Ellen Li
Designer & Developer at 770 Don Mills
Old Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolEllen Li is a designer-developer and founder with a decade of experience turning research-driven insight into product-led growth for startups and scaleups. She moved from computational cystic fibrosis research—work that contributed to early drug discovery—to leading product design and operations at Shopify during its explosive international expansion. Ellen builds cross-functional teams and self-serve growth flywheels, combining hands-on UI/frontend engineering with product strategy, experimentation, and go-to-market execution. As an indie founder she shipped Up Next, a self-sustaining macOS SaaS used by customers at Shopify, GitHub, Slack and more, and she continues to launch mission-driven ventures like 770 Don Mills. She’s particularly focused on redistributing economic opportunity, supporting independent creators, and applying first-principles thinking to new technology. Adaptable and tenacious, Ellen excels at translating complex systems into measurable activation, retention, and revenue outcomes.
11 years of coding experience
18 years of employment as a software developer
Intermediate Web Development, Intermediate Web Development at BrainStationImprovisation (Levels A-E), Improvisation (Levels A-E) at The Second CityBachelor of Arts and Science (B. Arts Sc.) Biochemistry and Philosophy, Bachelor of Arts and Science (B. Arts Sc.) Biochemistry and Philosophy at McMaster UniversityUser Research User Experience, User Research User Experience at AkendiTOPS Program Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD), TOPS Program Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) at Marc Garneau Collegiate InstituteToronto's 12000-Year History, Toronto's 12000-Year History at Hidden RiversMuay Thai, Muay Thai at Keatkhamtorn Bangkok
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
0answers
0questions
Github Skills (21)
glance10
keyboard-shortcuts10
shortcuts10
google-meet10
keyboard10
menu10
duplicate-detection9
macos9
agenda8
internet7
pinterest6
page-title4
python4
context-menu3
react3
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
upnextinc/upnext
Mar 2018 - Mar 2022
📆 See/join meetings from the menu bar
Contributions:38 commits, 1 PR, 33 pushes in 4 years
integratedgoogle-meetmenumenu-barkeyboard-shortcuts
ellenli/ellen.li
Nov 2016 - Jan 2022
🏠My homebase on the internet!
Contributions:8 PRs, 166 pushes, 14 branches in 5 years 2 months
homebaseinternet
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.