In your corner
Every seller has a broker. The buyer usually has no one. Leadsman is the independent advocate working for the person writing the check, not the one cashing it.
Expert intelligence for boat buyers.
Leadsman is building a professional advisory service for boat buyers. We combine vessel research, expert judgment, and modern technology to help buyers see the facts before they commit.
Products and services are launching soon.
One email when we launch. No spam.
The name
A leadsman finds
safe water.
leadsmanpronounced“LEDS‑muhn”
On ships of old, the leadsman stood at the bow and cast a weighted line to sound the depth. Reading the bottom, calling the depth, and guiding the vessel past what the crew could not see. Leadsman does the same for boat buyers. We take the soundings on a purchase most people make only once or twice in a lifetime, and steer them toward safe water.
What we're building
An expert network, in the buyer's corner.
Leadsman is a network of maritime professionals. Sailors, surveyors, riggers, and specialists assembled to stand on the buyer's side of the table. Not a broker, not a marketplace. A guide.
A network of professionals
Sailors, surveyors, riggers, and marine specialists who have spent careers around boats. Their judgment is the product, and the water is the standard it has to hold up to.
Expert-built, expert-reviewed
Our experts encode what they know into the standards every report is measured against, then review the result before it reaches you.
Built AI-first
Expert judgment, at the speed of software.
01
Experts set the standard.
Before any software runs, our professionals define what good looks like — the checks, the questions, and the claims a listing has to answer for.
02
AI does the synthesis.
We put AI to work reading a listing against everything our experts know, at a depth and speed no one could match by hand. Where AI earns its place, we build it in — here and across everything we make.
03
An expert signs off.
Nothing reaches you unread. A maritime professional reviews the work before it ships, so what lands in your hands is machine-thorough and human-accountable.
Who we are
Built by sailors, for sailors.
James Evenson
Co-founder
James leads the expert knowledge encoding and advisory functions of Leadsman. He brings decades of experience in offshore sailing and passagemaking. You may know him from his YouTube channel and book, Be The Captain.
Jon Reiland
Co-founder
Jon leads the product development and engineering efforts at Leadsman. With over a decade of experience in software development and technology consulting, he applies his skills to building tools that help sailors make better decisions.
Contact
Talk to us.
Questions, ideas, or a boat you're weighing? Send a note! We read everything.
hello@leadsman.aiWe read everything and reply to most of it.