After investing in multi-billion dollar companies across industries and advising hundreds of design leaders at Designer Fund, one of the biggest opportunities I’ve seen for designers to increase their influence is to demonstrate how their work aligns with the success of the business. Often as designers, our natural tendency is…

After investing in multi-billion dollar companies across industries and advising hundreds of design leaders at Designer Fund, one of the biggest opportunities I’ve seen for designers to increase their influence is to demonstrate how their work aligns with the success of the business. — Often as designers, our natural tendency is to emphasize the importance of our craft, instead of focusing on the impact it has on the bottom line. For example, if you approach your manager and propose moving from a static style guide to a component based design system, that sounds expensive…

We’re at a pivotal moment in our tech industry where more people are aware of the importance of design. Finally, there’s credible research like McKinsey’s Design Index (“MDI”) which tracked 300 publicly listed companies over five years and showed that top design performers increase their revenues and shareholder returns at…

Humans love convenience and the path of least resistance. Companies have figured out how to take advantage of this with products ranging from fast food to Uber. Many of our bad habits form because it’s too easy to adopt them. Everything around us — media, substances, fossil fuels — makes…

Habits are like fundamental building blocks that can support or block you from what you want in life. Conscious and unconscious habits — from social media to who you spend time with — heavily influence your belief system and vice versa. Tara Brach recently talked about how our beliefs become…

We all want to change our lives in some way, whether it’s to get in shape, pick up a hobby or learn new skills. If you want to get better at something beyond dabbling, the key is to be more intentional about the habits that support whatever outcome you want…

From fear to surfing Ocean Beach Changing human behavior is one of the most difficult things to do on Earth. Even if you write a 1,656 page report saying that we could lose $141 billion from heat-related deaths, $118 billion from sea level rise and $32 billion from infrastructure damage by the end of the century…

I recently returned from Costa Rica, Argentina and Brazil and I’m gearing up for more travel this year as I look for insights and investment opportunities for Designer Fund beyond the bubble of Silicon Valley. One of the most surprising things to me was how much I enjoyed coming home…

One of the things I’ve realized so far while beginning to surf is that you need to turn towards your fear, literally. When you see a wave that looks big and scary approaching, if you hesitate and wait for it, it’s going to smash and toss you around. The counter…