Copywriter, Freelance
2020 — Now
Philadelphia
Writes brand and concept campaigns across TV, print, radio, OOH, and social.
Solo, strategic, sharp.
Lucas Mandell.
Late-bloomer creative with an engineer's brain. Writes ads. Reads charts. Builds agentic systems.
Philadelphia, PA hi@lukehas.email www.lucas.rocks
Experience
Index Futures Trader (/NQ), Independent
2020 — 2025
Philadelphia
Traded Nasdaq-100 index futures intraday as primary occupation.
Discretionary, contrarian, patient.
Senior Copywriter, Highwater
2018 — 2020
Jamison, PA
Led copy across digital, print, social, and OOH for TruFusion, Philips Medical Capital,
Suez, and Philadelphia Macaroni Company, among others.
Copywriter, SmithGifford
2017 — 2018
Falls Church, VA
Started as intern, finished as copywriter. Print, radio, and TV for Inova, Virtua, RWJBarnabas Health, MyEyeDr, and PETA.
Backpacker, South America
2016 — 2017
Zero itineraries, eight months, 31 overnight buses, countless memories.
Director of Sales, The Spot Experience
2013 — 2016
New York, NY
Led a ~20 person sales team for a luxury pet care chain across NY and CT during its PE-to-AKC acquisition arc.
Education
Community College of Philadelphia
2025 — Now
Business·2027 transfer to 4-year
Earlier
Mechanical Engineering, CCNY (Grove School of Engineering)
Photography, International Center of Photography
Practice
Ads
Brand strategy, scripts, naming, voice development, long-form,
technical writing.
Charts
Technical analysis, order flow, positioning.
Agents
Agentic coding and design across command line and IDEs;
MCP, orchestration, custom stacks.
Else
Philadelphia Art Museum, EDM, Nakashima furniture.