From Facebook Designer to Two-Time Founder: Chris Kalani
Lessons on finding co-founders and learning business fundamentals as a designer
This is a defining moment for designer founders, especially as AI makes it easier than ever to build great products. We just launched Designer Founders to celebrate successful designer-turned-founders and share their stories and insights, in hopes of empowering more designers to take the leap into starting companies of their own.
From Facebook to Phantom: A designer's journey
For our first conversation, I sat down with Chris Kalani, Co-founder and CPO of Phantom.
Chris began his career at Jive Software, moved on to agencies building products for Microsoft and Nike, and then joined Facebook's design team working on growth, graph search, and Messenger. Inspired by the common pain points he encountered, he founded Wake, a design collaboration tool for sharing work and obtaining feedback.
After Wake was acquired and eventually shut down, Chris took a three-year detour at crypto startup 0x, where he met his future co-founders. Together, they started Phantom—a cryptocurrency wallet that now stands as the world’s leading platform in the space, with 15 million monthly active users, $25 billion in assets, and a recent $150M Series C at a $3 billion valuation.
Here's what we covered in our conversation:
Finding the right co-founders and why it matters
Why Chris chose to be CPO instead of CEO the second time around
How designers can learn business fundamentals
Why you should validate your idea before quitting your job
Shifting your mindset from designer to founder
Finding your co-founders with intention
Having been a solo founder at Wake, Chris was adamant about the importance of choosing the right co-founders for Phantom:
“I learned through Wake that founding a company alone was much harder, and I decided I never wanted to do it by myself again.”
This sentiment echoes what we've seen repeatedly: founders sometimes struggle not because they lack vision or product sense, but because they try to do it alone. At Phantom, with three co-founders, they could divide responsibilities according to their strengths: CEO, CPO, and CTO, allowing Chris to focus on what he does best.
His advice for finding ideal co-founders:
Work together first. Chris founded Phantom with people he'd already worked with: “We already had a lot of experience working together at our previous company. This helped us move faster to start building and capitalize on the unique moment in the market.”
Align on values explicitly. “We sat down as co-founders to have direct conversations about our intentions, the kind of company we hoped to build, and what motivated us.”
Do a “retro” on past experiences. “We literally did a retro on the lessons learned from our previous experience working together–identifying the things we wanted to avoid along with the things we wanted to carry over into our new culture.”
Look for complementary skills. “Find co-founders who complement your strengths—whether on the business side or the technical side—and fill in the gaps that will help your company succeed.”
Check your personal compatibility. “You need someone who you'll want alongside you through the highs and lows—who cares just as much and can help pull you out of the slumps when things get hard.”
This intentional approach to co-founder selection is something we've seen repeatedly in successful companies. The strongest founding teams are built with care and deliberate alignment.
Playing to your strengths: Why Chris chose CPO over CEO
When I talk to designers who are hesitant about starting companies, they often picture themselves as CEOs responsible for everything. However, after his experience running Wake solo, Chris opted to become the Chief Product Officer at Phantom, a move that let him focus on what he does best. Rather than managing every aspect of the business, he chose a role that leveraged his deep design and product expertise.
“I knew from my experience with Wake there were parts of being a CEO that I didn’t enjoy. I remember wishing someone else could run the company so I could spend 100% of my time focusing on product.”
For designers considering the founder path, this is liberating: being CEO isn’t the only way to lead. Many designers might find greater fulfillment in product leadership roles where they can stay closer to the craft, focus on the user experience, and build and lead product teams.
When I asked Chris about ensuring design remains valued when he's not CEO, he mentioned it hasn't been an issue because design excellence was central to their strategy:
“[Design] was just so ingrained in our decision to start the company. All our competitors were difficult to use, so a big part of our strategy—and our DNA—was to actually care about design and make crypto incredibly easy to use.”
Bridging the business gap beyond design skills
One of the biggest hurdles for designer founders is the gap in business fundamentals. We've seen this repeatedly in talented designers who can create beautiful, usable products but struggle with aspects like go-to-market strategy, user acquisition, or financial modeling.
