Founding Partner
to Startups

DESIGN PARTNER TO STARTUPS

FOUNDING DESIGNER

Design & Startups

Design & Startups

I'm a designer & founding partner to startups. I work closely with founders helping them turn their vision into reality.
About
Jonathan is the Founding Designer of ThoughtSpot, a $4.2B unicorn currently disrupting the analytics space.

He's currently bootstrapping a new AI startup as its Head of Design.
Jonathan loves to partner with visionaries helping them get their venture off the ground with design excellence.

He has been based in Silicon Valley for almost 10 years and has helped bootstrap various unicorns, one as a founding member and two as a contributor: ThoughtSpot, Mux and Tekion.

He has also helped at seed stage SuperHuman (now at series C), NetSpring (founding designer, now in series A) and Proxy (series B).

Lastly he also contributed to Credit Karma (acquired by Intuit), Ueno (acquired by Twitter) as well as Fortune 500's such as Apple, Samsung, Facebook and Uber.
Jonathan is currently Founding Head of Design of an AI startup, currently in stealth.

He's always open to new opportunities, if you have a great idea in need of great design, he will be able to help. For inquiries please use this form.

Originally from Switzerland, he is currently based in San Francisco, California. During his free time, he likes to experiment with various creative mediums. Lately he's been playing around with 3D and lettering.

When he's not creating, you can find him either bugging these two, watching sci-fi, checking coffee-shops or spending some time in nature.
Jonathan is a designer working with early stage startups.
I'm Jonathan, a designer advising & investing in early stage startups.
I'm a founding member of 3 startups, one of which, ThoughtSpot, is said to IPO soon.

Over the last 10 years I also got to contribute early on to the likes of Tekion, Mux, SuperHuman, Proxy, NetSpring and Credit Karma— of which two are today unicorns and one got acquired.

I'm currently building fennel.ai with an ex-Facebook/Google team with the mission to enable all the companies in the world to harness the power of AI/ML.
Last on the contributions front, I'm also an ex-Facebook, where as a Lead IC I got to help ship its first global payment service to compete with Apple Pay and such.

I'm originally from Switzerland, I have been based in Silicon Valley for about 10 years.

Outside of my day to day work with Fennel, I'm angel investing and advising startups. If you're looking for some funds and/or design help to get your venture off the ground you can reach out here.
I'm a founding member of 3 startups, one of which, ThoughtSpot, is said to IPO soon.

I'm also an ex-Facebook, where I got to help ship its first global payment service to compete with Apple Pay and such.

I'm always open to great opportunities, if you interested you can reach out here.

Thanks for stopping by!
ABOUT
Hey there, welcome to my little corner of the Internet!

This is where I'm supposed to tell you more about me so here goes:

I was an early employee (11th) and founding designer of ThoughtSpot, a $4.2B company currently making strides in the business intelligence space and — words on the streets — soon to IPO.

Since then I have been working on a bunch of different problems with companies of all sorts and sizes. From the design agency ueno, where I got to help seed stage startups like Tekion and Mux — both today unicorns — to Facebook, where I got to help ship its first global payment service to compete with Apple Pay and such.

I most recently helped launch NetSpring as employee #7 and founding designer. It is currently in Series A with a total funding of $17.7M and already counting multiple Fortune 500 customers using our product to help them run some of their critical missions. So you may hear more about them in the future.

I'm currently tipping my toes into the AI/ML space as employee #5 and founding designer of another startup, likely to launch sometime in 2013.

I also enjoy doing more experimental work during my free time, you can check some of my latest here.

When I'm not designing, you can either find me spending (probably a bit too much) time on Twitter or watching the latest cool tv show. My last favorite was Severance on Apple+.

I'm always open to a great opportunity so if you're looking for a design partner, you can reach out here.

Thanks for stopping by!

SUMMARY

FOUNDING TEAM
FOUNDING DESIGNER
1
THOUGHTSPOT
Unicorn
As the founding designer, I designed the company from the ground up working closely with the co-founder and CEO Ajeet Singh.

ThoughtSpot has raised a total of $663.7M and is worth $4.2B with 4 Fortune 5 customers. It was honoree in the Webby Awards and named a Visionary and Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI Platforms.

