Suggestions
Brandon Jacoby
Incubations at Emigrant Venture Partners, Product Design & Strategy
Brandon Jacoby is an experienced product design and strategy professional currently serving as an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Emigrant Venture Partners, a group within Emigrant Bank in New York City.1 His role focuses on early-stage fintech investing, partnerships, and new company incubation.1
Career History
Before joining Emigrant Venture Partners in 2023, Jacoby held several notable positions:
- Head of Product & Design at Capital (formerly known as Party Round) from 2021 to 20231
- Product Design Lead at Cash App from 2017 to 20211
- Designer at Block (formerly Square) from 2017 to 20211
He also has experience as an independent freelance designer from 2009 to 2014.1
Education and Achievements
Jacoby studied Human Computer Interaction at The Ohio State University.1 Notably, he became the World's Youngest Adobe Certified Expert at the age of 13 in August 2009.1
Current Focus
At Emigrant Venture Partners, Jacoby is involved in incubating new ventures. He recently announced that they are hiring a full-stack engineer to join their founding team for a new project in New York City.4
Additional Information
Brandon Jacoby is based in Brooklyn, New York.3 He also advises, supports, and invests in early-stage startups.1 His experience spans over a decade in building products, teams, and companies.2
Highlights
Take on as much friction as possible under the hood, so that customers could get the simplest experience possible.
This was our product philosophy while building Capital.
One way we did this was investment receiving accounts. Specific bank accounts tied to each investment.
Originally—and on our competitors platforms— investors had to manually add a memo to wires which were reconciled with their corresponding investments. This created a margin for error that wasn’t acceptable. Investors could easily mistype the memo leading to missing investments.
Once we implemented the updated recon method, that issue went to zero.
There were trade offs that to be considered. It was more expensive and complex to build, but the customer experience was worth it.
Go the extra mile to take on complexity. It's worth it.
So sorry to hear about the Cash App / Block lay offs yesterday. I know there are some very talented people who were affected. 💚
Whether it's an incubation, portfolio company, or a friendly in my network, there a bunch of things going on around me that I'd love to help point people towards.
Shoot me a note and I'll do everything I can to help.
