Julie Topp

Contact

i love crafting the products that shape our lives

I believe that the look and feel of a product is inseparable from what it does. That’s why my background as a founder and investor informs the way I design.

12 years making products used by millions

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Selected clients

Twitch

The world’s largest live-streaming platform for watching and chatting with creators in real time.

Product designConsumer

6 projects

Pay creators faster

01Dashboard

Payout transparency

01Overview

02Breakdown

03Mobile

04Drill-in

Creator profiles

01Profile

02Edit

03Public view

04Analytics

Music schedules

01Calendar

02Mobile

03Weekly

TV guide concept

01Grid

02Detail

03Remote view

Stories visioning

01Story

02Camera

03Editor

04Share

Ohm

An AI platform that runs and learns from hardware testing for battery, EV, and electronics teams.

Product designDesign systemsEnterprise

1 project

Operator dashboard

01Overview

02Charts

03Mobile

04Drill-in

Valence

Nadia is an enterprise AI coach that gives every employee personalized leadership coaching, not just executives.

Product designEnterpriseAIDesign systems

1 project

Valence

01Home

02Coach

03Mobile

Wyndly

Online allergy treatment that cures the root cause with prescription under-the-tongue immunotherapy.

BrandingPackagingProduct designMarketing

1 project

Allergy care, rebranded

01Marketing

02Onboarding

03Plan

04Identity

Lilu

A hands-free pump that automates breast-massage to help produce more milk.

Product designConsumerFemtech

1 project

App refresh

01Sign up

02Record

Troop

Pick the best location for remote teams to have their company offsite, then handle all the logistics.

Product designDesign systems

1 project

Group travel app

01Trip plan

02Itinerary

03Booking

04Chat

Centralize

An AI sales agent that maps everyone inside a deal and the warmest path to closing it.

Product designBrandingDesign systemsEnterpriseAI

1 project

Booking capture

01Capture

02Review

03Mobile

Purple Patch

Endurance coaching from IRONMAN master coach Matt Dixon, built for time-starved athletes and executives.

Editorial

1 project

Editorial print

01Cover

02Spread

03Type study

Stardrift

A personalized AI travel agent that plans your whole trip in a single conversation.

Product designBrandingDesign systems

1 project

Stardrift

01Overview

02Mobile

03Detail

Increase

A single API for technology companies to move and reconcile money across every major bank rail.

Product designConsumer

1 project

Payments platform

01Overview

02Mobile

03Detail

Myria

An invite-only marketplace connecting the ultra-wealthy with the off-market things money can’t easily find.

Product designDesign systemsAIConsumer

1 project

Myria

01Overview

02Mobile

03Detail

NDA

This is the coolest project that I can’t talk about — a consumer marketplace on mobile, name under NDA.

BrandingDesign systemsProduct design

1 project

Marketplace redesign · Under NDA

Confidential

01Under NDA

About

Get in touch

I love learning as I go—ambiguous spaces and ambitious projects are where I thrive. I’m happiest helping small teams build their design vision and launch early-stage products.

Over the past few years, I’ve worked as a freelance designer partnering with companies across product design and branding. I’m also a Senior Venture Partner at Pioneer Fund, where I help invest in top YC companies.

Before that, I was a Design Lead at Twitch, where I led design for global payments and payouts and designed on the viewer experience team during the explosive growth surge of COVID. Twitch acquired Revlo, the YC startup (S16) I founded and scaled, which is how I joined the team. Before that, I studied Industrial Design at OCAD University in Toronto.

— Julie

Work Experience

2024 — current
Independent Designer
1. Design partner for early-stage startups. 2024 — current
Jan 2023 — present
Pioneer Fund
1. Senior Venture Partner Mar 2025 — present
2. Visiting Senior Venture Partner Jan 2024 — Mar 2025
3. Venture Partner Jan 2023 — Jan 2024
Jan 2019 — Jun 2023
Twitch
1. Design Lead, Global Payments and Creator Payouts Oct 2022 — Jun 2023
2. Sr Designer, Viewer Experience Jan 2020 — Nov 2022
3. UX Designer, Viewer Experience Jan 2019 — Jan 2020
2015 — 2019
Revlo (acquired by Twitch)
1. Co-founder & Head of Design 2015 — 2019

Currently

Reading

Department of Speculation

Jenny Offill

now

When Animals Dream

David M. Peña-Guzmán

now

The Spark in the Machine

Daniel Keown

now

Where I’m Calling From

Raymond Carver

now

On Beauty

Elaine Scarry

now

Listening

This American Life

Podcast

on repeat

Boy and Bear

Band

in rotation

Search Engine

Podcast

weekly

Making

Phoebe

in progress · built with Claude Code

50% of the population has a 24h cycle, the other half 28d.

A productivity app that understands you have a cycle.

Card Sender

in progress · built with Claude Code

A reminders app to get that card in the mail on time.

His and Hers versions.

TJ’s Bags as Fashion

in progress

Street photography.

If there’s one thing that unites us all right now, it’s the TJ’s bag.

Kind words from kind folks

She is unafraid to ask difficult questions and is committed to advocating for design. With a critical eye, she can introspect and evaluate work we have produced as a team to dream up novel ways of doing the same things.

KTKalyani Tupkary
I’ve always been impressed by Julie’s ability to think through the user journey and design really wonderful solutions that provide positive experiences for our users. It’s really impressive to see how much thought and detail goes into each choice.

KCKyle Crumrine
I absolutely love working with Julie. Her greatest strength is her understanding of our users, her ability to think through their problems and think about creative and clear ways to solve them. I always learn so much about our users when I collaborate with her.

JEJohn Ellenich
Julie is the only designer we’ve worked with that works like a founder (she is a YC founder). She doesn’t require a vision quest to make good design, she just works fast and gets shit done. She’s been an honor to work with.

MSDr. Manan Shah