First of Kind – Details, episodes & analysis

Why did Joe Gebbia go to Washington? I spoke with America’s first-ever Chief Design Officer last fall to find out. We met on the White House grounds to discuss his newly created role, the formation of @ndstudio, and how Joe plans to weave design into the frabic of U.S. federal government.

00:00 - Intro / Eisenhower Exec Office Bldg
01:34 - From Airbnb to Washington
04:39 - The Federal Retirement Problem
06:31 - The Mine in the Mountain
08:29 - Do Things That Don’t Scale
11:35 - The Julie Prototype
14:20 - Down to 60 Seconds
16:33 - Consumer-Grade Government
18:31 - Nixon’s Federal Beautification
20:22 - The National Design Studio
24:24 - Trust Through Design
27:43 - Building the Dream Team
31:22 - The Silicon Valley Coalition
35:33 - A Golden Age of Design

Special thanks to Joe Gebbia and his team for making this conversation possible.

S2:E1 Joe Gebbia, Designer-in-Chief
Hosted by Soleio: x.com/soleio
Produced by Room 3: room3nyc.com

First of Kind is powered by our sponsors:
Framer: framer.com
Cursor: cursor.com
Vercel: vercel.com
Profound: tryprofound.com

Website: www.firstofkind.com
Threads: threads.com/firstofkind_
Instagram: instagram.com/firstofkind_
X: x.com/firstofkind_
Hashtag: #FirstofKind

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

Explore our Conversational Show Notes, brought to you by Granola.ai — https://notes.granola.ai/f/ee3b12a6-82bb-4662-940a-d4270871994a 

Thank you to our partners!

Cursor — https://cursor.com
Framer — https://framer.com
Granola — https://granola.ai
Linear — https://linear.app
Perplexity — https://perplexity.com

"Last winter in the dappled light of a redwood grove, I met @bryce for the first time in front of a camera..." reads the tweet from @soleio.

At the conclusion of our conversation last winter in that dappled forest, I was struck by this new profile of founder he was describing. There were new tools opening new avenues for a creative to build and explore opportunities in entirely new ways. As someone who has an insatiable appetite for the new, this felt like a founder profile worth exploring.

So when our three hour chat (edited down to about an hour) in the woods was winding down, we made a proposition — "Do you want to develop a show with us?"

We left the question of format open, but the general idea of exploring the edges of designers as founders and builders was something we all got excited about digging into deeper. As we dug in, the ideas and format became clearer. And if you were to stop Soleio on the street, here’s the pitch for this series —

This project came together around a simple question: Who are the designers in tech that are the first to pioneer a new way of doing things? What does that archetype look like in practice?

In music, we have genre-defining artists. In software, we have first-of-kind designers.

This is a show where we talk to the people pushing the frontiers of design into new directions and capabilities—whether at the helms of new businesses or as practitioners of a new craft.

The series is called First of Kind, capturing the emergent and evolving nature these first of kind founders and creatives across a wide range of mediums. We let Soleio take the lead on guests, and nearly all six were his immediate ideas for dream conversations. We’re releasing them all at once, in their entireties, and plan to share a supercut of themes we saw across them once a week for the next month. 

Guests this season include:

— Henry Modisett, Head of Design at Perplexity
— Colin Dunn, Cofounder of Visual Electric
— Jessica Hische, Cofounder of Studioworks
— Julie Zhuo, Cofounder of Sundial
— Nicholas Jitkoff, Cofounder of /dev/agents
— Susan Kare, Design Icon

This is all new for us. We’ve never done a series like this before. We’ve never collaborated with someone creatively like this before. And we’ve never had support from sponsors before. On all fronts, it's been a home run of an experience.

These focused conversations were incredibly fun to facilitate. The guests were gracious, insightful, and have entered seamlessly into the world of indie. 

As for collaboration, we could not have hoped for a better partner in crime than Soleio. Given that our first meeting was recorded, it felt natural to continue building that friendship in front of, and behind, the lens. Seeing his creative process in action was both eye opening and inspiring. His ambition and cadence across all aspects of his life put a battery in all of our backs — a true First of Kind himself in so many ways. Building together over the last few months has been a tremendous privilege and honor.

When we started this, our plan to was simply underwrite it as indie. But as word spread, companies we deeply admire offered their support as well. So, with much gratitude, we welcome Linear, Cursor, and Perplexity to the First of Kind family. Each has deep roots in the worlds we’re exploring here, and we’re incredibly grateful for their support.

So, that’s First of Kind. I hope you enjoy watching and learning from these as much as we enjoyed making them.

What is the future of design in a post-AI world?

Ryo Lu pioneered new patterns for collaboration as founding designer at Notion. He now leads design at Cursor, shaping how software gets built through a fusion of design and engineering. 

In this conversation with Soleio, he explains Cursor's approach to design and how the product will evolve to empower designers who build.

00:00 – Intro: The future of design
01:49 – What is design at Cursor?
02:50 – How the team actually works
04:46 – Generalists, Self-Starters, Ex-Founders
07:34 – Building Cursor inside Cursor
10:45 – The next level: Agents & Abstraction
13:48 – Pattern language
18:24 – A lingua franca for builders
20:34 – Baby Cursor
23:45 – The new shape of designer
26:10 – Does AI distribute or concentrate power?
29:43 – Why Cursor is the tool you should learn
30:54 – A new design philosophy
32:36 – Where the path leads

S2:E2 Ryo Lu: The Way
Hosted by Soleio and produced by Room 3 (www.room3nyc.com)

First of Kind is powered by our sponsors:
Framer: framer.com
Cursor: cursor.com
Vercel: vercel.com
Profound: tryprofound.com

Website: www.firstofkind.com
Threads: threads.com/firstofkind_
Instagram: instagram.com/firstofkind_
X: x.com/firstofkind_
Hashtag: #FirstofKind

What can flying teach us about software design?

Katie Dill has built world-class teams at three iconic companies—Stripe, Lyft and Airbnb—proving that thoughtful design can shape quality at industrial scale.

In this conversation with Soleio, Katie describes her winding path into technology and how fields as disparate as architecture and aviation shape her approach to leading design at Stripe.

00:00 – Intro: It's All About Mileage

02:18 – What Flying Teaches You About Design

07:01 – From History to Design School

10:30 – The IDEO Moment

18:01 – Saying Yes to the Scary Thing

19:46 – The Chair Pullback

21:16 – The Gray Room at Airbnb

25:47 – Breaking Down the Ivory Tower

30:05 – Put In the Mileage

33:35 – Beauty Builds Trust

36:53 – Steam Gauges and Simple Systems

38:53 – The Best Checkout in the World

Katie Dill: Quality Control

First of Kind, S2:E3

Hosted by Soleio and produced by Room 3: room3nyc.com

First of Kind is powered by our sponsors:

Framer — framer.com

Cursor — cursor.com

Vercel — vercel.com

Profound — tryprofound.com

Website: www.firstofkind.com

𝕏: x.com/firstofkind_

Threads: threads.com/firstofkind_

Instagram: instagram.com/firstofkind_

Hashtag: #FirstofKind