Mei Xu and Humbear Media: Engineering Curiosity, Discipline, and Innovation into AI Marketing
Mei Xu and Humbear Media
Demonstrating success through their dedication to curiosity and discipline combined with digital innovation.
A Meeting of Minds
Jeff Evans, founder of Humbear Media, was in New York City for a wedding / business trip when he ran into Mei Xu in Spring of2025. The two of them spent hours on Google Meets & Zoom calls, which led to meet-ups at WeWork's / CoWorking spaces to see if the cohesiveness was there.
The fast-growing marketing agency Humbear Media in Southern California, hired Mei Xu as their CTO- Mei was finishing her Computer Science Master’s program at Stevens Institute of Technology. Jeff Evans, who served as both founder and CEO of the company, wanted to verify if an engineering approach to work could succeed within the fast-paced environment of a creative agency.
The answer, as it turns out, was an emphatic yes.
Over a 10-week roadmap, Mei became a case study in how analytical precision and creative marketing can merge to build scalable, automated systems. She began identifying workflow problems and writing code documentation for the company CRM system (Humbear Platform) and developing process automation tools that serve multiple client sub-accounts in addiction-treatment / behavioral-health and SaaS sectors within a few weeks.
Who Is Mei Xu?
Mei Xu is a graduate student in Computer Science at Stevens Institute of Technology. She used her F-1 visa to enter the United States because it enabled her to complete her internship requirement which connected academic learning to practical industry work.
She has Python,JavaScript programming skills and SQL knowledge and is interested in practical AI applications. Her methodical problem-solving techniques and ongoing interest in learning make her intellectual approach more apparent than her language abilities.
She started her first week at the company by learning Humbear’s CRM Platform without any more than 45 minutes of previous knowledge of the system. She created database connections and automated processes during week two which surpassed the abilities of the agency's marketing team with their extensive experience.
Evans explains that she views automation as a method to resolve engineering-related challenges. Mei observes data streams instead of the typical triggers and forms which most people notice.
Inside Humbear Media’s Culture of Intelligent Systems
Jeff Evans established Humbear Media in Orange County which has evolved into a leading-edge AI-marketing agency serving the addiction-treatment and behavioral-health sectors. Its clients include over 50 leading centers throughout Southern California and the continental United States.
The main distinction of Humbear exists in its infrastructure rather than its advertising creative work. The agency creates AI chatbots and voice agents and automated workflows, real-time dashboards which integrate data from Meta and Google Ads, CRM pipelines, Google Tag Manager & Conversions API.
The agency achieved its most important point after Mei joined the organization. The systems operated by Humbear proved to be robust yet their complexity was increasing. The system needed an urgent deployment of internal documentation and automated error prevention with code-level tracking functionality. Mei’s arrival was perfectly timed.
Diagnosing Chaos with Code
Mei started her work at Humbear by conducting an audit of lead-flow automation systems which operated across various client workspaces. The workflows functioned correctly but Jeff Evans viewed them as designed for campaign requirements rather than architectural needs.
She needed to redesign the system logic to reach better reliability and clarity. It finally clicked- and turned into scalability.
Mei created flow diagrams for all funnels which began with lead capture and continued through appointment scheduling and follow-up SMS and alumni engagement. She applied conditional logic mapping to find duplicate triggers and broken webhooks, inefficient loop conditions that could be simplified through basic functions.
She showed a visual system in Lucidchart which illustrated the entire process of client leads moving from ad clicks to CRM pipeline entry. The outcome brought significant changes to the system which resulted in reduced delays and accelerated automation operations and better tracking of responsibilities.
Evans explains that when multiple treatment centers operate different workflows, a single incorrect trigger tag can create widespread effects throughout all systems. “Mei helped us see that from an engineer’s eye.”
Building the Backbone of the Humbear Platform
The internal technology stack of Humbear Media combines High-Intent consumer marketing signals with custom-built APIs and external data layers which Jeff's team creates.
Webhook standardization refers to the practice of transforming all leads received from Meta and Google platforms into a unified format which then enters the CRM system.
The data schema defines field mappings for treatment type and insurance status and campaign source and lead quality.
The automated QA bots operate as programmed scripts which verify data consistency between intake forms and pipeline stages.
Reporting dashboards: prototype connectors that push daily metrics (leads, CPL, conversion rate) into a unified Google Sheet for leadership tracking.
She co-wrote documentation which serves as training material for new team members to understand the complete technical process of every workflow from SMS sequence triggers to API integration end-points.
The Human Side of Automation
Mei contributed more than coding & programming expertise to the team through her work. She developed a systematic method which brought order to Humbear's active creative production process
Jeff Evans often describes the company as “organized chaos with a purpose.” The launch of new campaigns happens every day while client information transfers continuously throughout each minute. Mei brought rhythm to the team through three key elements which included version control for automations, change-tracking sheets and A/B testing before deployment.
