Nick Budden
Independent Product Leader AI Builder (Career Break Freelance) at Phase
San Francisco, California, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolNick Budden is a seasoned founder and technical product leader with over a decade of experience building design-focused software and products. As CEO and co‑founder of Phase, he leads VC-backed digital design tools that aim to give creators more time to be creative, blending hands-on product design with engineering leadership. Previously, he steered Vectr Labs, a user-friendly vector graphics editor that grew to about 0.5 million users before its acquisition by Inmagine Group, demonstrating a track record of shipping accessible design tools. A Canadian based in Taiwan, he brings a global, cross-cultural perspective shaped by travel, freelancing, and entrepreneurship across education, media, and technology. His early ventures include founding Rove Magazine and joining Compilr as a first hire, illustrating a pattern of turning ambitious ideas into shipped products. With a multidisciplinary academic background spanning economics, languages, and classics, he approaches product strategy with curiosity and pragmatism.
12 years of coding experience
12 years of employment as a software developer
Korean Language, Korean Language at Sungkyunkwan UniversityCommerce, Commerce at Universidad VeracruzanaFoundation Year Programme, Classics, Philosophy, Foundation Year Programme, Classics, Philosophy at University of King's CollegeFrench, French at Université de MontréalFrench, French at Dalhousie UniversityBA, International Relations/Commerce, BA, International Relations/Commerce at Mount Allison UniversityEconomics, Economics at Athabasca UniversityMaestría en Administración de Negocios, Commerce, Finance, Maestría en Administración de Negocios, Commerce, Finance at Universidad de las Americas, Puebla
Stackoverflow
621reputation
76kreached
10answers
10questions
Github Skills (72)
hexo10
javascript9
node-js9
zenhub9
typescript9
nodejs9
tencent8
static-site-generator8
customers7
timezone7
saas7
javascipt7
text-align6
localization6
wordpress6
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
nickbuddendotcom/nickbudden.com
Aug 2015 - Jan 2022
My Hexo Website
Contributions:9 pushes, 1 branch, 3 issues in 6 years 6 months
hexo
vectrlabs/GitHub-Kanban
Jul 2015 - Mar 2016
Automated Kanban Board for GitHub
Contributions:25 commits, 6 PRs, 20 pushes in 7 months
kanbanautomationboardkanban-board
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