First of Kind

Are speed and quality really at odds?

Dylan Babbs is the CTO and cofounder of Profound, the agentic marketing platform that helps brands track and improve how they show up in AI search and LLMs. The day after a live conversation at South Park Commons in New York where Profound got its start, he and Soleio sat down for a deeper dive on the design ethos driving the company’s success.

In Part 2 of this two-part conversation, Dylan explains what fractal speed actually means, why it took a year to hire Profound’s first product desi...

How does a designer who loves maps end up building the marketing platform for AI?

Dylan Babbs is the CTO and cofounder of Profound, the agentic marketing platform that helps brands track and improve how they show up in AI search and LLMs. Raised in Silicon Valley, he studied information science at the University of Washington and spent several years building maps at Uber before meeting his cofounder James Cadwallader at South Park Commons NYC, where Profound got its start.

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, recorded with Soleio before a live audience at South...

Can a designer/founder win the VC game by ignoring all its rules?

Karri Saarinen is the co-founder and CEO of Linear, the product development system for teams and agents. A Finnish designer, he was previously the principal designer at Airbnb and the founding designer at Coinbase.

In this conversation with Soleio at his historic barn in Silicon Valley, Karri explains why Linear set out to win by being better instead of faster, why quality is directional and never static, why he still designs in Figma instead of code, and why the interface still matters...

How can being a playwright prepare one for designing social intelligence?

Jason Yuan is the CEO and founder of Hivemind. A former Apple designer, he pioneered MercuryOS, an early vision of intent-based computing, then cofounded Dot, a personal AI companion with long-term narrative memory. He now sets off to build a second AI startup inspired by the Madonna song “Future Lovers.”

In this conversation with Soleio, Jason explains why Hivemind runs on principles instead of rules, why every relationship is a story with shared authorship, and why his product motto is “for the plot.”

Jason...

What can a dragon painted in a single stroke teach us about software?

Guillermo Rauch is the founder and CEO of Vercel. Growing up in Argentina, he taught himself English in order to teach himself programming, then went on to create Socket.io and other foundational technology for the real-time web. Along the way, he developed a cunning designer’s eye that became the competitive advantage for what is now a multi-billion dollar venture.

In this conversation with Soleio, Guillermo explains why he designed Vercel’s first command line in Sketch before writing any code, why...

What do Anthropic, Facebook, Pinterest and Stripe all have in common?

Everett Katigbak has played a foundational creative role at some of the most iconic brands in technology. His film work documents the stories of seminal figures who have shaped culture, such as his documentary projects on Stewart Brand and Luis Valdez.

In this in-depth conversation at his beautiful San Francisco home, Everett describes the “golden thread” that weaves through his non-linear career path, the importance of humanizing infrastructure, and why he believes your side hustle is actually your “true f...

What if you designed a new class of vehicle from the ground up?

Joseph Cohen first cofounded Universe, the mobile-first website builder, before turning his attention to the physical world. He and his brother Eddie Cohen now run Infinite Machine, an automotive company reimagining how people move through cities — not with cars, but with something entirely new, starting with the electric motorcycle.

We met at Infinite Machine's headquarters in New York City, where Joe walked us through the design philosophy behind “non-car” vehicles, why electrification unlocks radical new form factor...

When do you know to pivot or surrender?

Koen Bok and Jorn van Dijk co-founded Framer, the web design platform that helps designers ship beautiful sites fast. 55% of YC companies run on it. Designers love it. But Framer almost didn't make it.

What began as a high-fidelity prototyping tool born inside Facebook's design culture became—after a near-death pivot five years in—the premier site builder for designers who ship. 

Over drinks at the Lone Palm in San Francisco, Koen and Jorn recall what it to...

What can flying teach us about software design?

Katie Dill has built world-class teams at three iconic companies—Stripe, Lyft and Airbnb—proving that thoughtful design can shape quality at industrial scale.

In this conversation with Soleio, Katie describes her winding path into technology and how fields as disparate as architecture and aviation shape her approach to leading design at Stripe.

00:00 – Intro: It's All About Mileage

02:18 – What Flying Teaches You About Design

07:01 – From History to Design School

10:30 – The IDEO Moment<...

What is the future of design in a post-AI world?

Ryo Lu pioneered new patterns for collaboration as founding designer at Notion. He now leads design at Cursor, shaping how software gets built through a fusion of design and engineering. 

In this conversation with Soleio, he explains Cursor's approach to design and how the product will evolve to empower designers who build.

00:00 – Intro: The future of design
01:49 – What is design at Cursor?
02:50 – How the team actually works
04:46 – Generalists, Self-Starters, Ex-Founders
07:34 – Building Cursor inside Cursor
10:45 – The next level: Agents & Abstraction

Why did Joe Gebbia go to Washington? I spoke with America’s first-ever Chief Design Officer last fall to find out. We met on the White House grounds to discuss his newly created role, the formation of @ndstudio, and how Joe plans to weave design into the frabic of U.S. federal government.

00:00 - Intro / Eisenhower Exec Office Bldg
01:34 - From Airbnb to Washington
04:39 - The Federal Retirement Problem
06:31 - The Mine in the Mountain
08:29 - Do Things That Don’t Scale
11:35 - The Julie Prototype
14:20 - Down to 60 Seconds
16:33 - Co...

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

"Last winter in the dappled light of a redwood grove, I met @bryce for the first time in front of a camera..." reads the tweet from @soleio.

At the conclusion of our conversation last winter in that dappled forest, I was...