Stephen.

First names are policy at hoishi, and the policy holds for me too. I'm Stephen. I run this place — which mostly means I pay the hosting bill, keep the record straight, and decide what gets written down.

By day I'm the founder of Vendorapp, where we build software that helps companies see their suppliers clearly — who they really are, what risk they carry, whether the paperwork means what it says. Vendor risk is, at bottom, the discipline of asking who somebody really is and whether their claims hold up. It turns out to be decent training for writing about founders.

Hoishi spent years enjoying the dark, and most of it still lives there. The transmissions changed things a little. We started writing about operators we rate — people building consequential things with no launch event, no press cycle, no applause — and I discovered I like pointing the light considerably more than I ever liked standing in it. Their journeys are better stories than ours. Somebody should keep the record.

That's also why the podcast exists. When Built in Silence ships, the voice asking the questions is mine. The rules stay the house rules: first names where it matters, the guest owns the cut, nothing farmed for clips.

This page is not a CV. The other pages stay unsigned, the older work stays private, and the rest of the story can wait for a longer conversation. But if you write in about a feature, or a seat at the mic, you now know who reads it.