For 2008 College graduate Jordan Buller, The Cavalier Daily was not about the opportunity to write, photograph, or edit. Instead, he was interested in the production and marketing side of the paper.
Buller’s work with the Cav Daily has “instilled in [him] a desire to be where the action was,” he said. Heavily involved in his four years with the paper, Buller served as Production Associate and Production Manager before moving up to Operations Manager and Ads Manager as a member of the Managing Board.
“The CD seemed like a place to be where people were heavily involved and interested in U.Va., but were inherently a little skeptical and looked for deeper answers on everything from the latest news story to theories about the future of the Honor Code,” Buller says.
Because on the roles Buller held at the paper, he was involved with the internal activities of the organization more than active newsgathering. When asked about notable moments in his time with the paper, he mentions the comic controversies of 2006 and 2007 at the paper, in which groups throughout the United States accused then-student Grant Woolard of being religiously and culturally insensitive because of a number of cartoons he published in The Cavalier Daily. Woolard was eventually forced to resign from the paper.
In addition, Buller cites the 2006 Cav Daily budget crisis as a significant event that shaped his time with the paper. Along with the cartoon dilemma, Buller was interested in what these moments meant for the future of the paper.
“It helped me think a lot about organizations and leadership, which was an opportunity I didn’t get to follow up on for years after graduation since the first few jobs I had were more front line roles instead of leadership roles,” Buller says.
Immediately after graduating from U.Va., Buller served as a consultant for Accenture Technology Labs. He wasn’t there for long, however. As he says, the lessons he learned from his time with the Cav Daily “led [him] to keep making changes in [his] life.”
In 2012, Buller co-founded Perfect Audience, a startup “focused on opening up the high tech tools available to big advertising clients and making them simple to use.” After several years of serving as Chief Technology Officer at Perfect Audience, the startup was acquired by Marin Software. Buller went on to serve as Director of Programmatic Technology for Marin Software, and in 2015 he moved to Chicago to “get involved with venture capital.”
He currently serves as Principal of Ringleader Ventures, where he leads “investing and advisory work with startups.”
When asked about what his time with the paper meant to him, Buller said, “Working for the CD was the anchor to my entire time at UVA. I met my wife there, as well as some of my best friends and future startup partners. I changed my majors several times over the first two years, but I never doubted my time in the basement. It was a chance to work with some of the smartest, most dedicated people I knew, who continue to impress me with the work they accomplish with their lives, much of which traces back to the CD in one form or another. In many ways, the Cav Daily was UVA for me.”