Roles
Roles
Design Venture Fellow
Design Venture Fellow
Timeline
Timeline
July to August 2025
Skills
Skills
Design Systems + User Research
Product Strategy + Scoping
End-to-End Venture Creation
Summary
Summary
Summary
At Sequoia, I learned how to build early products by mapping systems, breaking down multi-actor journeys, moving fast in buildathons, and reframing problems. Along the way, one gap kept repeating: founders needed quick, grounded judgment, and some of Stanford’s strongest d.school thinkers were stuck waiting for a chance to be taken seriously.
So I built Signal: a clarity-tap engine where a founder raises a live blocker and a trained student strategist returns actionable judgment. No hiring cycle, no onboarding.
At Sequoia, I learned how to build early products by mapping systems, breaking down multi-actor journeys, moving fast in buildathons, and reframing problems. Along the way, one gap kept repeating: founders needed quick, grounded judgment, and some of Stanford’s strongest d.school thinkers were stuck waiting for a chance to be taken seriously.
So I built Signal: a clarity-tap engine where a founder raises a live blocker and a trained student strategist returns actionable judgment. No hiring cycle, no onboarding.
At Sequoia, I learned how to build early products by mapping systems, breaking down multi-actor journeys, moving fast in buildathons, and reframing problems. Along the way, one gap kept repeating: founders needed quick, grounded judgment, and some of Stanford’s strongest d.school thinkers were stuck waiting for a chance to be taken seriously.
So I built Signal: a clarity-tap engine where a founder raises a live blocker and a trained student strategist returns actionable judgment. No hiring cycle, no onboarding.
Skills
Design Systems + User Research
Product Strategy + Scoping
End-to-End Venture Creation
What I did
What I did
What I did
Learned from Sequoia partners as they dissected portfolio products through pattern recognition, customer tensions, and narrative structure; this taught me how to spot where an early product is actually failing.
Studied Sequoia’s archive and Letterform work, digging through early decks, naming explorations, and category stories to learn how strong teams structure their narratives so investors, teams, and users can all read the same thing.
Grasped rapid execution, vibe coding, and prompt engineering during live buildathons helping a team move from a vague problem to a clear, fast product direction
Learned from Sequoia partners as they dissected portfolio products through pattern recognition, customer tensions, and narrative structure; this taught me how to spot where an early product is actually failing.
Studied Sequoia’s archive and Letterform work, digging through early decks, naming explorations, and category stories to learn how strong teams structure their narratives so investors, teams, and users can all read the same thing.
Grasped rapid execution, vibe coding, and prompt engineering during live buildathons helping a team move from a vague problem to a clear, fast product direction
Signal
Signal
At StartX, I watched brilliant founders ship relentlessly. That’s until speed outpaced sense; growth stalled, funnels leaked, data went mute. When instinct failed, they needed judgment. It never arrived.
At Sequoia, I saw the mirror image: pattern recognition hardened to conviction, judgement in abundance. But locked behind capital and access.
At the d.school, I found some of the brightest minds I know, fluent in synthesis and systems thinking. But in a world that worships branded logos and code, their intelligence stayed invisible. Years of proving instead of doing.
Signal created 48-hour loops: a founder flags a real blocker, a strategist works in a contained sprint, and the output is a crisp judgment that moves decisions forward
At StartX, I watched brilliant founders ship relentlessly. That’s until speed outpaced sense; growth stalled, funnels leaked, data went mute. When instinct failed, they needed judgment. It never arrived.
At Sequoia, I saw the mirror image: pattern recognition hardened to conviction, judgement in abundance. But locked behind capital and access.
At the d.school, I found some of the brightest minds I know, fluent in synthesis and systems thinking. But in a world that worships branded logos and code, their intelligence stayed invisible. Years of proving instead of doing.
Signal created 48-hour loops: a founder flags a real blocker, a strategist works in a contained sprint, and the output is a crisp judgment that moves decisions forward
Results
Earned early adoption and support: top d.school strategists joined, found interest from a partner in piloting model, David Kelley offered mentorship.
Shipped a new work unit that compounds into a legitimacy infrastructure; produces proof that stacks over time.
Validated the business model: mapped a ~ $500M SAM, designed the $200/sprint pilot economics, and outlined a scalable path (matching, proof bank, subscriptions, and take-rate)
Earned early adoption and support: top d.school strategists joined, found interest from a partner in piloting model, David Kelley offered mentorship.
Shipped a new work unit that compounds into a legitimacy infrastructure; produces proof that stacks over time.
Validated the business model: mapped a ~ $500M SAM, designed the $200/sprint pilot economics, and outlined a scalable path (matching, proof bank, subscriptions, and take-rate)