CV, Projects, Press, Talks & Essays
I’ve designed all sorts of things from skyscrapers to software applications, but I specialize in designing the obvious - trivially simple, but the right trivially simple. I created the visual bookmark concept behind Pinterest, the one line bios used by Twitter and Facebook and co-created RSS. These simple concepts are used by several hundred million people.
My day-to-day role is product management and design/UX, but I have strong business experience and technical knowledge. I identify investment trends, ideas for businesses & products and help design them.
Om Malik: “David has a nasty habit of predicting the future before everyone else.”
Tom Foremski“ It’s always worth paying attention to my good friend David Galbraith even to things he says that are a year or two old.”
Anil Dash“ Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or almost anywhere else, there’s probably a brief description of yourself…so obvious in retrospect that it’s hard to believe it was created. Except that these short biographies, originally named “One-Line Bio”, were created, and even more, they were created by a single guy: David Galbraith.”
To get a feel for what I think current Internet product trends are, here’s a recent conference talk on digital trends.
Work
2011-present
Swiss Designed (advises startups: KKLD, NexThink, PeerIndexSamba, H-Box). Geneva and London.
2009-present
Venture Partner, Siderian Ventures (Clean Tech Investments)
2006-2011
Founder Curations, New York. Social Shopping, a collection of sites for design items and smaller retailer shopping . Creation of the visual bookmarking concept: Wists that became the basis for Pinterest.
2004-2005
Co-founder (With Max Levchin, founder Paypal), Entrepreneur in residence, MRL Ventures, San Francisco (Companies spun out include Yelp.com (NYSE:YELP) and Slide.com (acquired by Google))
1999-2003
Co-founder (With Nick Denton, founder Gawker Media), VP Product: Moreover.com, San Francisco. The first news search engine, provider for Yahoo, MSN and corporations. Sold to Verisign.
1997-1998
Co-founder: Origins Network. London. Subscription based Genealogy service. Profitable since 2001.
1996-1997
Co-founder: Realtime Anywhere, London. Agency based (spin off from RTA Design). Developed first large scale Intranet in UK, managing staffing for 60 hospitals.
1994-1995
Co-founder: RTA Design, London. First Internet company in London’s tech hub, Shoreditch. Clients Caterpillar, Wolverine, Levis, Kanbay. Developed Genealogy search engine.
1993-1994
Architect: Fisher Park, London: Stadium concert set design for bands such as the Rolling Stones.
1992
Architect: Valode et Pistre, Paris. Paris Wine Vaults conversion.
1989-90 (1991 part-time)
Architect: Norman Foster and Partners, London: Cranfield Library, Kings Cross Masterplan, Norman Foster Apartment.
Teaching/Presenting:
Visiting Critic: Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University.
Visiting Critic: Columbia University, Undergraduate Architecture Program.
Visiting Critic: University of North London, Undergraduate Architecture Dept.
Visiting Lecturer: University College London, Post Graduate Architecture Dept.
Speaker at various Internet conferences including SXSW and O’Reilly Media.
Education:
1993
RIBA Chartered Architect.
1990-1992
University College London/Turin Polytechnic, Italy: Architecture Post Graduate Dip Arch.
1986-1989
University College London: BSc. Architecture.
Publications/standards:
Co-author RSS 1.0 (widely used internet standard) Link
Co-author RSS Ping (a method for enabling real-time search across the web) Link
Co-author Bio, ‘One Line Bio’ (standard for simple biographical information, used by Facebook, Twitter, SixApart). Link About
A more descriptive ‘about me’ is here.