my new job

I am really happy to share that I have a new job, as CTO of Minted.com. I became involved with Minted earlier this year when Yishan Wong and I became advisors to them. Over time, as I got to know the team and product, I grew to really like the company, and now I've joined!

Minted is a blend of graphic design community and thriving e-commerce site. The company started with ongoing design competitions, which are then sold as printed christmas cards, wedding invitations, and other paper goods. The success in that market has allowed us to now consider expanding into new businesses. The business model is covered in greater depth in this article from last week: GigaOm: "For Minted, Crowdsourcing means Money".

It's a 25-person startup located in San Francisco. One of the best aspects is that I get to work with highly talented people who previously played key roles at Yelp, Goldman Sachs, eBay, etc.



One of the things that won me over was how much it helps the community of graphic designers find an outlet for their creativity. Many of them are women whose design talents are under-appreciated in their corporate job. Some of them are stay-at-home moms. It's very fulfilling to hear them gush about finding peers in the Minted community whose critiques have helped them improve their skills and build a portfolio.

It's also very nice to work at a startup with a solid business model, and with interesting technical challenges: applying computer graphics techniques to real-world consumer experiences, and building the most compelling social network for graphic designers.



I'm moving up to San Francisco, but I'm going to continue being involved in Sunfire with Yishan, and co-hosting every weekly mixer with him and Elaine.

It has been truly great working with Minted so far. We're hiring engineers! I've been lucky enough to already hire a former Caltech classmate, and we need more engineers! If you're a star programmer or know someone who is, send me an email and also check out our jobs page!