Loading people...
Braden Kowitz is a Design Partner at GV, a venture capital firm. He is widely recognized for his expertise in product design, user experience, and for co-creating the Design Sprint methodology.
As a Design Partner at GV, Braden Kowitz focuses on supporting portfolio companies across various sectors by enhancing their product design, user experience, and overall product strategy. His work helps companies build user-centric products and accelerate innovation through design sprints.
Braden Kowitz works as a Design Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc.
Braden Kowitz is a distinguished Design Partner at GV, the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc. In this pivotal role, Kowitz is instrumental in guiding GV's diverse portfolio companies through critical stages of product development, user experience enhancement, and strategic design. His expertise helps startups build compelling products that resonate with users and achieve market success.
Kowitz is perhaps best known as a co-creator of the groundbreaking Design Sprint methodology. This innovative five-day process, detailed in the bestselling book "Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days," provides a structured approach for teams to rapidly prototype and test new ideas. The Design Sprint has been adopted by countless organizations worldwide, revolutionizing how companies approach problem-solving and product innovation. At GV, Kowitz and his team actively facilitate these sprints, empowering portfolio companies to validate concepts, mitigate risks, and accelerate their product roadmaps.
Before joining GV, Braden Kowitz honed his skills as a highly respected User Experience (UX) Designer at Google. During his tenure, he contributed to the design of numerous influential products, gaining deep insights into scalable product development and user-centric design principles. This foundational experience at one of the world's leading technology companies provided him with a unique perspective on the intersection of design, technology, and business strategy, which he now applies to the venture capital landscape.
While GV's investments are firm-wide, Kowitz's influence is deeply felt across the portfolio. His investment focus, through his design partnership, centers on companies that recognize the strategic importance of design as a competitive differentiator. He works with startups in various sectors, including enterprise software, consumer technology, healthcare, and fintech, where strong user experience and thoughtful product design are paramount to success. He helps these companies not only refine their product interfaces but also build robust design cultures and effective design teams.
Kowitz's work extends beyond direct consultation; he is a prominent thought leader in the design community, frequently sharing insights on product strategy, innovation, and the future of design. His contributions have significantly shaped how startups and established companies alike approach product development, emphasizing empathy, rapid iteration, and data-informed decision-making. Through his role at GV, Braden Kowitz continues to champion design excellence, helping to cultivate the next generation of market-leading products and companies.
Braden Kowitz is an investor and advisor based in San Francisco, California. He previously served as a Design Partner at Google Ventures from 2010 to 2017, where he founded the GV Design Studio, advised over 200 startups, and co-authored the bestselling book Sprint. In 2017, Kowitz co-founded the collaboration software startup Range, serving as Chief Design Officer until 2021 and scaling the platform for clients including Twitter and Coursera. He subsequently led consumer design at Stripe, managing a 17-person team responsible for launching financial products like Link and a cryptocurrency onramp. Earlier in his career, he designed early iterations of Google Workspace and Gmail after earning a master's degree in human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. His current focus centers on early-stage technology investments and advising founders on product discovery and cross-functional collaboration.
