Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer

Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer

From Dive Club 🤿 by Ridd

April 21, 2026 · 53 min · Episode 161

About this episode

Brandon Jacoby discusses his design experience and insights on taste and creativity in the context of launching an independent practice.

Capital, early Cash App, and most recently, X, all have one designer in common — [Brandon Jacoby]( https://x.com/JacobyBrandon ). In this episode Brandon is talking about how he’s combining his years of experience designing with fresh, high-functioning teams and is now launching an all-new independent practice to help founders push past good enough. He shares some really interesting thoughts on taste, being creative with AI, and how to thrive in a 0->1 environment. Some highlights: - The types of designer who get most amplified by AI - What it takes to thrive while designing a 0→1 experience - How Brandon is positioning himself as a new independent - The difference between "seeing taste" and "creating taste" - What Nikita (X Head of Product) taught Brandon about onboarding - + a lot more - John Lasseter (Pixar director) quote - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFbOOjAC_Fg - Tolan app (mentioned as example of creative onboarding) - https://www.tolans.com/ - Owen Jennings at Block (Brandon’s mentor for 4 years) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/owenbrittonjennings/ - Nikita (former Head of Product at X) - https://x.com/nikitabier

People in this episode

Host: Ridd

Guest: Brandon Jacoby

Topics covered

  • design
  • AI creativity
  • independent practice
  • taste in design
  • 0 to 1 experience
  • onboarding

Keywords

  • design
  • taste
  • AI
  • independent practice
  • 0 to 1
  • onboarding
  • Cash App
  • X
  • Tolan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cash App, Tolan

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