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Spencer Burleigh

Spencer Burleigh

Engineer, founder, and economic development nerd building in the physical world

spencer-burleigh
San Francisco, California
Oakland, California
Joined June 2024
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Summary

Spencer Burleigh is a serial entrepreneur with a track record of building and scaling businesses from a young age. His ventures include an Uber Eats-style food delivery service in boarding school and e-commerce businesses that funded his college education. Most notably, he co-founded Pippin and Rent the Backyard, a Y Combinator-backed startup focused on addressing the housing crisis by building prefabricated accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in homeowners' backyards, which achieved a $10M contracted revenue run rate. He is now focused on making it easier to build deep-tech companies. spencerburleigh+3
With a strong educational background in Statistics & Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and earlier studies at Phillips Exeter Academy, Spencer possesses a unique blend of quantitative and qualitative analytical skills. He applies a framework that integrates geography, history, economics, statistics, computer science, and machine learning to understand and address complex global challenges, especially in the physical world. spencerburleigh
Spencer is a vocal advocate for progress in the physical world and an active participant in the AI and machine learning ecosystem; he explores how AI can act as a new industrial revolution to augment human productivity while also working on AI/ML projects and tooling available on his GitHub. He writes and develops on topics that reduce overhead for hard-tech startups and enable building with fewer resources. spencerburleigh+1

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

Oil’s Financials are Falling Apart

July 28, 2025

An analysis of the financial viability of hydrocarbons and the increasing role of solar energy.

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Founder’s Guide to Executive Skills

July 21, 2025

A collection of insights and recommendations on executive skills for founders, based on Tom Henschel's 'The Look and Sound of Leadership' podcast.

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The Factory's Quote is the Product

July 14, 2025

Examines how instant quoting is transforming the machine shop industry and the unbundling of services within the ecosystem.

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Gold Mines & Self-Terminating Business Models

July 7, 2025

Discusses the differences between SaaS and deep-tech business models, highlighting that deep-tech often resembles finding gold rather than continuous compounding.

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Basic Capital's Big Idea: Bet Your Retirement on Interest Rates

June 30, 2025

A critique of Basic Capital's approach to increasing retirement portfolios by borrowing money, arguing it misinterprets investment philosophy.

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Founder’s Guide to Hiring an Operations Team in the Philippines

A guide on how to build an operations team in the Philippines, drawing from his experience with Rent the Backyard.

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