It is said to IPO sometime soon.
2
Credit Karma
Acquired
+
Lead IC on the 0 to 1 of Credit Karma Tax. CK got later on acquired by Intuit, owner of TurboTax, the industry leader.
3
Mux
Unicorn
+
Lead IC on the first version of their website at seed stage. Worth today over $1B.
4
Tekion
Unicorn
+
IC at seed stage, helped shape the first version of their product working with their in-house designer. Worth today $3.5B.
5
SuperHuman
$825M
+
IC at seed stage, helped shape the first version of their product. Worth today $825M.
6
Proxy
>$100M
+
Lead IC at seed stage, led the launch of the first version of their website. Worth today >$100M.
2
TYPEFACE AI
Unicorn
Founding member and design director of this startup in the generative AI space founded by the ex-CTO of Adobe, Abhay Parasnis.

Coming fresh out of stealth with $65M raised in series A and most recently $100M in series B from Lightspeed, Google Ventures, Microsoft Ventures and Menlo Ventures, Madrona and Salesforce Ventures.

Been setting up our design foundation while driving our branding and product design efforts similar to what I did with ThoughtSpot and NetSpring.
3
NETSPRING
ACQUIRED
Hire #3, and founding designer, I helped set up the design foundation working closely with the CEO.

Total raised of $17.7M, the company counted multiple Fortune 500 customers. It got acquired by Optimizely in 2024.


4
FENNEL AI
SEED
Hire #3 and founding member, I set up the design foundation of the company working closely with Nikhil Garg, co-founder and CEO. Lots of what I worked on isn't public just yet.

Fennel is in seed backed by Foundation Capital and the co-founders of 3 unicorns: Confluent, Quora and ThoughtSpot.
EARLY CONTRIBUTOR
early DESIGN IC
9
Revefi
SEED
+
IC on their stealth website.

Jonathan did an outstanding job coming up with the foundation of ThoughtSpot's product and brand.

Ajeet Singh
2x Unicorn Founder | Co-founder and Executive Chairman at ThoughtSpot

EARLY CONTRIBUTOR
FOUNDING DESIGNER
1
ThoughtSpot
Unicorn
+
Employee #11 and founding designer. Total raised of $663.7M and worth $4.2B.
5
CREDIT KARMA
Acquired
Lead IC on the 0 to 1 of Credit Karma Tax. CK got later on acquired by Intuit, owner of TurboTax, the industry leader.
6
MUX
Unicorn
Lead IC on the first version of their website at seed stage. The company has raised a total of $173.9M and is valued at over $1B.
7
TEKION
Unicorn
IC at seed stage, helped shape the first version of their product working with their in-house designer. The company has raised a total of $435.1M and is valued at around $3.5B.
8
UENO
ACQUIRED
Lead IC on several projects for startups and Fortune 500's. Most notable one was for the very first project for the Facebook account, managed by Dantley Davis who led the design agency acquisition by Twitter in 2021.
9
SUPERHUMAN
$825M
IC at seed stage, contributed to the first version of their product. The company has raised a total of $108M and is worth about $825M.
10
PROXY
>$100M
Lead IC at seed stage, led the launch of the first version of their website along with the refresh of their mobile app. The company has raised a total of $58.8M and is worth >$100M.
7
NetSpring
Series a
+
Employee #7, and founding designer. In series A with a total raised of $17.7M and counting multiple Fortune 500 customers.
8
Fennel AI
SEED
+
Employee #6, founding head of design. Currently in stealth.
EARLY CONTRIBUTOR
early DESIGN IC
9
Revefi
SEED
Founded by two ThoughtSpot co-founders, I designed the first version of their stealth website and brand.
10
FlexDesk
PRE-SEED
Worked with the founder to bring their product and pitch deck to the next level.

Jonathan works at break neck speed and everything I ever saw from him was super high quality. Plus he’s just a dream to collaborate with.

Joshua Taylor
Head of Design, Solana | Ex Design Director Credit Karma, Evernote

ALSO
DESIGNED
FOR F500's
11
FACEBOOK
Acquired
Lead IC on the 0 to 1 of their payment service brand and checkout experience, launched globally. Facebook Pay (today Meta Pay) announcement led to the company stock to raise by about 2.5% on Nasdaq that day.

While at Facebook, I also worked on various projects across video, ads, new experiences and financial services.
12
SAMSUNG
Unicorn
Lead IC on the initial phase of one of their consumer products.
13
APPLE
$825M
Individual contributor on one of their b2b platforms.
14
UBER
Unicorn
Individual contributor on their design system platform.
14
First Round
Unicorn
+
Lead IC on the 2016 State of the Startups report, featured on TechCrunch, Business Insider and more.
15
Norman Thavaud
Unicorn
+
Designed the v1 of this French YouTuber (12M followers) mobile application with direct feedback and collaboration with him.
16
Ueno
Acquired
+
Lead IC on several projects for startups and Fortune 500's. Most notable one was for Facebook, managed by Dantley Davis who years later led the design agency acquisition by Twitter.
17
Snowman
$825M
+
Helped bootstrap this 2x Apple Design awarded development studio by developing its first two iOS apps, Checkmark and Circles.
...
10+ more
$825M
+
Helped bootstrap this 2x Apple Design awarded development studio by developing its first two iOS apps, Checkmark and Circles.

