Buford is an engineer-founder and writer who openly identifies as a pardoned convicted felon and formerly homeless, retired at 38, and now building companies and writing science fiction under Leonard Buford. He has started or joined 17 companies since 2007, with two exits (IPO/acquired), three active companies, three partings, and nine shutdowns. Notable specifics: engineer #3 at Eventbrite during its growth from $4M to $700M, founding engineer at Reforge which raised $20M from a16z, and creator of Casting Call Club, a community and marketplace with about 2 million users. Current ventures include Casting Call Club, Closing Credits (education/community), and Shosay (testimonials). A timeline of startups and outcomes is presented candidly, listing many experiments that failed as well as successes.
Writing is a major focus: a completed Nouscraft litRPG trilogy has sold 10,000+ copies (avg 4.5 stars), and new novels include Sol Truckers and future Nouscraft installments. An autobiography, Buford Versus Oklahoma, recounts going to prison at 19, addiction, homelessness, extreme ambition, and climbing to seven figures and beyond. Essays cover hiring engineers, fundraising, and product strategy, and he emphasizes doing prose by hand - no AI in his writing - while using AI tools for coding with careful human review. Contact, newsletter, and sample chapters are available for those who want to read further.
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