
Designer, creating and coding with AI.
Hello, I'm Charlie Ellington.
I call myself a founder. But I love being hands-on. I design and code with AI. I prefer creating to admin. Building products over running companies. It took me a while to learn that through a lot of mistakes...
Figma handoffs don't help developers ship fast. They slow you down. I built my own products and learnt designing in code is faster and better at an early stage.
Surfing isn't the answer! I took a sabbatical to surf. Learned life needed more meaning.
You need the right foundations and it's hard to fix later. I ran yoga retreats in Ibiza and the Alps. Grew to €1M revenue. Then learned you need better foundations and skills to avoid burnout. Rather than trying to do it all yourself. Hint, don't try to get perfect UX yourself, get some help.
Design isn't the biggest value to startup success. I built a leading web3 design studio. If users find utility, they'll use it. Even with bad UX. Although we created great UX for many leading web3 teams.*
There's a whole lot more I've learned...
... these lessons have made me laser focused to help startups and founders with their UX design.
I don't slow you down with a Figma handover, I work direct in code, prioritise for what startups actually need. Not days every screen pixel perfect, but ux that will convert and product optimised for the market. Delivering in code and a combination of my workshop skills, product design and user research means I help you create optimised user experience design in days and weeks, not months.
* Deep Work (founder & creative director), Ramp ($120M raised), Ethereum Foundation (Eth 2.0 staking design), Nexus Mutual ($200M+ coverage), MakerDAO (DeFi pioneer), ConsenSys (Web3 leader), Arbitrum (early communications design), Spark (product design and launch)
Weekly insights on UX + Code
For technical founders who ship fast but know their UX needs work. Weekly experiments in bridging the gap between speed and human-centered design.
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2025
Growing family (first daughter arriving December!)

2025
Upskilled: Design engineer with AI tools (through iterative learning and my own products)

2024
Returned to work with clarity and flow

2023
Found a balance of creating and ocean time

2023
Sabbatical: sunrise surfs and values reset

2023
Built campervan, lived off-grid for months

2019-23
Scaled Deep Work to 30+ designers

2018
DIY electric yacht conversion

2017
Pivot to product design in web3

2013-17
Yoga retreats: bootstrapped to €1M revenue

2008-12
Teaching sailing, learning leadership

1989
Ocean kid: sailing and kitesurfing since 11