Samuel Gonzalez
Founder of Cast | Former Detective & Criminal Justice Professor
A former detective who left a 17-year law enforcement career to build a free sports platform giving overlooked youth athletes the visibility they deserve.
Categories
Talking points
- Why free technology is changing college recruitment for overlooked athletes
- Leaving a stable career to solve a problem you actually lived
- How childhood trauma can become the fuel behind a mission-driven company
- Why livestreaming access is now a youth-athlete equity issue
- What law enforcement teaches you about building under pressure
- What non-traditional founders understand that Silicon Valley often misses
The Hook
He grew up with nothing. Now he gives everything.
Samuel Gonzalez grew up in poverty, surrounded by addiction and domestic violence. He became a detective, then a professor, then a coach — and walked away from the pension and stability to build Cast, a completely free platform so no talented kid stays invisible to college scouts.
Bio for your show notes
102 wordsSamuel Gonzalez is the founder of Cast, a free all-in-one sports platform that lets any team go live, track real-time stats, and auto-generate highlight clips and digital recruiting profiles using only a smartphone — no equipment costs, subscriptions, or barriers. A former detective and criminal justice professor, Samuel grew up in poverty surrounded by addiction and domestic violence, and later, as a youth coach, watched talented athletes disappear from the recruiting pipeline because their families and teams couldn’t afford the right tools. He left a 17-year law enforcement career to fix it, building a company from lived experience rather than a whiteboard.
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