Jonathan and I partnered on a high-profile launch at Facebook, where he was instrumental to its success.

Lucy Wilson
Product Design Manager at Facebook

And
others
10
Facebook
Acquired
+
Lead IC on the 0 to 1 of their payment service brand and checkout experience, launched globally.
11
Samsung
Unicorn
+
Lead IC on the initial phase of one of their consumer products.
12
Apple
$825M
+
Individual contributor on one of their b2b platforms.
13
Uber
Unicorn
+
Individual contributor on their design system platform.
13
Ueno
Acquired
Lead IC on several projects for startups and Fortune 500's. Most notable one was for Facebook, managed by Dantley Davis who years later led the design agency acquisition by Twitter.
15
FIRST ROUND
Unicorn
Lead IC on the 2016 State of the Startups report, featured on TechCrunch, Business Insider and more.
16
NORMAN THAVAUD
Unicorn
Designed the v1 of this French YouTuber (12M followers) mobile application working directly with him.
17
SNOWMAN
$825M
Helped bootstrap this 2x Apple Design awarded development studio by developing its first two iOS apps, Checkmark and Circles.
10+
10+ MORE
$825M
+

Not only are his development skills incredible, but Jonathan is also a great designer.

Ryan Cash
2x Apple Design Award winner | Founder of Snowman

early IC
early CONTRIBUTor
Credit Karma
Acquired
+
Lead IC on the 0 to 1 of Credit Karma Tax. Credit Karma got acquired by Intuit, owner of TurboTax, the industry leader.
Tekion
Unicorn
+
IC at seed stage, helped shape the first version of their product working with their in-house designer. Worth today $3.5B.
Mux
Unicorn
+
Lead IC on the first version of their website at seed stage. Worth today over $1B.
SuperHuman
$825M
+
IC at seed stage, helped shape the first version of their product. Worth today $825M.
Proxy
>$100M
+
Lead IC at seed stage, led the launch of the first version of their website. Worth today >$100M.
F500's
Facebook
Acquired
+
Lead IC on the 0 to 1 of their payment service brand and checkout experience, launched globally.
Samsung
Unicorn
+
Lead IC on the initial phase of one of their consumer products.
Apple
$825M
+
Individual contributor on one of their b2b platforms.
Uber
Unicorn
+
Individual contributor on their design system platform.
how i may
help you
1
DESIGN PARTNER
Acquired
As a design partner, I can take care of all your product, brand and marketing design needs so you can focus on all the many things you have to do to build your startup.

My bread and butter is joining early on either at a full-time or part-time capacity. This is where I can bring the most value since I can take care of all your design needs across your product, brand and marketing, setting you up with a solid design foundation.

As for my creative process, I'm usually hands on myself. But sometimes depending on the timeline/scope I also hire and lead a team of contractors to speed up the process.
2
Branding
Unicorn
+
Lead IC on the initial phase of one of their consumer products.
3
Marketing
$825M
+
Individual contributor on one of their b2b platforms.
2
ADVISOR
$825M
As an advisor I usually help at a more strategic level (i.e. product direction, brand and marketing strategy, hiring talent, etc.) checking in with you on a monthly or bi-monthly basis (or as needed, depending on the contract we set up), making sure your startup is leveraging properly design and heading towards the right direction.

I sometimes even get hands on by for example designing a pitch deck, a product or even a landing page.
3
Angel Investor
$825M
This would include the same as being your advisor + some funds.
4
Mentor
$825M
Individual contributor on one of their b2b platforms.
Contact

Jonathan’s passion for design excellence shines through in his work. His head and heart work in harmony to create the best outcomes for all.