Chris was candid about the challenges of focusing exclusively on design, that led him to become a founder for the first time.
“I was so married to the idea that I wasn’t developing the other skills you really need—like marketing, sales, company building, how to get distribution, how to develop the business, or how to be an effective leader.”
This gets to the heart of why many designers hesitate to become founders. They've spent thousands of hours mastering their craft but often lack exposure to business fundamentals. And unlike technical co-founders who might have built side projects with monetization models, designers rarely get that business experience through their craft alone.
“At a large tech company, even as a senior designer, you’re not always part of shaping the vision or strategy behind what you’re building. You might not have a clear view into the 'why' or the business objectives. But when you’re a founder, you’re responsible for all of it—you’re the one developing the vision and driving the strategy.”
His advice for bridging this gap: you should be “thinking like a founder” even before you become one. Some ways to do this:
Be curious about the whole business. “I always look for this quality when we hire almost anyone: do they understand the company they're coming from? How deeply are they thinking about what they're working on? Why they're working on it? What the strategy is?”
Read extensively. “I read a ton about other companies, their challenges and evolutions over time. For example, I enjoy learning how Google or PayPal worked in the early days seeing what lessons I can draw.” (📚 recs below)
Talk to people in different roles. “Get to know other teams like customer support or sales, learn what they do, and what they need to be successful.”
Question why decisions are made. “People should be asking ‘why’ to understand what's going on. It's a good indication that they're plugged in and they care about what they're working on.”
There's also a mindset shift required here. Chris suggests designers might benefit from embracing more ambition:
“I think designers need to realize the power they have to influence things and sell ideas. Doing so can lead them to have a massive influence on a company at the highest level.”
Validate before you launch
Perhaps the most actionable advice from our conversation was Chris's emphasis on building and validating your idea before going all-in:
“Don't just immediately jump into it. Build something, prove out the idea. Brandon (Phantom's CEO and co-founder) and I were literally still at our previous company 0x when we built the first version of Phantom. We didn't quit, but still had a good sense of what we were building and why. I worked on Phantom for a year and a half before we started fundraising.”
There are several advantages:
Reduces financial risk. You're still getting a paycheck while testing your idea.
Gets you real user feedback, not just theoretical assumptions.
Creates leverage for fundraising. When you do raise, you have traction to point to.
With Phantom, this paid off significantly when it came time for their raise:
“By the time we were fundraising we already had a $100,000 grant from Solana foundation and 20,000 users on the waitlist. We had something tangible to show.”
Chris had followed a similar approach with Wake, working on it for a year and a half before raising. This gives you time to refine your idea, build early momentum, and approach investors with confidence rather than desperation.
For designers, this approach plays to your strengths. You can create compelling prototypes, get them in front of users, and iterate based on feedback - all skills you already have. You can start this process now without waiting for the perfect time to quit your job or raise money.
Chris's journey from Facebook designer to two-time founder offers key lessons for designers considering starting companies: be intentional about finding complementary co-founders; validate your idea while still employed; bridge the business knowledge gap beyond design skills; and consider which founder role truly leverages your strengths.
Chris’s recommended books
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg
What's coming next
Chris’s story is just the first of many we'll be sharing. In future newsletters, we'll continue interviewing designer founders at different stages. Let me know: Who should we interview next? What specific topics do you want us to explore? Nominate an amazing designer founder you know by replying to this email or filling out the form at the bottom of this page.
What we're reading
Nikita Bier's tweet on why having a designer separates companies that execute and those that can't: “At the end of day, products live and die in the pixels: it's what the users see and tap. And without someone shepherding that process, you are effectively wandering the desert blind.”
David Hoang on how designers can develop business acumen: “‘Embrace the entrepreneurial spirit’ is one of my design philosophies. When constructing teams, I like having designers who've started their own companies or worked at an early-stage startup.”
Thanks for sharing this. It’s always so refreshing to hear stories like these, and I can’t wait for more.
Great and inspiring read! Can’t wait for the next one! Will there be a podcast?