— Alex Cohen, Birch Finance CEO

Born and raised in the sunshine state, I began designing logos and websites as an independent freelancer in 2010. After finishing my BFA in Creative Photography from the University of Florida in 2013, I took on my first role as Creative Director for Sportody—a search and review platform for outdoor activities. As the sole designer for the company, I was able to wear many hats and learn what it takes to survive in the fast-paced tech industry.

In summer of 2016, I took on a new role as Head of Design for Birch finance—a personal finance app for credit card rewards. As yet again the sole designer for a small startup, I was able to gain more experience, this time learning to handle some of the front-end code and finding my passion for UX / UI design.

Birch was acquired by Even Financial in 2018, moving me and the rest of our our 4-person team to NYC. During my time at Even, I’ve been able to lead all Product Design initiatives for both their consumer facing experiences and SaaS platform. Instead of focusing on getting a first-stage product to market, I have been able to take a step back, learn from a substantial existing user base and work on iterating and optimizing their consumer experiences as well as establishing scalable design systems and effective user flows. I’ve also had the opportunity to try my hand at Product Management, driving all consumer-growth product work in that capacity.

My technical design skillset includes design softwares like Sketch and the Adobe Suite, InVision prototyping tools, as well as HTML, CSS and some Javascript.

When I’m not designing, I’m probably traveling with friends, catching up on the latest Netflix binge, or spending quality time with my dog, Charley.