It all started with a “revolutionary” smart cooler. You know the one-it had a blender, a Bluetooth speaker, and probably a GPS tracker, all promised for the low, low price of my trust and $250. Three years and a dozen “production update” emails later, all I had was a valuable lesson.
So yeah, I’m Leo Vance, and I’ve been on both sides of the crowdfunding equation.
My professional life didn’t start here, though. I spent the better part of a decade as a journalist, first cutting my teeth at the Austin Chronicle covering the wild tech scene, and later as a senior editor for a national tech mag. I’ve interviewed CEOs in shiny glass towers and coders in dingy basements. I loved the energy, the innovation… but I couldn’t ignore the dark side. The stories that really started to fascinate me weren’t the successes, but the spectacular, often shady, failures.
I saw so many good people-people like you and me-getting burned by slick marketing and empty promises. It felt personal. That’s when I decided to pivot. I didn’t just want to report on the aftermath; I wanted to understand the how and why. So, I went and got my Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) credential. I learned to read between the lines of a corporate filing and spot red flags in a budget that a normal backer would never see.
My whole deal is this: I believe in the power of the crowd, but I don’t believe in blind faith.
My goal here isn’t to be a cynic. It’s to be a realist. To give you the tools and the stories you need to be a smarter, more discerning consumer and backer. I dig through the LLC registrations, the patent claims, and the social media histories so you don’t have to. It’s a bit like being a detective for the digital age, I guess.
When I’m not deep in a rabbit hole investigating why a “game-changing” gadget suddenly went silent (spoiler: the money is usually gone), you can probably find me in my garage here in Portland, meticulously restoring vintage arcade cabinets. There’s something deeply satisfying about taking a broken, forgotten thing and making it work again-it’s the exact opposite of what I usually write about.
Ultimately, everything I publish is built on a foundation of rigorous research and a genuine desire to provide value. You deserve the truth, and I promise to always do my best to deliver it.