Howdy, I’m Trystan! I didn’t intend to become an engineer. A car accident and half a decade of recovery derailed my professional-jazz-guitarist plans, so I followed the scent of 401(k)s and health insurance to software engineering. It turns out I loved it.

Once I arrived, I pushed my career at a pace most people reserve for emergencies, moving from intern to managing multiple teams in a few years, driven by an insatiable desire to eliminate frustration and make every day a little better for the people I worked with and the customers we served.

I believe interpersonal connection and creativity are two of the most valuable things we have as humans, so it confounds me that so much tech dulls those edges instead of sharpening them.

That frustration led to a fateful Monday where I quit my job and entered monetary freefall, dead-set on building technology that brings people together and gives them their voices back. And thus HyperGrounded Inc. was born, to make the future human-shaped, collaborative, and a whole lot more fun.

My entrepreneurial journey began at age 10, hawking Crazy Bones to neighbors for $10 apiece. Until their parents showed up at our door demanding refunds. I consider it my first masterclass in business ethics.

In 2014, I tried again, launching Volv Media with the tagline "if you're not evolving you're dying." I found websites that struggled to leave the 90s and offered digital marketing services. Some clients actually paid me for my mediocre designs (I suspect pity played a role), while others refused payment altogether. . . after services were rendered. Fair enough.

I finally got my career start in marketing at a Harley-Davidson dealership before pivoting into Product Management at 511Capital. They made me the company’s first-ever Product Manager which was a bold move, considering I had no prior experience. But I’ve always preferred jumping first and asking questions mid-air.

In my next Product role, I helped take a product from 0→100, landing two paying customers and validating Product-Market Fit in just six months. It remains one of my proudest achievements.

Now I get to do it all over again at HyperGrounded, the first company I'd happily work weekends for. Don't worry though, we take mental health seriously here, I keep an emotional support animal (a stuffed hedgehog) within arm's reach at all times.

As the Brand and UX/UI designer at HyperGrounded, I am responsible for the visual language that supports our mission to amplify humanity.

I am equal parts designer, marketer, and ankle grabber when the team drifts off into techno-poetry. I believe design should be an act of care, not a spectacle. It is, to me, empathy made visible and how we honor one of our most finite and sought after resources, human attention.

Beyond the screen, I build a small, lively world in Denver, CO with my husband Trystan, our soon-to-arrive son Mikko, our dear family, and our fountain-loving cat, Garlic.