Joel Gascoigne

Founder and CEO of Buffer^{Source [1]}^{Source [11]}^{Source [2]}

Social media softwareRemote workCompany transparencyBootstrapped SaaSStartup funding

Unclaimed profileLast verified Oct 2, 2026

About

Joel Gascoigne is the founder and CEO of Buffer, a social media management tool for small businesses, creators and individuals. He started Buffer in late 2010 to space out his own tweets, and it has run as a fully remote company since 2013.^{Source [1]}^{Source [2]}^{Source [3]}

Before Buffer he spent more than a year on OnePage, a single page for linking a person's online profiles, while doing web development work for clients. He has said the lesson he took from it was to validate demand before building, which led him to test Buffer with a two page website first.^{Source [4]}^{Source [5]}

Buffer is known for operating in the open: since 2013 it has published its team salaries and salary formula, and it publishes live revenue and customer metrics. Its dashboard showed $26.87 million in ARR and 82,077 customers on October 2, 2026. Buffer was one of the first companies to follow Baremetrics in making its revenue public.^{Source [6]}^{Source [2]}^{Source [7]}^{Source [8]}

Gascoigne raised a $3.5 million Series A in 2014 at a $60 million valuation, then chose slower, profitable growth. In 2018 Buffer spent $3.3 million buying out its main venture investors. He wrote at the time that he owned over 45 percent of the stock.^{Source [3]}^{Source [9]}

He has been an angel investor since obtaining his first liquidity from Buffer at the end of 2014.^{Source [1]}

Watch

Joel Gascoigne on launching minimally and managing a distributed, transparent team at Hustle Con by My First Million on YouTube

Career

Buffer

2010 to now

1 company has no public dates yet, so it is listed below but not charted.

Company	Years	Role	Status
Buffer Founded Buffer in 2010 as a tweet scheduling side project and has led it as CEO since, running it as a remote, transparent, profitable company.^{Source [2]}^{Source [1]}^{Source [3]} Launched the first version in late 2010, joined the AngelPad accelerator in August 2011 and raised a $330,000 seed round in December 2011.^{Source [3]}^{Source [2]} Raised a $3.5 million Series A led by Collaborative Fund in December 2014 at a $60 million valuation, with $2.5 million going to founders and early team as liquidity.^{Source [3]} After rapid hiring in 2015 led to cash problems, carried out layoffs to return to profitability; co-founder Leo Widrich and CTO Sunil Sadasivan left in early 2017 over the company's direction.^{Source [3]} Led the July 2018 buyback of seven of sixteen Series A investors for $3.3 million at an implied $80.8 million valuation.^{Source [3]}^{Source [9]} Kept salaries, the salary formula and live revenue metrics public; the whole company works a four day week.^{Source [6]}^{Source [7]}^{Source [2]} Suggest a correction to Buffer	2010 to now	Founder^{Source [1]}^{Source [2]}^{Source [10]}CEO^{Source [2]}^{Source [11]}^{Source [1]}	Active
OnePage Worked on OnePage, a page collecting a person's online profiles at myonepage.com, for over a year before starting Buffer.^{Source [4]}^{Source [5]} Built it part time alongside client web development work and has said it did not succeed commercially.^{Source [4]} Called it his previous startup when writing about naming Buffer.^{Source [5]} Suggest a correction to OnePage	2010	Founder^{Source [4]}^{Source [5]}	Shut down

Company

Years

Role

Status

Buffer

Founded Buffer in 2010 as a tweet scheduling side project and has led it as CEO since, running it as a remote, transparent, profitable company.^{Source [2]}^{Source [1]}^{Source [3]}

