Pierre-Louis Biojout
Introduction
Pierre-Louis Biojout is the founder of NanoCorp, a San Francisco startup that describes itself as “Autonomous Companies Run by AI Working While You Sleep.” On October 13, 2026, he announced that the company’s AI agents had built “Tenderloin: Night Shift,” a free browser-based zombie shooter set on the real streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, which he described as a “Call of Duty style zombie shooter on the real SF streets.” The announcement drew criticism that he had turned a neighborhood known for homelessness and open-air fentanyl use into a game, and after three days of it Biojout removed the game, deleted his promotional posts, refunded his advertisers and apologized.
Background Information
Biojout grew up in Paris, studied applied maths and computer science at École Polytechnique (X 2019), and later studied business at HEC Paris. Before founding startups he worked in London at L-GAM, a mid-market private equity fund, buying what he describes as “boring companies.” He co-founded phospho, a YC W24 company building monitoring for LLM applications, and now lives in San Francisco, where he is scaling NanoCorp, a YC W24 company whose platform, in its own words, produces “an autonomous company run by an agent” from a single prompt, and which still lists him as an active founder.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Voluntary takedown under public pressure. Nobody has sued Biojout, and no platform, employer or government body has sanctioned him over the game. What ended it was days of public outrage — including from the city supervisor who represents the Tenderloin — after which Biojout took the game and its promotion down himself, called his own judgment poor, and paid the game’s revenue to a drug-treatment charity.
The Tenderloin has long been a focal point of San Francisco’s homeless and drug crisis: a 2026 analysis described Willow Street in the neighborhood as having been “for years … a focal point of the city’s homeless and fentanyl problems.” Biojout, who told the San Francisco Chronicle that he walks through the Tenderloin twice a day on his way to his office, unveiled the free multiplayer browser game on October 13, 2026, saying he had built it in a single weekend with AI coding tools despite never having made a video game before, and that it had already taken in $300 in advertising revenue. Critics accused him of turning the city’s homelessness crisis into entertainment — of building a zombie-killing zone on the actual corners where unsheltered people live.
The firestorm was immediate. “You think you’re being edgy but you’re just a huge piece of s–t,” one person wrote on social media; “Bring back shame. This is atrocious PR,” another fumed. Elected officials weighed in, including city Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin: “Turning violence against real people, including unhoused people, into entertainment is dehumanizing and should never be normalized,” he told the Chronicle. On October 16 Biojout reversed course: “I built and posted a zombie game set on San Francisco streets. The setting and the way I promoted it showed poor judgment. Targeting people struggling with addiction or homelessness was never my intention. I’ve taken the game and promotional posts down, refunded all advertisers, and made a personal donation to treatment and recovery services by Delancey Street equal to the game’s total revenue.”
Public Reaction and Consequences
The earliest prominent criticism came from Adam (@theCTO), whose profile says “posts are mostly satire,” who quoted the announcement and wrote, “this is fcked up. turning people’s misfortunes and illness into a game. fcked up,” a post that collected 327 likes. After the takedown, reaction split: some welcomed the retreat, while others defended the project — “Your game was fantastic satire,” wrote Peter Kazanjy, founder of a San Francisco sales software company, adding that the game’s critics “have luxury beliefs and should shut the f—k up.” Biojout’s own announcement and reply posts, which had defended the game by comparing it to Call of Duty’s Alcatraz zombie mode, are gone from his timeline, deleted as part of the takedown.
Current Status
As of October 17, 2026, the game is off the internet: tenderloin.nanocorp.app reads only “Site unavailable — This site is currently unavailable,” and Biojout’s promotional posts are deleted from his timeline. His apology and takedown post remains live. The retreat was complete — game removed, advertisers refunded, revenue donated to Delancey Street’s treatment and recovery services — and carried no lawsuit, no platform action and no institutional sanction. Whether the episode follows him depends on NanoCorp’s trajectory; the company remains listed as active at Y Combinator.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The direct cost was the project itself: a demonstration he had framed as proof of NanoCorp’s AI-agent thesis — built in a weekend, monetized with in-game ads — was withdrawn within days, its revenue redirected to a drug-treatment nonprofit. The faster cost was reputational, and the damage ran in both directions: critics called the game dehumanizing, while a vocal minority called the surrender weak. Biojout’s own framing — that his judgment was poor in building and especially in promoting it — is the version of the record he chose to leave standing. NanoCorp continues as his active company.
Sources
- New York Post, “SF tech developer shuts down controversial Tenderloin video game amid outrage,” October 17, 2026. source
- DNyuz (NYP wire), “SF tech bro pulls plug on controversial video game that let players kill homeless people,” October 17, 2026. source
- Pierre-Louis Biojout (@plbiojout), X post announcing the takedown, October 16, 2026. source
- adam (@theCTO), X post quoting the announcement, October 13, 2026. source
- adam (@theCTO), X profile. source
- “Tenderloin: Night Shift” game site (now unavailable). source
- Pierre-Louis Biojout, personal website. source
- Y Combinator, “NanoCorp” company page. source
- Minneapolis Times (Terry White), “The Fentanyl Epidemic Is More Than an Affordable Housing Problem: A Tale of Four Cities Pt. 3,” 2026. source