Pangram verdict · v3.3
We believe this text is mainly human-written, with some AI content.
AI likelihood · overall
HumanArticle text · 1,443 words · 23 segments analyzed
I’ve started or joined early 17 companies since 2007. Most of them shut down. Read the whole record I write science fiction as Leonard Buford. Casting Call Club A home for voice actors, producers and directors, with 2 million users. I was engineer #3 at Eventbrite, from $4M to $700M. The Nouscraft trilogy has sold 10,000+ copies, averaging 4.5 stars. World 1: The Zombie Apocalypse World 2: Royale World 3: First Past the Post I joined Reforge as founding engineer. It raised $20M from a16z. How that went Next up: Sol Truckers, Book 1.
Being written now.
Read chapter one Also: Buford versus Oklahoma, my autobiography.
Being written now.
Read chapter one No AI in the prose. All AI in the code. Why I’ve written a few essays. Some favourites: How to hire actually good engineers Lessons starting a $500M & a $5M company Choose Money First These days I’m working on 3 companies: Casting Call Club Closing Credits Shosay Mail Shoppe 2007–2008, Shut Down InTicketing 2008–2009, Parted Ways Eventbrite 2009–2013, IPO Air Bulgarian 2010–2011, Shut Down Meme Defense 2012–2013, Shut Down Rentify 2013–2014, Parted Ways Shortcut 2014–2015, Shut Down 17hats 2015–2016, Parted Ways Casting Call Club 2015–now, Active CastHappy 2016–2017, Shut Down Fortuna 2016–2017, Shut Down Superscribers 2016–2017, Shut Down Reforge 2017–2021, Acquired Closing Credits 2021–now, Active Neoniva 2022–2023, Shut Down Shosay 2024–now, Active Videomancy 2024–2025, Shut Down The Zombie Apocalypse first half of 2025, Novel Royale second half of 2025, Novel First Past the Post first half of 2026, Novel 20072012201720222026 IPO & acquired · 2 Active · 3 Parted ways · 3 Shut down · 9 Novels · 3 Read the whole record → Currently working on Companies 2015 Casting Call Club Community and marketplace for creators: voice actors, producers, directors, audio engineers.
Where a project finds its cast.
2 million users 2021 Closing Credits Education and community for the same people.
Courses, cohorts, live sessions and certificates, taught by people who actually do the work.
Sister to CCC 2024 Shosay SHO what people SAY about you. Collect testimonials as video, audio or text, keep the good ones, and embed them anywhere. Newest company Writing 2026 Sol Truckers, Book 1 Yury is from Earth, which is currently missing. He finds himself in a videogame version of the Sol System caught up in interplanetary war. If he wants to see home again, he must find a way to stop the war, with the help of a misfit group of truckers. Read chapter one Being written Autobiography Buford versus Oklahoma From felony to seven figures. This book details clawing my way out of the worst mistake of my life and going to prison at nineteen years old. It also covers building billion-dollar companies. It’s written the way Chaplin put it: life, viewed up close, is a tragedy, but viewed from far away, it’s a comedy. It details extreme ambition, social anxiety, prison life, homelessness, addictions, and making money. Read chapter one Being written Disposition 20 entries · 17 companies, 3 novels 2026 A race across twelve zodiac Titans.
Book three.
The big reveal at the end. *Chef's kiss* 2025 A political death match inside a space habitat.
Book two.
