Hey, I'm Jacob.
I'm a Product Designer, helping AI companies design V1 products
About me
I'm a former founder, seasoned product designer and design leader with over 10 years of experience.
Currently, I'm serving as the Head of Design at IngredientAI, a health-tech company using AI to help labs research and develop new products.
Notable stories and projects
- In middle school, my parents gave me $50 on the condition that I figure out how to double it. I started a handmade jewelry business and netted $1,000 in a summer.
- In high school, I petitioned the local school board to let me swim on the public school swim team as a homeschooler. The vote passed unanimously and I went on to set a couple of school records during my 3 years there. Following my lead, 4 others in my friend group joined other public school sports and later, after I had graduated, the state legislature introduced legislation to make this legal state-wide based on me and my friends.
- The third year I competed in debate, I wrote a case that completely bucked the traditional template. The case was dead simple, appealed to common sense and, combined with it's unexpected format, was incredibly difficult to debate against. It went undefeated all the way through Nationals and we ended up winning Regionals and sweeping multiple local tournaments.
- Back when I wanted to become a professional commercial photographer, I started shooting fantastical Christmas cards for my family as a way to practice lighting, composition, and Photoshop. Turned out to be a big hit and I've since won awards and been featured in multiple publications for our cards.
- In college, I decided I wanted to write a book, so I wrote, designed and self-published a 120-page book through Amazon's Create Space platform. It published with a typo.
- Right out of college, I backpacked through Europe with my friend for 3 months. We saw 11 countries, hiked the tallest mountain in Ireland, camped in the Italian wilderness, snuck into the Budapest bathes, got lost at 2am in Sicily, wept during a classical concert in Venice, worshiped in Westminster Abbey, swam in the freezing lakes of the Swiss alps, and read philosophy in an Austrian cabin in the mountains.
- My wife and I have known each other since we were 13. So when we started dating, we skipped the 'get to know you' phase and just got married 3 months later.
- I got into Pickleball a few years ago but there wasn't any good app out there to see your personal stats. So I used Replit's AI agent to build a match tracking and analytics app called Paddles to scratch my own itch.
Experience
My earliest entrepreneurial venture was turning the $50 my parents gave me into $1,000+ by making and selling jewelry when I was 15. But as far as an actual career goes, I guess I got my start while pursuing my business degree, running a small photography studio on the side. My goal at that point was to become a commercial photographer.
While sitting in a small chapel in Italy during a 3-month backpacking trip after college, I realized I was meant for more, though I guess I didn't really know what that was exactly. But upon returning home, I shut down the photography business and got a job with a creative agency called MESH. That was my first "real" job.
MESH
I was hired as a "social media intern" but I was more like a junk drawer for small projects. So I'd write posts and schedule them but I also did some commercial photography (mission accomplished?), created banner ads and, one fateful day, even got a chance to take a stab at a website design. And that was the project where I fell in love with design.
Since I loved it so much, I spent most of my free time learning about UX and UI design. I was obsessed with design systems, component libraries, 8pt grids, color and hierarchy. And then one day, one of my co-workers sent me a link to Webflow and, once again, the game changed.
I started designing AND building the websites that got increasingly more refined, beautiful and interactive. Webflow helped me learn about content management systems, animation, HTML/CSS, and even a little bit of Javascript. I had a new dream - building stuff for the internet.
Over the four years I was there, I worked my way up from intern to the Director of Digital Strategy, overseeing web, mobile, social, and video projects across all teams. I was also one of three Principals who led and grew a full-stack creative team, from recruitment to creative direction.
In the summer of 2016, I met a guy named Abe who was the DP on a video shoot that I was directing for a client. We hit it off and decided to create a podcast together where we interviewed change-makers in our city. That podcast eventually evolved into a podcast network and production house called Parachute that we ran on nights and weekends while we each continued working at our full-time jobs.
Parachute
The original show we created interviewed local artists, business owners, activists, chefs, politicians, non-profit organizers and musicians. We were even blessed with the opportunity to interview the mayor of the city which sparked a bigger idea. What if we could gather all of these incredible people together in one place?
So we spun out a Summit, gathering over 60 of the brightest minds in the city in one place. It was keynoted by the mayor, casting vision for the city and featured a number of high-caliber change-makers who spoke about the future we were all building together.
At some point, the work we were doing in podcasting got enough recognition that others started asking us to produce shows for them. So we spun out a podcast network and production house called Parachute which helped local creatives and business owners develop their owns shows as a part of the network.
Eventually, I cashed out my half in order to free up some time to move on to other adventures.
