Florida, US/Building since 2010

Jake
Frey

Jake Frey

Product Leader, Designer & Strategist

12+ years helping founders build and scale platform companies - from product vision and strategy through brand, UX, and launch.

His work spans Apple, Shopify, Loom, Twitter, Snap, and others across SaaS, AI, commerce, and consumer. He has founded, funded, and scaled a venture-backed company, and brings the perspective of someone who has owned product, team, positioning, and business strategy end to end.

Beyond named clients, he has advised dozens of early-stage startups, plus pre-seed and seed-stage VCs and their portfolio companies, on product, brand, design, and fundraising. He is also a Techstars Mentor. Through Frey Labs he works as a hands-on partner to founding teams - equally at home in strategy sessions, roadmap debates, design execution, and launch.

Apple✦Shopify✦Loom✦Twitter✦Snap✦Colgate✦Endeavor✦Techstars✦Apple✦Shopify✦Loom✦Twitter✦Snap✦Colgate✦Endeavor✦Techstars✦

What I do

Product leadership

Product strategy & vision

Roadmaps, prioritization, positioning, and go-to-market for platform and consumer products.

Product & brand design

UX, UI, design systems, and visual identity for complex platform products.

End-to-end product leadership

Strategy through brand, experience, and execution - from zero to scale.

Startup & investor advisory

Hands-on work with early-stage founders, pre-seed/seed VCs, and accelerator cohorts.

Product strategyDesignBrandUXCompany buildingPlatform leadershipTeam leadershipFundraising

Experience

The track record

Frey Labs

Founder, Product Leader & Designer

2014 - Present · 12 years

  • Partners with founders from napkin sketch to launch, shaping product strategy, vision, design, and execution at every stage of company growth.
  • Leads end-to-end product work across strategy, branding, UX, UI, design systems, marketing, investor narratives, and AI-powered experiences.
  • Partnered with startups and organizations including Shopify, Colgate, Loom, Endeavor, and Snap to bring new products and brands to market.
  • Designed for the Apple Pay team, supporting product UX and growth for a platform used by 1B+ users.
  • Advised and partnered with dozens of early-stage and growth-stage companies across SaaS, AI, consumer, and Web3.
  • Techstars Mentor, advising multiple cohorts of founders on product, design, and go-to-market.

Recent work, MnStr: Leading product and brand for MnStr, an on-chain gacha platform for professionally graded trading cards built on MegaETH. MnStr was recently named App of the Week on the MegaETH Terminal.

Americana

CEO, Founder

2021 - 2024 · 3 years

  • Founded and led a venture-backed startup that raised $7 million from investors including Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), OpenSea, and Future.
  • Designed the end-to-end product experience, brand, and marketplace for a platform connecting physical assets to blockchain-backed digital ownership.
  • Recruited and led a multidisciplinary team of 20+ across product, design, engineering, marketing, and operations.
  • Led major product launches, industry events, and conference keynotes.
  • Featured in TechCrunch, Fast Company, Decrypt, Blockworks, and Highsnobiety.

Fancy

Creative Director

2010 - 2014 · 4 years

  • Led product design and engineering for one of the world's leading mobile commerce platforms.
  • Directed the design of products across iOS, Android, Web, Apple Watch, and Google Glass.
  • Deemed one of the best apps of the year by the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
  • Collaborated with Apple on Apple Pay and Twitter on Twitter Commerce, helping pioneer new commerce experiences.
  • Scaled the product to 10M+ users; contributed to raising $120M+ in venture funding.

Ingo Maurer · Atelier van Lieshout

Industrial & Junior Designer

2010 - 2011

  • Industrial Designer at Ingo Maurer GmbH - lighting fixtures and installations.
  • Junior Designer at Atelier van Lieshout, Rotterdam - contemporary art installations and products featured in the 2010 World Expo, Shanghai.

Why me, why now

What I'd bring to Ploy

Marketplace

Help design the Ploybook marketplace and creator economy - I've built and scaled marketplaces before.

Community

Grow and lead the dePLOYer community into a real reputation engine around taste and outcomes.

Mobile app

Build Ploy a mobile app - shipping consumer apps across iOS and Android is where I've spent my career.

AI-native experiences

Translate complex AI capability into intuitive flows - my recent work is all AI-powered product.

Narrative

Sharpen the story, GTM, and positioning so the Ploy vision lands with users, creators, and investors.

Onboarding & UX

Turn the path from prompt to published site into something a first-time builder can't put down.

Recognition & credentials

✦

MnStr: App of the Week, MegaETH Terminal (2026)

✦

Toptal Verified Expert in Design - member since March 2016

✦

“Best iOS Apps of the Year,” Apple App Store (The Fancy, 2015)

✦

Techstars Mentor & Advisor, multiple cohorts (2023 to present)

✦

Keynote speaker: Art Basel, NFT NYC, Lw3 Conference

✦

Press: TechCrunch, Fast Company, Decrypt, Blockworks, Highsnobiety

Education

Where it started

B.S. Industrial Design (cum laude)

Philadelphia University, Philadelphia, PA

2012

Certificate, Contemporary / Digital Design

Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan, Italy

2011
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