First time using two editors on one book. 2025 Medieval fantasy zombie survival. Book one of Nouscraft. The trilogy has sold over 10,000 copies, averaging 4.5 stars on Amazon/Goodreads. 2024 SHO what people SAY about you. Social proof for people who have earned some. Started Oct 2024. Collecting, moderating and embedding testimonials for creators. 2024 Videomancy Shut Down Create videos with 1-click 1000s of videos created. Never found a market position. 2022 Neoniva Shut Down Contest hosting website $15k in the first month but quickly fell to 0 when I stopped propping it up with CCC 2021 Education and Community for creators Launched in Aug 2021. Hitting ~50k MRR as of Jan 2022. 2017 What LinkedIn should have been. I was the founding engineer and Head of Engineering. Went from $0 to 9-figures. I left after 4+ years for a break and tinker with side projects. Acquired later on. 2016 CastHappy Shut Down Podcast management Never got anywhere with it 2016 Superscribers Shut Down Automated Social Media Management Never got anywhere with it 2016 Fortuna Shut Down CRM for Freelancers Never got anywhere with it 2015 CRM for SMBs, specifically photographers I was the CTO. Growth stalled. 2015 LinkedIn (community & marketplace) for creators. 2 million users. 2014 DoorDash for large venues. Delivery to your seat. I was the cofounder and CTO Raised about $1M but could not find the right business model 2013 Rentify Parted Ways Landlord CRM I was the CTO. Things were fine but I wanted to start Shortcut. 2012 Meme Defense Shut Down Tower Defense Game featuring your favorite internet memes. I was trolled by an internet mob and didn't get funded. 2010 Air Bulgarian Shut Down iOS App to help you learn Bulgarian Launched it free in the App Store. Lost interest after a while. 2009 Events made easy. I was the 10th employee. Spent 4 years there. Fell in love with startups. Went from $4M to $700M. 2008 InTicketing Parted Ways Events made easy, but not as easy as Eventbrite. Acquired later on. I was just an engineer here. My first job in the SF Bay. I am very grateful for my start here. 2007 Mail Shoppe Shut Down A wanna be Etsy. My first startup ever. I was the founding engineer. Didn't even launch a decent product. Writing Books 1. Nouscraft A completed LitRPG trilogy about a rogue AI that traps ten billion people in a game they cannot log out of. It follows four POVs and is very Game-of-Thrones with all the backstabbing going on. Think Dungeon Crawler Carl where the MCs might actually die. Over 10,000 copies sold, averaging 4.5 stars across Amazon and Goodreads. nouscraft.com → 2. Sol Truckers Yury is from Earth, which is currently missing. He finds himself in a videogame version of the Sol System caught up in interplanetary war, and if he wants to see home again he has to find a way to stop it, with the help of a misfit group of truckers.
Currently being written...
Read chapter one → 3. Buford versus Oklahoma From felony to seven figures.
This book details clawing my way out of the worst mistake of my life and going to prison at nineteen years old.
It also covers building billion-dollar companies.
It’s written the way Chaplin put it: life, viewed up close, is a tragedy, but viewed from far away, it’s a comedy.
It details extreme ambition, social anxiety, prison life, homelessness, addictions, and making money. Currently being written... Read chapter one → Nouscraft Trilogy World 1 The Zombie Apocalypse World 2 Royale World 3 First Past the Post Essays 💋 How to hire actually good engineers April 2022 Hiring engineers by what they have shipped rather than by how they perform under a whiteboard. Read more 📺 Lessons starting a $500M & a $5M company in 5 years.
March 2022 What actually transferred between building Reforge and building Casting Call Club, and what did not.
Read more ➿ Raising $20M from A16Z January 2021 A term sheet from Andreessen Horowitz, and what the process looked like from the inside. Read more 💸 Choose Money First September 2020 Build the thing that makes money first.
Passion is much easier to find once the rent is covered. Read more 🚶🏻♂ On Parental Influence April 2018 On what parents hand down without meaning to, and what that leaves you to sort out yourself. Read more 🌉 On San Francisco July 2015 Seven years in the Bay Area, written down before I forgot what it felt like to arrive.
Read more Written by hand I don't use AI to write. Putting a thing on paper (neovim) sentence by sentence, word by word, does something to your brain. It is the work of thinking, of brain exercise. If you outsource thinking and you keep the result, you slowly lose the part that made you able to produce it. I think humans have to keep doing it manually to be able to have deep thoughts at all. That said, coding is different, and I use AI for most of it. I spent twenty-five years writing code by hand so I feel like I've earned it. I mean sure, there's an art there when buildig out code, but I'm interested in the product and the people. I still review all the code the AI writes though. Can't trust Skynet. Newsletter Do you want to be informed when Buford writes a new book or launches a new company?