between what independent businesses need and what they can actually access is too wide. Enterprise-grade digital tools, AI systems, and thoughtful automation exist. They just never seem to reach the dental practice on Market Street or the contractor firm in Leland.

The tools that used to require enterprise budgets are now accessible to any business. I help companies use them without the hype, the agency markup, or complexity they don't need, wherever they are.

I'm not guessing at any of this. For over a decade I've led customer success inside enterprise tech, managing a $25 million portfolio and a team responsible for some of the largest companies in the country. I've sat in the boardrooms where digital strategy actually gets decided, and built the systems that moved the numbers. One of them, a custom analytics tool I built for my own team, flagged a risk we'd have missed and drove a seven-figure quarter. The real value is the outside eye. Sometimes the highest-leverage fix is software. Sometimes it's just a sharper way of working. That's the rigor I bring to Keelworks, the same enterprise-grade thinking, pointed at businesses that could never afford an enterprise consultancy.

And I don't disappear after launch. The best work happens over time. I stay on as a partner, teaching your team the tools, building the playbooks they'll run from, and watching the data to see what's working and what isn't. When something stops earning its place, we rebuild it. When a new lever opens up, we automate it. Most of my clients start with one project and stay, because the partnership is where the real compounding happens. Enterprise depth. Local hands. On watch for the long haul.

Outside of work, I'm coaching kids' sports, watching my daughter Neely and son Nixon grow up faster than I'd like, and convincing my wife Amy that another side project is actually a good idea.

Running for a reason
Six World Marathon Majors · MMRF

I run marathons for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, a cause close to my family. Running all six World Majors. Over $40,000 raised for MMRF research so far.

Boston
London
Berlin
Chicago
New York · 2026
Tokyo · 2028
hello@keelworks.coWilmington, NC
02The family
Amy, Neely and Nixon
Amy, Neely & Nixon · Wilmington, NC
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Keelworks
Steady ground for growing businesses.
Contact
hello@keelworks.co(910) 208-0224
Wilmington, NC
34°12′N · 77°48′W
Est 2026 · Wilmington, NC© 2026 Keelworks LLC