Is Cal Renshaw a real name?

Cal Renshaw is a pen name, and every copyright page says so. The products, the years and the mistakes in the books are told under it.

Does he publish revenue figures?

No. Not for any product, alive or dead. His customers are small, identifiable groups, and their numbers are theirs. Where a book needs numbers to show the shape of a sum, it uses a worked example and says so.

Has he raised money or sold a company?

No exit, no funding, ever, not even a small round, and no team. He works from a spare room and says so in every book.

Does he give legal or tax advice?

No. Where a book touches an obligation, it states the shape of it and tells you to have it checked by somebody qualified.

About the author

Cal Renshaw

Contract developer for 14 years. Builder of his own small products for the 9 since. Roughly 30 of them. 25 are dead.

He took contract work at 23 because it paid and because nobody was offering him anything else. 14 years of building things somebody else had decided on, mostly for agencies: web work, then internal tools, then whatever paid. He was good at it, and it taught him almost nothing about why anything sold.

What he did learn, without noticing, was how long a build actually takes, as against how long anyone says it will. It's why every deadline in his books is 7 days rather than a month.

He left after a client killed 5 months of his work in a meeting he wasn't in, and he realised he had no opinion about it because it had never been his. He wanted the decision, not the freedom. (People get those confused.)

For the 9 years since, he has built and launched his own small products from a spare room. Most died. A handful pay. 2 have paid every month for years, and he still can't fully explain why those 2.

For the last stretch, his products have had a machine doing the work he used to hire out or skip. He is specific about which jobs that changed and which it didn't, because he tried both.

What the authority is, and where it stops

He claims an operator's authority, which he has: he has done this repeatedly, badly and then less badly, and kept records. He doesn't claim a businessman's. He has never run a company with employees, raised money or managed anyone.

I have failed at this more times than most people have tried it, and I wrote down what happened.

The books

Ship Alone
The method: choose, build, charge for and launch a small product on your own, and know when to stop.
Nobody Bought It
The evidence: 25 dead products, one chapter each, and the rule each death left behind.
Who Pays for the AI?
The bill: pricing and running a product with a model inside it, so every customer costs less than they pay.
The Second Product
What comes next: growing past the first product without running out of evenings.

Questions

Is Cal Renshaw a real name?: Cal Renshaw is a pen name, and every copyright page says so. The products, the years and the mistakes in the books are told under it.
Does he publish revenue figures?: No. Not for any product, alive or dead. His customers are small, identifiable groups, and their numbers are theirs. Where a book needs numbers to show the shape of a sum, it uses a worked example and says so.
Has he raised money or sold a company?: No exit, no funding, ever, not even a small round, and no team. He works from a spare room and says so in every book.
Does he give legal or tax advice?: No. Where a book touches an obligation, it states the shape of it and tells you to have it checked by somebody qualified.