How’s it going, everybody? Welcome. My name’s Billy Grizzly.
Well… not actually. Billy Grizzly is the character—the mind within the mind that created all of this.
Over time, I realized Billy represents a lot of the things I wish I could be: braver, stronger, faster, and more patient. He’s essentially a mask I created for myself, inspired in part by one of my favorite video game characters, B.J. Blazkowicz.
And honestly, I think we all have some kind of mask we wear. Sometimes it gives us confidence. Sometimes it lets us become a version of ourselves we’re still trying to find.
Which brings me to Pseudo Grizzly Gents.
The “sudo” in Pseudo is a little Linux joke. If you’ve ever used Linux, you know that sudo is basically the command that says, “Yeah, I’m going to need some power over here.”
And that idea is pretty much the philosophy behind the Gents.
We believe that if you own something, you should actually have the power to control it. Your computer, your hardware, your software, your projects—you shouldn’t be limited simply because somebody else decided that’s how it has to work.
Technology should give people power, not take it away.
And then there’s the “Pseudo.”
The Gents are supposed to be a faceless, maskless collective of retrowave hackers, creators, and tinkerers.
Yet here I am, introducing you to Billie Grizzly—a character wearing a mask.
That’s kind of the joke.
Billie is the mask.
The Gents are what exists behind it.
Pseudo Grizzly Gents started as a collective of high school friends who, right before COVID, decided to build a retrowave arcade company. I started building arcade machines, we opened an e-commerce store, and eventually life took us all in different directions.
But I kept building.
I kept creating. And I kept sharing.
Over the last four years, I’ve also had the opportunity to travel, meet some incredible people, and experience things I never imagined I would. And honestly, I don’t think I would have done a lot of it without what the Grizzly Gents represents to me.
And that’s something I’m grateful for.
Not because of the money. Not because this thing became some huge business.
I’m grateful because something that started as nothing inspired me to actually go out and live.
It gave me a reason to create, to learn, to travel, to meet people, and to keep pushing myself outside of the lines that I thought I was supposed to stay inside.
And hopefully, everybody can find their own version of the Grizzly Gents.
Maybe it’s a community. Maybe it’s a project. Maybe it’s a hobby, a person, a place, a crazy idea, or something you created just because you wanted to see if you could.
Whatever it is, I hope you find that thing that keeps you curious, keeps you creative, helps you experience life, and connects you with other people.
For me, that thing was the Grizzly Gents.
So if there’s one thing I’d leave you with, it’s this:
Color outside the lines.
You can always go back and draw inside them later.
Build something. Break something. Learn something. Travel somewhere. express yourself . Make a connection.
And above all—
Keep creating.