Casey Lawlor was the creative kid — drawing, writing, disappearing into worlds of his own design. And then, like so many creative kids, he did what the world told him to do and set it aside. That decision has been driving him ever since. Unvale is his third company, and the one that feels most personal. We’re proud to have him in our portfolio, and even prouder to share his story.
Tell us who you are and what your company does — in plain language, like you’re explaining it to a friend at a dinner party.
I’m Casey Lawlor, a three-time founder now building Unvale as co-founder and CEO. Unvale is a creator platform for story and IP development. What YouTube is for video publishing, we are for fiction and graphic novels — allowing anyone to grow an audience and self-publish from day one. One in 200 high schoolers is already publishing on the platform, and we’ve captured the most prolific creators who will go on to create the next Harry Potter or Marvel Comic Universe on Unvale.
What problem were you personally frustrated by that made you think “someone needs to fix this — and that someone is me”?
I was the “creative” kid growing up, drawing, writing, learning Photoshop, and escaping into worlds of my own design. Like many, when it came time to pick my major and consider a career, I gave up my creative dreams for more practical pursuits. There was no space yet for me to receive feedback and validation for my creations and stories. There was no place to reinforce and motivate me to keep building if I wasn’t going to be a “professional.” The creative process was isolated.
In the world of creators, influencers, and teenage startup founders building mini-empires across social platforms, this seems fundamentally wrong. The only thing preventing creatives from doing the same is the gatekeepers of the publishing and studio industry. We are building the new path for young creatives — the one that I wish I had growing up.
What is one misconception people have about being a founder?
That you get to do what you want. I see many first-time founders struggle to stay motivated to do the unsexy parts of building a business. They usually build as fast as they can — for themselves. They don’t interview customers, they don’t comb through support tickets, and they don’t obsess over the customer pain.
Being a founder is often about checking your ego at the door — to be open to receiving the insights you need to make good decisions. The truth might be painful, and the process to get the business going might be hell. But no one is here to save you. So take stock and run as hard as you can at the things you have been avoiding. Real progress happens through painful confrontation with the truth.
What does success look like for this company — not the pitch deck version, but what you actually lie awake thinking about?
We want to make sure the next generation misspells “unveil” en masse and frustrates teachers across the nation… All jokes aside, we have a mission to lower the average age an author, comic creator, or showrunner gets their project published or produced by 10 years. Right now, the average for a writer being published for the first time — or a showrunner getting a pilot — is 39. We will change that.
We also want stories built by Unvale creators to become 10% of all new IP published and brought to streaming platforms, ushering in a new golden age of storytelling. YouTube is now over 10% of the TV market. Roblox is on pace to capture 10% of the gaming market. We can do the same for the next generation of great storytellers by giving them the access they never had.
Casey is exactly the kind of founder we built this community for — someone building what they wish had existed, with the conviction to stay the course when the market wants something easier. We’re lucky to have him.
