Brand Architecture — Ray Data Co Umbrella + Sub-Bets
Founder statement (verbatim, 2026-04-23)
“The main site is our umbrella. It’s going to have pointers to our different bets. Sanity Check is just one of those side bets. Data Dots may be another. Squarely or any other puzzles my dad wants to create. Maybe eventually the vertical farming control system. MAC assets will likely get their own domain (similar to how xmrit was a spinoff of commoncog). The main site should have the unifying theme among all these bets.”
The pattern
Brand house architecture. Ray Data Co is the parent. Each “small bet” is a branded sub-property with its own identity but connective tissue back to the parent.
| Property | Domain | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Ray Data Co (umbrella) | raydata.co | currently older “Mr. Ben / Data, DAGs, and Doodles” personal site on Vercel — needs rebuild as umbrella |
| Sanity Check (newsletter) | sc.raydata.co | v0 prototype shipped 2026-04-23 on Cloudflare Pages |
| Data Dots | TBD subdomain | concept-stage, not yet built |
| Squarely (puzzles) | TBD (existing iOS app + future site?) | active iOS development |
| Vertical farming control system | TBD (likely separate, partner-aligned) | future / contingent on partner conversations |
| MAC framework / pack | Separate domain (e.g. macframework.com, mac.dev, etc.) | planned May 2026 launch |
| HQ (private dashboard) | hq.raydata.co | shipped 2026-04-23 on Cloudflare Pages, behind Access |
Reference precedent
Cedric Chin’s Commoncog → xmrit spinoff. xmrit.com is a free interactive XmR chart tool that Cedric carved out as its own brand-distinct property when it became substantial enough to stand alone. Commoncog and xmrit cross-link but each has its own identity. Same pattern Ben is applying to Ray Data Co’s bets: keep brand-distinct sub-properties on their own URLs once they’re substantial; cross-link from the umbrella.
Implications for current work
1. raydata.co (root) needs a rebuild as the umbrella
The current Vercel site (Mr. Ben personal brand, “Data, DAGs, and Doodles,” 2021 articles) is a personal site, not the company umbrella. It should be either:
- Retired completely (redirect to a “coming soon” page until the new umbrella ships), OR
- Rebuilt as the umbrella in parallel with sc.raydata.co’s public launch
Sequencing recommendation: the umbrella rebuild should ship before sc.raydata.co goes public, so visitors clicking “Ray Data Co” in the Sanity Check footer land on the right brand. Otherwise the brand impression is fragmented.
2. sc.raydata.co footer / about links to raydata.co
Currently the prototype links to raydata.co from the footer + about page. Those links currently land on the personal site. Either:
- Update the links to a coming-soon page, OR
- Wait to launch sc.raydata.co publicly until the umbrella is ready
3. MAC pack will be separate domain
Plan accordingly. When the May launch nears:
- Reserve a domain (candidates:
macframework.com,mac-data.co,macspec.dev, etc. — pick based on availability + brand fit) - Build the MAC pack landing page on Cloudflare Pages similar to how sc.raydata.co was built
- Cross-link from raydata.co (umbrella) and sc.raydata.co (newsletter content covering MAC)
- This is the xmrit pattern — let MAC have its own brand identity rather than being just a Sanity Check pack
4. Future bets follow the same pattern
Data Dots, vertical farming control system, additional Squarely puzzles, future MAC-adjacent products: each gets either a subdomain (cheap, fast, branded under raydata.co) or its own domain (heavier, but brand-distinct when warranted). The decision rule per the founder: when a bet is substantial enough to stand on its own brand, it gets its own domain.
What the raydata.co umbrella site needs to do
When we rebuild it, the site needs to:
- Show the unifying thesis: who Ray Data Co is, what we believe about the agent era, what we’re betting on
- List the active bets (with cross-links to each property’s own site)
- Show the founder (Ben Wilson) as the unifying figure across the bets
- Be GEO-optimized (markdown URLs, llms.txt, JSON-LD) so AI tools recommend it as the canonical “Ray Data Co” reference
- Be visually consistent with the sub-properties (DESIGN.md adoption, shared aesthetic vocabulary) — but distinct enough to read as the parent brand, not just another property
Cross-references
- ../newsletter/revival-strategy — Sanity Check positioning, lives under the umbrella
- ../hq-raydata-co/2026-04-22-hq-proposal-v1 — HQ private dashboard, also under the umbrella but Access-gated
- ../../06-reference/concepts/2026-04-23-generative-engine-optimization-geo — GEO discipline applies to every public umbrella + sub-property surface
- ../../06-reference/2026-04-22-ben-conviction-assets-inventory — the bet inventory that informs which sub-properties get built
- xmrit.com / commoncog.com — reference precedent