Overlap Co.
2021
Overlap: Building and Exiting a Social Platform for the Global Nomad Community
Co-founded, designed, and led Overlap from zero to acquisition — a mobile platform connecting digital nomads and long-term travellers through schedule-based matching and AI-driven community features.
Business Design and Strategy
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Customer Journey Mapping
The Product
Overlap was a mobile social platform built for digital nomads and long-term travellers — people who move frequently, build transient communities, and struggle to find others in the same city at the same time. The core insight was that the barrier to connection wasn't interest overlap, it was schedule overlap: knowing who would be in Lisbon next month, or Tokyo in two weeks, and being able to make plans before you arrived.
My Role
As co-founder and head of design, I owned the entire product experience from the first sketch through to the acquisition. This included market research, product strategy, UX and UI design across iOS and Android, design system architecture, and ongoing roadmap prioritisation. I worked directly with a small engineering team in a fully remote, async-first environment.
0→1 Mobile Design
Designed the full iOS and Android experience from scratch — from initial information architecture through to high-fidelity screens and component library. The core challenge was balancing depth with approachability: the platform needed to be rich enough for power users building long-term nomad networks, while staying accessible enough for someone opening the app for the first time in a new city.
Onboarding was a particular focus. Nomads have short windows of attention and high expectations for relevance; the product had to surface value within the first session or lose the user entirely. Onboarding was designed as a progressive discovery experience rather than a front-loaded setup flow.
Design System
Built a scalable component library to support rapid iteration with a small engineering team. The system needed to accommodate frequent product changes without requiring full rebuilds — modular components, clear token architecture, and documented usage rules allowed the team to move fast without accumulating design debt.
Acquisition
Overlap was acquired in 2025. The platform and its underlying community infrastructure were absorbed into a larger product ecosystem. The acquisition validated both the product concept and the quality of the underlying design and technical architecture.nce our market presence.
