Check Out Brandon Kaufer’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Kaufer.

Hi Brandon, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
For most of my career, I was a tech founder and entrepreneur. I still run two companies, a think tank called Social Good Club and a tech company called Tambor AI. I always thought being a founder was my main creative outlet. I used to tell myself, “figuring anything out” was my art. But after a while, I realized I wasn’t fulfilled and my mental health was in a really bad place.

A few years ago, my therapist told me to get a hobby. So I joined a pottery studio here in LA, thinking I’d make a few mugs, maybe a bowl or two. But within a few months, the monsters were born.

I didn’t really know why or where they were coming from, it just started happening. I couldn’t stop. When I couldn’t make it to the studio, I’d turn my kitchen into one, or my dining table, or literally any flat surface I could find. Clay started covering everything I owned. I may have looked a little unhinged, but something about it felt necessary, like the monsters had been waiting for me to slow down long enough to show up.

Over time, I realized these creatures weren’t random. They were all the different sides of me that wanted attention, the grumpy parts, the anxious parts, the sad parts, the ones that find joy in chaos or guilt in celebration. But mostly, they were the parts that needed to heal and grieve.

I’d lost a lot: friends to suicide and overdose, family members to natural causes, my own dad’s attempted suicide, and in quieter ways, the loss of dreams, years to the pandemic, a sense of safety in the world, even the version of my hometown that’s now an influencer’s backdrop. The monsters gave those losses somewhere to live. Every time one emerged, the weight got lighter. I came more alive. I wasn’t so tired, or as my friends would say, “such a Larry David” about everything.

At some point it clicked: these monsters are physical embodiments of what we all carry. They’re little vessels for the grief, the shame, the humor, the absurdity, and even the joy that’s too big to hold alone. In a way, they’re reminders that everything we feel deserves a face and a little dignity, even our messiest emotions.

The name Popsy Wolf comes from my lineage. Popsy was my great-grandfather; Wolf was my great-great-grandfather, two men I never met but who raised two of the most important people in my life. I like to think they’re still guiding me, whispering reminders to stay curious, stay kind, and keep creating no matter what.
“Popsy loves you” became my north star, a reminder of the kind of love that feels like a grandfather’s hug: unconditional, steady, quietly proud. The kind of love that asks you to keep showing up, to make something from the rubble, to be of service whenever you can.

What started as a therapist’s suggestion turned into a whole world. Now, Popsy Wolf is growing…into ceramics, world building, a coffee table book on grief, upcycled fashion, who knows what else. But beneath it all is a bigger mission: to remind people that art isn’t a luxury, it’s essential. It was for my journey and it can be for so many others too. I want Popsy Wolf to be part of a larger movement that makes creativity accessible again, through art programs, maker spaces, therapy, community hubs, etc so everyone has a place to explore their own monsters.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has had a few potholes for sure.

I’ve faced plenty of challenges in my life, but interestingly, when it comes to art, I’ve never felt such an easy flow. I’m a serial entrepreneur by background, so I’ve lived through almost every “worst case scenario” you can imagine, embezzling co-founders, lawsuits, markets collapsing, even running a business that depended on in-person connection right before the pandemic hit. I made it through all of it, mostly through sheer stubbornness, caffeine, and a whole lot of luck.

And in my personal life, it’s been a different kind of chaos. Buying a “move-in ready” house that turned out to be filled with toxic mold, losing my life savings in the process. Trying to make a relationship work that I wanted so badly but just couldn’t fix. Watching life plans unravel because of things completely out of my control.

But then I picked up clay. And for the first time, it all felt… effortless. Every creative door opened like it had just been waiting for me to knock. It’s why I feel so deeply guided by Popsy and Wolf, like I’m finally walking the path that was always meant for me, one that doesn’t require forcing anything.

The monsters don’t ask for perfection or plans. They just ask for honesty. And they remind me that creativity itself is a form of healing, something I hope more people get the chance to experience. Because the truth is, the world would be a lot less broken if we all had a place to make a mess and call it art.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I do a lot of things, sometimes too many. I’m a serial entrepreneur. I’ve been a founder, a music manager, a strategist, a social media manager, a creative director, an event producer and now, somehow, a ceramic artist with clay permanently under my nails. Soon there will be books, clothing, maybe even physical spaces. Who knows. I’m not really trying to narrow it down anymore.

Popsy Wolf isn’t a “thing” so much as a universe, a collection of stories and objects that invite people into a new way of experiencing themselves and the world. One with a little more play, a little less fear, and a lot more permission to be your whole weird, complicated, beautiful self.

What I’m most proud of isn’t a single piece or project, it’s that I let myself go there. I stopped hiding behind strategy and “business brain” and let myself be messy, curious, and experimental again. I stopped needing everything to make sense and started trusting what felt alive.

What sets me apart, I think, is that constant exploration, the refusal to pick one lane. I’m not the kind of artist who wants to be mysterious or unapproachable. I’m just a guy following what lights me up. And part of what lights me up is the belief that creativity should be available to everyone, not just those who can afford it. I want to help make art feel like a necessity again, something society invests in, the same way we invest in health or education. Because in a way, art is both.

The second you think you’ve figured out what Popsy Wolf is, something new will come out of left field and make you give up trying to understand, and just enjoy what’s in front of you. That, to me, is the whole point: stay curious, stay surprised, and never stop creating.

How do you define success?
I could answer this in a hundred different ways, but for me, success is about never giving up on exploring what matters to me. It’s about staying curious enough to keep showing up, even when things don’t go as planned.

I’ve learned that most of what I used to call “failures” were really just plot twists that led me somewhere better. So now, I try to measure success less by outcomes and more by alignment. Am I creating from a place that feels honest? Am I letting myself follow what lights me up? Am I still listening to my gut? Am I contributing something that makes creativity more accessible or healing for someone else? If the answer’s yes, then I’m on the right path.

And I don’t mean “never give up” in that grind-til-you-die, 2012 tech-bro way (yes, I did that too). I mean it in a quiet, relaxed, deeply human way, a kind of gentle persistence that lets intuition lead. I still have goals for my career, finances, family, all of it. But I’ve learned that what’s meant for me will find me.

If none of those goals materialize, but I’ve stayed true to myself and used my work to make the creative world a little wider for others, then I’ll know I succeeded.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.popsylovesyou.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popsywolf/