Irene Au
Design Partner at Koshla Ventures | Ex Head of Design at Google | Ex Yahoo, NetScape

At Scale
Meta
Lead IC on the 0 to 1 of Meta's first payment service.
Samsung
Lead IC on the 0 to 1 of a consumer web platform.
Apple
IC on a web platform.
Uber
IC of an internal portal.
other
First Round
Set the creative direction of the State of the Startups yearly report for First Round, featured on TechCrunch, Business Insider and more.
Ueno
ACQUIRED
IC to Ueno’s key account managed by Dantley Davis who later led the design agency acquisition by Twitter. Also contributed to a dozen of projects for early-stage startups and Fortune 500 companies.
PATENTS
Search Engine for Information Retrieval System
Designed the first version of the search engine interface for ThoughtSpot.
Token based dynamic data indexing with integrated security
Designed the first version of the token based dynamic data indexing interface for ThoughtSpot.
FEATURES
The Webby Awards
Nominated in the Data Management category for NetSpring.
The Webby Awards
Honorable mention in the best homepage category for NetSpring's website along Square and Google.
TechCrunch
First Round State of Startups featured.
Business Insider
First Round State of Startups featured.
Dribbble Interview
Interviewed & featured on Dribbble.com.
The Webby Awards
Nominated in the Best Corporate Website category for ThoughtSpot.
Abduzeedo
Featured on Abduzeedo for ThoughtSpot.
App of the Day
Checkmark iOS app featured App of the Day multiple times on the App Store.
The Next Web
Circles iOS game featured on The Next Web.
WIRED
Checkmark iOS app featured in wired.
LeMatin
Interviewed in a Swiss newspaper.
About
Jonathan is the Founding Designer of ThoughtSpot, a $4.2B unicorn currently disrupting the analytics space.

He's currently bootstrapping a new AI startup as its Head of Design.
Jonathan loves to partner with visionaries helping them get their venture off the ground with design excellence.

He has been based in Silicon Valley for almost 10 years and has helped bootstrap various unicorns, one as a founding member and two as a contributor: ThoughtSpot, Mux and Tekion.

He has also helped at seed stage SuperHuman (now at series C), NetSpring (founding designer, now in series A) and Proxy (series B).

Lastly he also contributed to Credit Karma (acquired by Intuit), Ueno (acquired by Twitter) as well as Fortune 500's such as Apple, Samsung, Facebook and Uber.
Jonathan is currently Founding Head of Design of an AI startup, currently in stealth.

He's always open to new opportunities, if you have a great idea in need of great design, he will be able to help. For inquiries please use this form.

Originally from Switzerland, he is currently based in San Francisco, California. During his free time, he likes to experiment with various creative mediums. Lately he's been playing around with 3D and lettering.

When he's not creating, you can find him either bugging these two, watching sci-fi, checking coffee-shops or spending some time in nature.
Bio
Jonathan loves to partner with visionaries helping them get their venture off the ground with design excellence.

He has been based in Silicon Valley for almost 10 years and has helped bootstrap various unicorns, one as a founding member and two as a contributor: ThoughtSpot, Mux and Tekion.

He has also helped at seed stage SuperHuman (now at series C), NetSpring (founding member, now in series A) and Proxy (series B).

Lastly he also contributed to Credit Karma (acquired by Intuit), Ueno (acquired by Twitter) as well as Fortune 500's such as Apple, Samsung, Facebook and Uber.
Jonathan is currently Founding Head of Design of an AI startup, currently in stealth.

He's also an angel investor and advisor. If you have a great idea in need of funds and/or great design, he will be able to help. For inquiries please use this form.

Originally from Switzerland, he is currently based in Seattle, Washington. During his free time, he likes to experiment with various mediums. Lately he's been playing around with 3D and lettering.

When he's not creating, you can find him either bugging these two, still processing Severance, checking local coffee-shops or spending some time in nature.

TESTIMONIALS

Jonathan’s passion for design excellenceshines through in his work.
Jonathan and I partnered on the very first versions of ThoughtSpot and he helped us come up with a great product in record time.
Jonathan’s passion for design excellence shines through in his work. His head and heart work in harmony to create the best outcomes for all.
Jonathan works at break neck speed and everything I ever saw from him was super high quality. Plus he’s just a dream to collaborate with.
Jonathan and I partnered on a high-profile launch at Facebook, where he was instrumental to its success.
Jonathan is an exceptional designer and a fantastic collaborator.
Not only are his development skills incredible, but Jonathan is also a great designer.

Shailesh Chauhan

Founding PM, ThoughtSpot | Ex Uber, Amazon

Jonathan and I partnered on the very first versions of ThoughtSpot and he helped us come up with a great product in record time.

Irene Au

Design Partner at Koshla Ventures,

Ex Head of design at Google | Ex Yahoo, NetScape

Jonathan’s passion for design excellence shines through in his work. His head and heart work in harmony to create the best outcomes for all.

Joshua Taylor

Head of Design, Solana | Ex Design Director Credit Karma, Evernote

Jonathan works at break neck speed and everything I ever saw from him was super high quality. Plus he’s just a dream to collaborate with.

Lucy Wilson

Product Design Manager at Facebook

Jonathan and I partnered on a high-profile launch at Facebook, where he was instrumental to its success.

