Hey, I’m Julio Buendia 👋
I’m a San Francisco-based adventurer and builder, obsessed with understanding the psychology of games, urban design, and how people make decisions.
Growing up in suburban Los Angeles, my exploration as a kid was limited to how far my mom could drive me. The only way to adventure was engrossing myself in books, movies, and video games. But through family trips visiting relatives in Mexico, I knew a bigger world was out there
These days, I can’t imagine a life without adventure. I’ve been able to build lifelong friendships around the world, learning how others live and what they value. Travel has helped me understand how different communities live and opened me to new perspectives (along with great food).
That sense of discovery and curiosity was something I brought to Stanford University. Surrounded by the excitement of entrepreneurship, I ventured to build my own startup, Hangster. The startup journey led me to Product Management, where I could be paid to understand how users think, what motivates them, and how to dig deep to solve their problems.
I’ve worked across a wide variety of problem spaces. From helping water utilities prioritize pipe replacement at Fracta, getting gamers and understanding behavioral psychology at Zynga, and diving into generative AI and building viral loops at Glean, I’ve been fortunate to get my feet wet across a diversity of areas. Understanding users and running experiments has helped me get a deeper understanding of what motivates people.
My obsession with understanding people’s motivations and incentives isn’t limited to digital products. From the urban network that connects friends and families to the rich tapestry of coffee shops and restaurants that make up our communities, I love analyzing the complex relationships in city spaces.
This has led to my involvement at SF YIMBY, working to alleviate California’s housing crisis and ensure everyone has the ability to access opportunities in San Francisco by supporting pro-housing candidates.
You can find me in San Francisco, where I spend my free time tinkering with side projects, discovering new places to eat and drink, or randomly showing up on the news.
In my spare time, I blog about travel, career, gaming, and more, which you can check out below.
