Brian Lovin (Notion) x Joey Flynn (OpenAI) on the myth of the design founder

Brian is a designer at Notion, where he arrived after founding Campsite, a communication tool for distributed teams. Before that, he co-founded Spectrum, a community platform built for developer communities that was acquired by GitHub. Joey co-founded Global Illumination, a studio that leveraged AI to build creative tools and games, which was acquired by OpenAI. Before OpenAI, he spent formative years at Facebook and Instagram, and worked on everything from iOS games to multiplayer worlds in the browser.Before this conversation, Brian and Joey had never actually met, but they had surprisingly similar careers. Both spent early years at Facebook, both started multiple companies, both found their way into some of the most design-forward product orgs, and both were nominated to come on the show by legendary design leader, Soleio. Together, they chat about what it really means to be a “design founder” and whether that label even makes sense. They get into the strange pull of starting something new versus the relief of joining a company that already has distribution. Then they go deep on what it means to design right now, how AI changed the feedback loop, their prototyping stacks, and even the amount of control a designer can expect to have over the final product today. In this conversation, you'll learn: What Brian and Joey miss, and don’t miss, about being foundersWhy joining a company with distribution can feel creatively freeingWhy vibe coding can feel like a superpower and still make you feel less in flowWhat it’s like to design for AI while the product category is still formingThe new designer stack Where to find Brian Lovin:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlovin/X: @brian_lovinWebsite: https://brianlovin.com/Where to find Joey Flynn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joey-flynn-8291586b/X: @wjosephflynnWhere to find The General Partnership:Website: thegp.comLinkedIn: The General PartnershipX: @thegpSubstack: thegeneralpartnership.substack.com