Our Team
We’re a distributed team of creators & doers located across the globe.
Harish Venkatesan
Founder/CEO
Built product at Venmo & Grubwithus; graduated from UPenn
Things I like:π π π·
Daniel Shapiro
Founder/CTO
Previously full-stack developer at YCharts; graduated from Duke
Things I like:π₯ β· π―
Patrick Multani
Design & Mentorship
Studied Concept Design; worked at Less & Better to listen and understand
Things I like:π π π
Edgar Salazar
Software Development
Builds products for nonprofits and startups; graduated from MIT & University of Manchester
Things I like:π πΈ π΅
Studied Psych at University of Alaska; brings perceptive fine-tuning to startup ops
Things I like:π¨ π π§
Studied Art and Design at CCNY; obsessed with Customer Happiness
Things I like:π βοΈ π¨
Austin Basallo
Operations
Philosophy & Lit @NYU; trying to make everyone else's life easier through ops
Things I like:π² β π
Diego Torres-Galvan
Support
Studied at UC Berkeley; previously at Uber & Handy
Things I like:β· βοΈ π
Graduate of the University of Cape Town: geographer turned people ninja
Things I like:π β° πΆ
Outdoorsy dog mom, food lover, and live music enthusiast
Things I like:π βοΈ π§ββοΈ
Alexa Harrison
Content Writer
Studied English at UMass; word wizard + marketing maven
Things I like:π π©βπ³ βοΈ
Graduate of the University of Nottingham; passionate about education
Things I like:π π¨ π¦
Melissa McDougall
Support
Studied Screen Arts & Cultures at UMIch; passionate about documentary filmmaking, language-learning, and self-care
Things I like:β½ π π
Studied Psychology at UC San Diego; Visual Communications at FIDM; Loves to learn; Soft skills guru
Things I like:πΆ π¦ βοΈ
Studied Musicology and Media at NYU; Helping everyone reach their goals with ops magic
Things I like:πΌ π½οΈ π
Emilyann Gachko
Admissions
Studied Photography at Ramapo College; passionate about art, education, and getting outdoors.
Things I like:πΈ π² π΄
Learning experience designer; use to own a printers museum; studied industrial design at JMU
Things I like:πΈ ποΈ π¨
UC Davis grad in psychology and Japanese, escape room enthusiast, supposed polymath, edtech veteran
Things I like:π π΅ π
Designlab by the numbers
Thousands of students have taken our courses.
Students Enrolled
9,000+
Project Submissions
300,000+
1-on-1 Mentor Sessions
60,000+
Mentor Feedback Comments
440,000+
Students
Our international student community is formed of driven, aspiring designers who work together to achieve their career goals
Peter Javorkai
UI Designer at Adidas
“I got a job offer from Adidas just before I started my second capstone project on UX Academy!”
Read Peter's story
Sammy de Joya
UX Designer at Comrade Agency
“UX Academy was great. It helped give me the kick start that I needed to learn all the basic design concepts.”
Read Sammy's story
Wendy Pei
Product Designer at Microsoft
“The confidence I came out with really propelled me into the job hunt. I received several offers in just a month.”
Read Wendy's story
Celeste North
UX Designer at Backbase
“I learned sketching, wireframing, prototyping, UI kits, personas, and user flows. These are all key skills for my work.”
Read Celeste's story
“What I really liked about the Designlab course were the assignments and the weekly mentor calls.”
Read Marko's story
Tracy Lin
UX/UI Designer at TechStyle Fashion Group
“Those who encouraged and affirmed me turned out to be right, because I graduated and I got the job.”
Read Tracy's story
Jonathan Netek
UX / Visual Designer at Flightaware
“I already had 13 years in the design industry, but I still learned valuable new skills in UXA.”
Read Jonathan's story
YOU
What is your dream job?
We offer short courses and an intensive UX Academy. Whether you want to upskill or build a new career, Designlab is for you.
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