Author Archives → David Hoang

By Design Podcast brought to you by Abstract

I had the pleasure of being on an episode of the By Design podcast, hosted by Abstract’s co-founder Josh Brewer. Check out the amazing list of guests who appears—have been learning so much from the others.

Thank you, Brooklyn Roasting Company

On October 21, Brooklyn Roasting Company announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closing all if its brick-and-mortar locations in New York City. During the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is too common as business are struggling to stay open.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest but Brooklyn was the place I found a sense of home. Brooklyn Roasting Company (BRC) was my third place that I would stop in before starting the work day. At the time I was running my own company and it often was the workplace for me. I’d spend hours there filling up on the Maple Shay Almond Latte or Cortados as I worked on client projects.

It’s impossible to get someone from Manhattan to come over to Brooklyn. Since the coffee shop I went to in DUMBO was right along the F stop, the occasional miracle would happen where someone from Manhattan would come over to meet me since it was the first stop into Brooklyn. Anyone who lives in Oakland can understand how this feels with their friends in San Francisco.

BRC was the gathering place for old and new friends. Many people I’d sit next to were freelancers and I have made life-long relationships from being present there.

BRC was a metaphorical Brooklyn Bridge. I hope we can pull off one more miracle and that BRC opens up for business again. Regardless of the outcome, thank you so much for the memories, forged friendships, and a third place to call home.

One year at Webflow

A year ago today I started my journey as a team member at Webflow. Before I joined, I took a small sabbatical to really spend time finding something I wanted to do meaningful for a very long time. I recently left One Medical, a place where I stayed for four years—the longest place I’ve worked aside from my own company. One Medical taught me that as a leader it takes long-term commitment to build something great, and I was looking for something that would be that. My gut was telling me to start a company again. I have many interest in industries (health tech, fashion tech, consumer apps, travel, SaaS, etc.) but the one that is unrivaled is design and developer tools. Many years ago I interviewed with the Xcode team at Apple and always felt I missed my opportunity on tools that enable people to create and build. My noodling and doodling led me to think about taking a crack at a startup to enable people to build apps without code. During my break, I met with my good friend Alissa who mentioned Webflow to me, and the rest was history.

Domm Holland, CEO at Fast tweeted about what you can learn from scaling a startup. After experiencing that at One Medical and having so many fond memories, I simply couldn’t resist doing it again. I’m so grateful to join Bryant, Sergie, and Vlad to work with them in the journey they took several years before as co-founders to make Webflow become real.

In many ways, it’s the perfect product and space. For years I’ve obsessed over the infusion of design and engineering. I also love building tools for people to create, build, and dream big.

Most importantly, the people. From the first hour I started I felt so welcome by this remote team and it’s a pleasure to serve them on a daily basis.

2020 has not been the year anyone expected. Despite all the challenges we are facing in the world, my purpose at work is something that remained constantly optimistic. There is so much more we need to do, and I feel like my journey is only beginning—feel grateful to simply be a part of it.

‍