About me

Hi! 👋 My name is Joel Gascoigne. I was born and raised in Sheffield, England. I spent three and a half years living in Utsunomiya, Japan from the age of four until seven. In my early twenties, I started traveling more broadly and have since found my home in Boulder, Colorado where I live with my wife Jess. Read what I’m doing now.

Buffer 💻

I founded Buffer in 2010. We’ve had a number of phases over the years, but our purpose has always been focused on helping entrepreneurs and small businesses to grow their audience and brand online. We have a platform of social media tools to help companies grow and communicate with their customers.

Today, we’re a team of 90 and we’ve been profitable for the past three years of our journey. We’re focused on taking a long-term approach to the company, building something that lasts, that we can feel proud of. I’m an idealist at heart, and aim to have a high bar with everything we do.

Remote work 🌏

Buffer has been a fully distributed company since almost the very beginning. We committed early to this new way of working. What excites me most about remote work is the power to break down barriers and democratize access to great work for anyone across the world. Additionally, I am a big proponent of employee rights and freedom, and am striving to create a company where all of us as team members have more freedom than almost any other company gives their team.

Travel ✈️

I’ve been lucky to travel all over the world, mostly for pleasure rather than for business purposes. I’ve lived in the UK, US, Hong Kong, South Africa and Israel for portions of time throughout the Buffer journey. I continue to have a love for travel, but I’ve also found a great comfort and power in having somewhere to call home. A couple of years ago, after much travel, my wife and I discovered that place for us is Boulder, Colorado.

Jess ❤️

I met my wife Jess at her thirtieth birthday party in New York. We’ve now been together seven years, and got married in August 2019. We’ve been through a lot of change together, our careers have taken new turns and we’ve adopted new hobbies together, such as climbing and surfing. In May 2021 we became parents, and have been enjoying the ever-changing experiences of the newborn and toddler stages. In July 2023, Jess opened her cafe Creature Comforts in Boulder, a decades-long dream that she was two years in the making. We’ve evolved as humans while we’ve been together, always there to support each other in challenges and dreams. I feel lucky to have a true partner in life.

Hobbies ⛷️

Growing up I loved to mountain bike and I started skiing regularly when I was around sixteen years old. After starting Buffer, I had a long gap in my hobbies, where I went all in on getting the company off the ground. In hindsight, I’m not sure that intense focus was completely necessary, as it created an imbalanced life and one vulnerable to burnout.
In the past few years, I’ve re-ignited my previous hobbies, and found new ones. My current favorites are hiking, mountain biking, surfing, kitesurfing and skiing. I’m also learning to snowboard.

Angel investing ✨

At the end of 2014, I obtained my first liquidity from Buffer, and assigned a portion of it to angel investing. I love to problem solve with early stage founders, to help as much as I can to make the path smoother. It’s a tough journey, and I aim to be an advisor and angel investor who is always on the side of the founders, and who is a voice of balance and long-term approach, amidst the plentiful advice to the contrary.

Say hello 👋

I’d love to hear from you. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.