Launched the first version in late 2010, joined the AngelPad accelerator in August 2011 and raised a $330,000 seed round in December 2011.^{Source [3]}^{Source [2]}
Raised a $3.5 million Series A led by Collaborative Fund in December 2014 at a $60 million valuation, with $2.5 million going to founders and early team as liquidity.^{Source [3]}
After rapid hiring in 2015 led to cash problems, carried out layoffs to return to profitability; co-founder Leo Widrich and CTO Sunil Sadasivan left in early 2017 over the company's direction.^{Source [3]}
Led the July 2018 buyback of seven of sixteen Series A investors for $3.3 million at an implied $80.8 million valuation.^{Source [3]}^{Source [9]}
Kept salaries, the salary formula and live revenue metrics public; the whole company works a four day week.^{Source [6]}^{Source [7]}^{Source [2]}

Suggest a correction to Buffer

2010 to now

Founder^{Source [1]}^{Source [2]}^{Source [10]}CEO^{Source [2]}^{Source [11]}^{Source [1]}

Active

OnePage

Worked on OnePage, a page collecting a person's online profiles at myonepage.com, for over a year before starting Buffer.^{Source [4]}^{Source [5]}

Built it part time alongside client web development work and has said it did not succeed commercially.^{Source [4]}
Called it his previous startup when writing about naming Buffer.^{Source [5]}

Suggest a correction to OnePage

2010

Founder^{Source [4]}^{Source [5]}

Shut down

Milestones

2026-10Buffer's public dashboard showed $26.87 million ARR, up from $23.41 million at the end of 2025.^{Source [7]}
2020-05Announced Buffer would sunset Reply, the former Respondly, on June 1, 2020.^{Source [12]}
2018-07Bought out Buffer's main Series A investors for $3.3 million.^{Source [3]}^{Source [9]}
2017Co-founder Leo Widrich and CTO Sunil Sadasivan left Buffer over a disagreement on its growth path.^{Source [3]}
2015-12Buffer acquired Respondly, renamed Buffer Reply.^{Source [13]}^{Source [14]}
2014-12Raised a $3.5 million Series A at a $60 million valuation.^{Source [3]}
2013-10Buffer was hacked and spam was posted to users' Twitter and Facebook accounts; sharing was paused while the breach was fixed.^{Source [15]}^{Source [16]}
2013Buffer began publishing its salaries and went fully remote.^{Source [2]}^{Source [6]}
2011-12Raised a $330,000 seed round, for $450,000 total funding.^{Source [3]}
2011-08Buffer joined the AngelPad accelerator.^{Source [3]}^{Source [2]}
2010-11Launched Buffer as a Startup Sprint project.^{Source [2]}^{Source [10]}

Boards, investments and other roles

Organization	Role	Years
Early stage startupsInvestor	Angel investor and advisor^{Source [1]}	2014

Links

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Sources

About me, Joel Gascoigne (personal site). Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
About Buffer, Buffer. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
We spent $3.3M buying out investors: Why and how we did it, Joel Gascoigne (personal site), 2018-09-10. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Buffer: Turn A Side Project Into A Profitable Full-Time Company, with Joel Gascoigne, Mixergy, 2012-12-12. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Founder Of Buffer & OnePage on How To Name Your Start Up, TheDomains, 2012-08-13. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Transparent Salaries, Buffer. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Transparent Metrics Dashboard, Buffer. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Open Startups, Baremetrics. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Post announcing the $3.3 million investor buyout, X (@joelgascoigne), 2018-08-29. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Joel Gascoigne, Business of Software. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Joel Gascoigne (@joelgascoigne) profile, read via api.fxtwitter.com, X. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
We Are Sunsetting Reply, Here's Everything You Need to Know, Buffer, 2020-05-11. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Buffer Has Acquired Social Media Customer Service Tool Respondly! Here's the Full Story, Buffer, 2015-12-17. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Buffer expands into social media helpdesk as it acquires Respondly, The Next Web, 2015-12-17. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Social Scheduling Tool Buffer Gets Hacked, Floods Twitter And Facebook With Weight Loss Spam, TechCrunch, 2013-10-26. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Buffer security breach: Resolved, here is what you need to know, Buffer. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.

History

Oct 2, 2026: Profile created from public sources (Founded editors)

Compiled by Founded editors from the cited public sources. Editorial policy / Request removal