Working at MESH gave me the skill set and confidence to work on more challenging projects so, after four years, I left to start a new company with a buddy of mine, Matthew. The original idea was to build the "Uber of lawn care" and, after a semi-successful launch and talking with hundreds of our users, we pivoted to provide back-office tools for home service professionals to manage and automate their businesses.
Check (acq. '24)
We started off in a 10ft x 10ft windowless office that may have been a storage closet at one point but it served our needs. We raised a bit of funding, built an MVP and launched. I'm not going to say it was a smashing success but it wasn't a complete failure either. Now that we knew there was demand, we decided to start scaling into other cities... and that's where we realized what we were up against. We started talking with dozens of lawn care professionals, realizing that they loved our tech but hated that someone else was eating into their margins.
So we pivoted. About a year in, we switched our focus from "on-demand lawn care" to "back-office tools for home services" and we've spent the last 4 years building toward that vision. We recently sold the company in February 2024 and that entire journey has made me confident that I will forever be a designer and a builder.
After selling Check, I knew I wanted to step away from the founder role for a bit but I wasn't quite done with the startup world. I went on to work at a Thrive-backed AI startup leading their design efforts. As the founding product designer, I've built the design system from the ground up, helped developed our library of React components, designed hundreds of high-fidelity screens and user flows, and crafted the details of each of those screens in production.
Stealth
Um... can't talk about it publicly yet. But feel free to ask me about it when we chat :)
At some point I discovered IngredientAI through the stellar brand work of Smith & Diction. When a Head of Design position opened up, it was an opportunity to step into a more senior role in an industry I was passionate about.
Ingredient AI
Ingredient AI uses large language models to ingest massive amounts of clinical studies and provide fast, thorough answers to R&D labs who are researching ingredients to use in their next product. Then, it matches the brands, suppliers and manufacturers together to help facilitate a seamless production of that product.
References
I've been incredibly fortunate to work with some of the most talented, kind, and creative folks on the planet.
Working with Jacob for over five years as a co-founder was an incredible experience. Jacob isn't just talented at what he does - he's genuinely passionate about his craft. I'd bet on him any day.
Matthew Armstrong
Jacob has the rare talent to take an early-stage product concept, and work directly with engineering to produce a polished customer-facing deliverable. This extends beyond design and asset creation, but into perfecting user interfaces and user experience over the entire life-cycle of the product.
Alexander Guy
Jacob was the founding designer at a startup that I was a founding engineer at. I got to see first hand the value that he can provide in the 0-1 as he not only helped build a beautiful design but played a massive role in figuring out our product direction in an exciting but ambiguous space.
Kaz Hishida
Jacob has the ability to see the big picture and break it down. That's what makes him so effective as a designer. Jacob and I developed some of the best ideas of my career together. He's a great guy and someone I look up to in all areas of life.
Taylor Bennett
Jacob contracted with our team for a few weeks during the very early stages of our product development. In that short time, he made significant contributions to the fundamentals of our product. His strong product sense and intuition allow him to translate ambiguous ideas and specifications into concrete designs with ease. Our engineers really enjoyed working with him, and we would love to find another opportunity to collaborate again.
John Kim
Jacob is a smart, curious, thoughtful person. If you're looking for someone that will take a problem, dive into understanding it, come up with a creative solution, and make it happen, look no further. His design skills lead to a way of thinking that pairs creativity and execution that is hard to find.
Jared Loftus
Jacob always impressed me with both the quality of his work and his efficiency. He had an uncanny ability to ask the right questions to pull out the vision I had in my head and turn it into effective marketing content.
Matt Allan
Every idea gets elevated when you have Jacob on your team. Every iteration gets quicker and cleaner with his flexibility and breadth of skills. Every strategy gets sharper with his perspective. Plus, the work will be a lot more fun since Jacob is such a blast to be around. Don’t miss the chance the hire him or get him on your project.
Chase Whitney
Every time I've had the pleasure of working with Jacob, a few things are bound to happen - he does great work and it's always on time, he constantly shows genuine attention to the project, and he is ALWAYS smiling! That tends to stick out. Jacob has an infectious personality that raises everyone's game.
Henry Hays
Portfolio
I've had the opportunity to start and sell my own company, partner with founders to take a product from napkin sketch to launch, support in-house design teams building enterprise products, lead design at one of the top creative agencies in the Gulf South, and even step in as a contract Head of Design to help build the product and design org from the ground up.
Here are just a few of the products I've had the pleasure of working on.
Case Studies
While you can check out the collections in my portfolio to see galleries of my work, these mini case studies dive into interesting design challenges that I've had the opportunity to work on over the last year. They go a little deeper into my thought processes and some of the in-progress work throughout the journey.
Contact
Please feel free to reach out! The easiest way is via email or shoot me a text at (225) 610-0703.