I'm Julian Palhof — VP of Product Design at MNTN, based in the Bay Area, leading a team reshaping how connected TV advertising gets made.

I've spent the better part of 15 years at the intersection of design, product, and engineering — moving fast inside startups, learning every role I could, and building teams that make things people actually want to use.

My path wasn't a straight line. I started out slinging front-end code and UI before falling deeper in love with the human side of design. That hybrid background — knowing how things get built — has made me a better collaborator and a more grounded leader. I've never been the type to just throw comps over the wall.

At Dapper Labs, I led design across some of the most exciting consumer products in the NFT space — NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, and Disney Pinnacle — and led the effort to ship the first native mobile apps on iOS and Android. It was fast, ambitious, and genuinely fun.

Now at MNTN, I'm leading a team that's reshaping the entire product experience and building an AI-driven ad creator for Connected TV — helping democratize a medium that was once only accessible to big brands. It's the kind of work I find endlessly motivating: complex problems, real stakes, and a team full of people who care.