# Josiah Austin Gulden > fintech/crypto design leader reinventing personal finance @ Legend // Previously: Compound, Meta/Facebook, Target Location: Sunnyvale, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/josiahaustingulden Hi! I'm Josiah. If you’re here, one of two things is likely true: either we already know each other or you’re wondering who the hell I am. If the former, hi and I hope you’re doing well! Let’s catch up soon. If the latter — and honestly that makes two of us — allow me to introduce myself. So… who am I? The short answer is I’m a Bay Area-based, multi-disciplinary creative who by day leads the design practice at Legend, a new venture from the team behind Compound. The long answer is a little more complicated. My career has been anything but orthodox. Over the last decade-plus I’ve been a university voice teacher, a gigging vocalist and regional theatre actor, an overqualified barista turned freelance designer, a creative director for a multinational agency, a design consultant to Fortune 500s and patent-awarded inventor, an in-house Big Tech™ design lead, and most recently a Head of Design at a fintech startup backed by some of Silicon Valley’s top investors. If I’m being honest, I spent a lot of time wrestling the impostor syndrome the seeming incoherence of all that brought about, and for a long time did my best to hide the fact that my path had been so circuitous. Chalk it up to having one too many burning interests and passions, I guess. But as I’ve grown into myself personally and hit my stride professionally I’ve come to see how it’s given me a unique perspective on work and life, and woven a rich tapestry of experiences I’m incredibly grateful to have had. Outside of work, I continue to explore the things that capture my interest: 🎞️ Film: I’m a card-carrying cinephile and hard at work on my second screenplay, which I hope to produce independently. 🎼 Songwriting: I’ve got hours of voice notes I swear I’m gonna do something with one of these days! 💸 Advising & Investing: in the last few years, I’ve written small checks to companies like Solokey, Atom Limbs, and most recently Zest Maps, and helped other early-stage teams with design, brand building, and go-to-market strategy. So, that’s me. Now I’d love to learn more about you. What brings you all the way out to my little corner of the internet? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you dream about, and how might I help bring those dreams a step closer to reality? Feel free to drop me a line; I can’t always guarantee a prompt reply but I promise I’ll do my best. Thanks for stopping by… until next time! ✌️ ## Work Experience ### Founding Head of Design @ Legend Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Led zero-to-one product strategy and design from day one, taking the product from a bare-bones tech demo to a fully featured beta in under a year and enabling the team to raise $15M from A16Z and Coinbase Ventures, garner 6M+ waitlist signups, and retain critical talent during its spinout from Compound Labs. Also owned brand development and agency relationships, produced and/or creative directed nearly all marcom media, and created a robust design system to support rapid growth looking forward. ### Head of Design @ Compound Labs Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco, California, United States Led the design team, operating across multiple product and business lines including the core protocol, Compound Treasury (institutional fixed income), Compound Prime (institutional lending), and USTB stablecoin, which later spun out as Superstate. Also led the naming and initial branding process for Superstate, now an independent company offering tokenized funds and securities on Ethereum and Solana. ### Principal Product Designer @ Compound Labs Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco, California, United States Spearheaded the ground-up redesign and eventual launch of Compound’s V3 protocol interface — the foundation of the company’s multichain strategy which at its height secured over $4B in TVL — and owned design for Treasury, Compound’s institutional fixed-income offering and the first S&P-rated financial product in DeFi. ### Product Design Lead @ Meta Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 | Menlo Park, California, United States • As part of the Feed & Stories team, launched and scaled new strategic bets including Reels and Messenger Rooms, prioritizing transparency, safety, and user choice from day one. • Rebuilt the Facebook Integrity (trust & safety) design team from a two-person skeleton crew to a thriving studio of eight IC designers during a period of high turnover. Onboarded group- and director-level managers, mentored and upskilled junior talent, and created durable working models for co-owning high-visibility product surfaces with growth teams across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. • Led an end-to-end overhaul of moderation tools for Pages and Groups as well as high-stakes C-level escalations and zero-to-one initiatives focused on election integrity, consumer transparency, conversational safety, and borderline content. • Owned the trust & safety domain for Product Architecture Council, a v-team of lead- and staff-level ICs responsible for curating the Facebook App's holistic architecture. ### Product Design @ Livefront Jan 2016 – Jan 2020 | Minneapolis, Minnesota Invented new products and reinvented a few old ones for clients including Target, Optum, General Mills, and Fidelity. Collaborated closely with executive, SVP, and VP-level client stakeholders on projects ranging from new features to multi-brand design systems, grew the product design practice from two to five ICs, stood up a net-new UX research practice, formalized hiring and leveling procedures for product design roles, and led a 360° brand refresh as well as the strategy and rollout of our content and case study marketing efforts. ### Lead Product Designer @ Target Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 Co-founded the Drive Up/same day fulfillment team as an embedded, full-time contractor via Livefront. Led end-to-end product design from sketch to scale in the first six months, catalyzing $1B+ in GMV by 2020 and sustaining Target’s retail business through the COVID lockdown. The explosive growth in Drive Up volume and Target’s other same-day services during this period drove the company’s stock to all-time highs in 2021. ### Freelance Creative Director + Designer @ Neon Beehive Jan 2011 – Jan 2017 | Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area Product design, brand-building, and GTM strategy for a diverse roster of clients including VC-backed tech startups, main street SMBs, philanthropic ventures, and a Democratic presidential campaign. ### Associate Creative Director @ BI WORLDWIDE Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 | Minneapolis, Minnesota Led multidisciplinary creative teams on high-stakes activations for category-leading brands like Toyota/Scion, Verizon, Honda/Acura, Thomson Reuters, and US Bank. ### Performing Artist @ AEA / SAG-AFTRA Jan 2009 – Jan 2014 | Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area Gigging singer, actor, and voiceover artist. Stage credits: Children’s Theater Co. (regional Tony winner), Ordway Center, Minnesota Orchestra, Jungle Theater, Theater Latté Da, History Theater, and others throughout the Twin Cities metro. Film: The Public Domain (2015), Branches (2011). Numerous national and regional ad campaigns. Proud union member and forever an artist at heart. ## Education ### Master of Music (M.M.) Candidate in Voice Indiana University Bloomington ### Bachelor of Music (B.Mus.) in Vocal Performance Bethel University ### Eden Prairie High School ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/josiahaustingulden - Portfolio: https://josiah.fyi --- Source: https://flows.cv/josiahaustingulden JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/josiahaustingulden/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13