Evans explains that “she showed us that creativity grows only when we document it. Date Insight is king.”
Her presence united people from different cultural backgrounds. She proved her resilience by learning industry terms and HIPAA regulations and marketing language which enabled her to create workflows that delivered business value during her time as a visiting student at the agency.
Learning AI in Action
Mei started learning about AI workflow design through automation because she needed to understand how Humbear's vast HIPAA Compliant AI bots performed lead qualification for treatment centers.
She worked with the internal AI team to understand the operation of natural-language prompts, conditional branching and webhooks when it came to client intake systems. She worked on a prototype project to minimize Facebook Messenger bot response delays which resulted in a 5.2-second reduction to 1.9 seconds for the time it took to send the first message.
Her documentation of this process now forms part of Humbear Media’s AI Bot Blueprint Series, a training module for future interns and developers.
A Ten-Week Masterclass in Real-World Systems
Mei brought on more than just value to the company- but the idea to bring value to other’s. Mei & Humbear Media launched an internship program- This isn’t for grandma and grandpa, but for those fluent enough in the inner workings of AI.
Humbear Media’s 10-week educational program merged classroom learning with hands-on experience.
Platform orientation + data mapping. Gaining knowledge about the core principles of CRM’s together with an API design structure.
Workflow diagnostics. Identifying redundant triggers & creating audit maps
Data schema + field architecture. Defining standard values for all forms
Webhook and API connections. Implementing lead-flow normalization
Reporting dashboards. Built proof-of-concept Google Sheet sync at the basic level, and turned it into something beautiful, useful, and proprietary.
Documentation and Testing. Creating workflows SOP’s for staff training purposes.
AI chatbot integration. With some many to choose from, how to pick the right one, prompt it correctly and optimize conversation latency and logic.
Presentation + process review. Delivering Team demo’s of efficiency gains & Data KPI’s.
Final reflection + handoff Presented findings to executive team
Launch time!
The new roadmap serves as a strategic plan to implement cross-disciplinary mentorship as a fundamental organizational value for Humbear's future engineering internship program.
Mentorship and Leadership
Through this experience, Jeff Evans validated his belief that organizations succeed when combining skilled employees who work within a culture of trust.
“When you throw educated and experienced people in the deep end early, leadership emerges and they rise to it,” he says. “Mei required clear direction rather than constant supervision to achieve her goals. Once she had that, she delivered beyond expectations.”
According to Mei, her personal development emerges from the environment she lives in.
“I learned that marketing is just data storytelling,” she says. “Every automated process shares a narrative which begins when a lead interacts with an advertisement. Until they get assistance, the main responsibility I had was to create a flow that would keep the cohesiveness of the individual empathetic and continuous.
The Broader Impact: Efficiency as Compassion
The addiction-treatment marketing industry requires efficiency that goes beyond return on investment. It needs to deliver fast assistance to individuals facing emergencies. A short delay of minutes results in the loss of a chance to provide necessary care to someone. Thanks to all of the puzzle pieces that make up Humbear Media as a company, hundreds of families every month can sleep at night, knowing their loved ones are safe. This remains the companies’ mission, and any gain is just a side effect.
Mei achieved better results for Humbear Media clients through her work on automation, speed optimization, data validation and workflow streamlining. Evans states that the impact functions as the fundamental purpose which drives the creation of Humbear.
“Behind every form submission is a real person looking for help,” he says. “Mei's workflow cleaning activities enable us to save time which could lead to saving a life.”
What Comes Next?
Mei returns to school for her graduate degree while her fingerprints continue to develop Humbear's infrastructure. The team continues to hire and grow- following her code comments, protocols and workflow documentation for their daily work.
The company operates at an increasing scale as it enters new markets through its SaaS automation and insurance verification systems. AI-powered voice assistant development and increasing R&D to find the best method’s for systematic client interaction.
“She understands both the tech and the mission,” he says. “The unique combination of these elements exists only rarely, yet it represents the exact requirement for ongoing construction work.”
Key Takeaways
Mei Xu started without experience on CRM’s or AI, which turned into her main advantage- the company needed her brain and she proved existing theories wrong, while creating new operational systems based on fundamental principles.
Documentation is scale: Her SOP’s turned tribal knowledge into institutional knowledge.
The client service team member who works on automated systems makes them possible because they help people who need help while demonstrating that efficiency and compassion can function together.
Conclusion: The Future of Humbear Media
Mei Xu and Humbear Media share a story which demonstrates how team-work, human connection, artificial intelligence, technology and marketing can unite to create meaningful impact through one single experience.
The company maintains its commitment to building a special workplace environment through which developers and care professionals collaborate. Despite the industry emphasis on attention-grabbing promotions and immediate results.
Mei serves as the main character of this vision because of the demonstration: exceptional systems require exceptional methods.