Haraldur Thorleifsson

Design Director, Twitter

<br/>Previously Founder and CEO, ueno.

Jonathan is an exceptional designer and a fantastic collaborator.

Ryan Cash

2x annual Apple Design Award winner |

Founder at Snowman

Not only are his development skills incredible, but Jonathan is also a great designer.

Irene Au

Design Partner at Koshla Ventures,
Previously Head of design at Google
Jonathan’s passion for design excellenceshines through in his work.

Ajeet Singh

Co-Founder and Executive Chairman ThoughtSpot
He did an outstanding job coming up with our design foundation.

Lucy Wilson

Product Design Manager at Facebook
He did an outstanding job coming up with our design foundation.

Haraldur Thorleifsson

Design Director, Twitter
Previously Founder and CEO, ueno.
Jonathan is an exceptional designer and a fantastic collaborator.

Shikhar Agarwal

Co-founder and CTO, Spotnana
Founding Engineer, ThoughtSpot
Jonathan is the best designer that I have ever met.

Joshua Taylor

Head of Design, Solana
Jonathan is a dream to collaborate with.

VALUES

Values &
Principles

Value Name Here

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Value Name Here

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wfh

CLIENTS

From Fortune 500 toEarly Stage Startups
Nikhil Garg

Lucy Wilson

Product Design Manager at Facebook

Jonathan is an exceptionally talented designer who has the unique ability to create thoughtful, intentional and high quality designs.

Irene Au

Design Partner at Koshla Ventures

Ex Head of Design at Google | Ex Yahoo, NetScape

Jonathan’s passion for design excellence shines through in his work. His head and heart work in harmony to create the best outcomes for all.

Ajeet Singh

2x Unicorn Founder

Co-Founder and Executive Chairman ThoughtSpot

Jonathan did an outstanding job coming up with the foundation of ThoughtSpot's product and brand.

Haraldur Thorleifsson

Design Director, Twitter

<br/>Previously Founder and CEO, ueno.

Jonathan is an exceptional designer. He is also a fantastic collaborator and all around good human.

Joshua Taylor

Head of Design, Solana | Ex Design Director Credit Karma, Evernote

Jonathan works at break neck speed, but everything I ever saw from him was super high quality. Plus he’s just a good human and a dream to collaborate with.

Ryan Cash

2x annual Apple Design Award winner|Founder at Snowman

Jonathan’s been a pleasure to work with. He worked as the sole developer on Checkmark 1 and Circles for us at Snowman, and always delivered on his promises. He works quickly and efficiently. Jonathan isn’t an order taker – he’s the kind of guy that chimes in with his own great ideas, and fights for great design. Not only are his development skills incredible, but Jonathan is also a great designer. He’s careful about every last pixel and every last detail. He’s the kind of guy you can just trust to get the job done right – the first time

Shikhar Agarwal

Co-founder and CTO, Spotnana | Founding Engineer, ThoughtSpot

Jonathan is the best designer that I have ever met - no doubt about it. He single handedly designed the entire UI, including wireframes, interactive designs, graphics, icons, etc of the ThoughtSpot product. ThoughtSpot is a data visualization and analytics company with Tableau as the main competitor. Now, Tableau is famous for it's beautiful and intuitive dashboard and UI - and Jonathan's task was to beat Tableau in UI - which he did - alone! He not only designed the entire product UI, but also the website UI, etc. I was the frontend engineer working with him, and he used to patiently explain me his design decisions, thought process - and would also listen to my feedback and would positively act on the real take aways. He used to work late nights, giving more than 100% to work, and it's not a surprise that today ThoughtSpot is worth more than a billion dollar and is known for its UI - Jonathan started when ThoughtSpot was less than 10 people with zero revenue! He cares about user interaction, adoption, and does not rest until the design is pixel perfect. I can go on and on!

Shailesh Chauhan

Founding PM, ThoughtSpot | Ex Uber, Amazon

Jonathan and I partnered on the very first versions of ThoughtSpot and he helped us come up with a great product in record time. Jonathan is an ingenious designer who is constantly striving to be more creative in his designs and more efficient in every task. His ability to produce large volumes of high-quality designs is remarkable. As a Product Manager, I have worked with few designers who are as low-maintenance as he is. I would definitely work with Jonathan again and always look for opportunities to get him involved in my projects when it makes sense. He is super fun to work with and above all, a great human being.

Joy Dutta

‍Founding Engineer at ThoughtSpot

Jonathan is the most incredible UI designer I have worked with so far. His designs consistently blew our minds. I will give him the highest possible recommendation.