Matt Vernon became a designer because he was drawn to the act of creating something from nothing, as well as the aesthetics associated with his hobbies—skateboarding, music, graffiti. His love of design drew him to startups and, eventually, to start his own company, Foundation. Foundation is an online platform that allows creatives, artists, and designers to create and sell NFTs. As the Co-Founder and Head of Design at Foundation, Matt oversees the collaborative design process and overall product vision for Foundation—to help creators monetize their work in new ways through the use of cryptocurrency.

After launching V1 of Foundation, in which the team opted to abstract many of the established cryptocurrency forms away in an effort to make the platform more approachable, they hadn’t made any traction (or money). They needed to go back to the drawing board. They set out to analyze what they’d learned from a year of experimentation and began to rebuild. This time, Matt and the team decided to lean into the existing cryptocurrency frameworks and conventions instead of abstracting it away. In February of 2021, they launched Foundation V2 and became an overnight success.

In this talk, learn how Matt and the folks at Foundation collaborated across all functions to build an entirely digital and crypto-first tool to mint and sell NFTs. You’ll learn when to go back to the drawing board and why empowering your entire team to see themselves as designers can help the research, development, and launch of products that drive business impact.