# Ryan Buckley

> Ryan Buckley is the Co-Founder and CEO of Shovels, a Lafayette, California-based startup that turns fragmented government building permit records into a searchable intelligence layer for the construction and climate tech industries. Armed with degrees from UC Berkeley, MIT Sloan, and Harvard Kennedy School, Buckley spent years building parallel B2B ventures before co-founding Shovels in 2022 with Luka Kacil. The company now processes 180+ million building permits, covers 30 million US addresses, and raised a $5M seed round in June 2025 led by Base10 Partners. A prolific blogger, part-time college professor, and author of 'The Parallel Entrepreneur,' Buckley is building what he calls the 'Pitchbook for the construction industry.'

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Shovels
- **Organizations:** Shovels, Diablo Valley College, Diablo Valley Tech Initiative, Lamorinia Entrepreneurs
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** MBA, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, MIT Sloan School of Management, Master's Degree, Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Bachelor's Degrees (two), UC Berkeley
- **Known for:** Raised $6.5M total funding for Shovels, including $5M seed led by Base10 Partners (June 2025), Built database of 180M+ building permits covering 85% of the US population, Scaled Shovels to $80K monthly recurring revenue

## Career timeline

- **2007** — Joined Twitter (@rbucks), began MIT Sloan MBA program
- **2009** — Completed MBA at MIT Sloan
- **2011** — Co-founded Scripted.com with Sunil Rajaraman; raised $700K seed from Crosslink Capital
- **2018** — Published 'The Parallel Entrepreneur' - book on building B2B businesses while employed
- **2019** — AppMonsta acquired by MightySignal; met future Shovels co-founder Luka Kacil
- **2021** — Founded/ran parallel ventures: Toofr.com, Inlistio.com, eNPS.co, Voxloca.com
- **2022** — Co-founded Shovels with Luka Kacil to make building permit data useful
- **2024** — Achieved $80K monthly recurring revenue; appeared on multiple podcasts; hosted PropTech podcast episodes
- **2025** — Raised $5M seed round led by Base10 Partners (June 2025); tripled revenue; doubled team to 11+; launched AI agent Charlie
- **2026** — Acquired ReZone (AI-powered local government meeting intelligence) in January 2026

## Achievements

- Raised $6.5M total funding for Shovels, including $5M seed led by Base10 Partners (June 2025)
- Built database of 180M+ building permits covering 85% of the US population
- Scaled Shovels to $80K monthly recurring revenue
- Tripled Shovels revenue in 2025
- Authored 'The Parallel Entrepreneur' (2018)
- Associate Professor in Business at Diablo Valley College
- Founded and led Diablo Valley Tech Initiative (DVTI) economic development organization
- Co-founded Scripted.com, which raised $700K seed funding in 2011
- Built multiple successful parallel B2B ventures: Toofr, Inlistio, eNPS, Voxloca
- Acquired ReZone in January 2026, expanding Shovels into government meeting intelligence

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Shovels acquired ReZone, an AI-powered platform for local government meeting intelligence
- **2025-06** — Shovels raised $5M seed round led by Base10 Partners, bringing total funding to $6.5M
- **2025** — Launched Charlie, Shovels' AI research agent; tripled company revenue; doubled team size
- **2025** — Expanded platform to cover 180M+ building permits, 30M US addresses, 3M contractor profiles

## Links

- Website: https://rbucks.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rbuckley
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/rbucks

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ryan-buckley
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-13