FounderBRANDPRODUCTLAUNCH· 2023

Kivo

Design co-founder: social payments, account UX, and a ~5,000-signup launch

Timeline: 2023
Role: Design Co-founder - Product, Brand + Launch
prelaunch signups: ~5,000
design ownership: Founder

Process & contextStrategy, decisions, outcomes, chronology, and sources

Context

Kivo began as a simple payment product in a market full of interchangeable wallet utilities. The shipped product had to make the full account lifecycle legible: connect a wallet, set up an identity, understand balances, find another person, move funds, and keep track of what happened next.

Product decision

Reframe payments around friend groups and social coordination. I designed the wallet, account, pay/request, friend search, payment-history, and scheduled-contract flows as one system, then made the waitlist behave like the product: people formed groups, invited friends, and unlocked access together through KYN.

Outcome

The shipped app connected wallet setup, token balances, peer payments, payment requests, scheduled contracts, profiles, and transaction history into one usable product. The KYN campaign then brought in roughly 5,000 prelaunch signups, establishing Kivo as something people entered with friends rather than another solitary wallet utility.

~5,000
prelaunch signups: Founder
design ownership: 5
token types

ScopeProduct Strategy, Brand Identity, Product UI/UX, Launch Campaign

Product

Kivo shipped as a Solana-based peer-to-peer finance app with wallet onboarding, username identity, token balances, friend and wallet search, pay/request flows, scheduled payment contracts, profile preferences, and transaction history. I reframed those primitives around friend groups so onchain money movement felt coordinated rather than solitary, then led the product direction, identity, UX/UI, and interaction system as design co-founder.

Starting with Friend Groups

The idea behind Kivo was to experiment with onchain buying and coordinating payments with friends. Before coming onboard as design cofounder, Kivo was a simple way to send payments. I decided to take a social twist on the platform and design the experience around friend groups.

Kivo desktop - Groups and Payments — Desktop product - Groups and Payments views

Kivo dark mode - full product — Dark mode - full interface

Kivo dark mode - sidebar detail — Dark mode - detailed panel

Kivo mobile app screens — Mobile app screens

Kivo group modes — Group modes - Ape, Lock, Split

Kivo product flow — Onboarding, deposits, color selection, and group creation

Kivo feature screens — Feature overview - Ape, Freeze, and Split

Make the group the product

The working flow moved from a blank reservation into a named group with visible capacity, invitations, and modes. These states made the social premise concrete before a payment was sent.

Kivo group creation and joining flow — Creating, naming, and joining a Kivo group.

Kivo group modes and payment coordination — Ape, Lock, and Split modes mapped onto the group surface.

UX walkthrough

Product motion

Motion reel

KYN Campaign

Rather than collect disconnected waitlist emails, I turned prelaunch acquisition into Kivo's first coordinated group action. People formed a group, invited ten friends through the product's existing social graph, and qualified for weekly access and a KYN collectible. The campaign generated roughly 5,000 signups while teaching the core behavior before launch.

The prelaunch became a group challenge

Kivo's core belief was that onchain activity should happen with friends. The referral loop made that positioning operational: build a complete group of ten, then qualify together for the weekly access drop and collectible mint.

Kivo referral campaign explaining that complete groups of ten receive access — The launch mechanic in one frame: keep your group, fill ten seats, unlock access together.

The referral loop lived inside the product

People could reserve a group, name it, share a link, join a friend's group, and watch the circle fill as members arrived. The interface made group progress visible and kept the invitation tied to a specific social unit.

Kivo group referral flow for creating and joining a group — Creating and joining paths for the ten-person group mechanic.

Completed Kivo group ready to mint a KYN collectible — Once the group was complete, the interface resolved into a clear mint state.

Kivo campaign poster inviting friends to mint a KYN collectible — Campaign language framed referral as teamwork.

A collectible system with range

I designed six KYN objects with distinct flavors, rarity levels, receipts, and visual treatments. The system felt expressive enough to collect while remaining recognizably Kivo.

KYN collectible world featuring six circular objects — Six identities spanning common, rare, and campaign-specific expressions.

One object model, six identities

The same product-card architecture held six distinct flavors, palettes, rarity receipts, and material treatments. The variation made the collection desirable; the repeated structure made it feel like a system rather than six unrelated campaign renders.

Complete KYN six-object collectible lineup — Kivo Cool, Kivo Kiwi, Kivo Berry, Cherry Chat, Banana Split, and the limited dark edition.

KYN Kivo Cool collectible product card — Kivo Cool

KYN Kivo Kiwi collectible product card — Kivo Kiwi

KYN Kivo Berry collectible product card — Kivo Berry

KYN Cherry Chat collectible product card — Cherry Chat

KYN Banana Split collectible product card — Banana Split

KYN limited dark-edition collectible product card — Limited dark edition

Designed to feel ownable

The same object language carried from launch communications into rarity metadata, marketplace presentation, and motion.

Collectible, package, rarity, and edition as one identity object.

KYN Banana Split collectible marketplace presentation — Banana Split with rarity receipt and edition metadata.

KYN campaign motion.

The collection in the working file

The KYN system extended beyond the hero renders into object studies and packaging explorations. These boards show the range that informed the final collectible language.

KYN collectible object studies — Collectible object studies and material direction.

KYN packaging and collectible presentation studies — Packaging and collectible presentation studies.

A social product with a public voice

I carried Kivo's central idea - stop doing crypto alone - into a tactile marketing system built from the kiwi mark, product photography, and street-level placements.

Kivo kiwi campaign poster - stop doing crypto alone — Campaign poster

Kivo outdoor campaign wall - stop doing crypto alone — Outdoor placement

Kivo kiwi mark campaign placement — Brand placement

The launch in motion

The same visual language moved into campaign films and sequences, giving the product a recognizable presence beyond the interface.

Campaign film

Launch sequence

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