Justin Billmeier

About

With a robust background in political science and design communication arts from UCLA, I have carved a niche in the tech and media industries. I am the founder of a stealth B2B SaaS company focused on audiobook production workflows, where I serve as the sole designer and front-end developer. My experience spans from leading design initiatives at Coursera and Lending Club to founding Starsurfer Media, a production-services business for authors and publishers. My work has been recognized with awards such as the 2015 Best Website Winner at the Excellence in Home Building Awards. I have also contributed to the audiobook industry as an audio engineer and editor at Penguin Random House. My expertise includes UX design, product strategy, and front-end development, with a strong emphasis on creating seamless user experiences across various platforms.

Experience

• Founder · Stealth (B2B SaaS)11-01-2025

  Building a B2B SaaS for audiobook production workflows. Sole designer and front-end developer; stack is Next.js, shadcn, TypeScript, with Claude Code and Cursor in the daily loop. Owning the full product surface end-to-end: research and customer interviews, information architecture, flows, component system, interaction design, and production implementation. Approximately 37,000 lines of production TypeScript shipped to date.

• Production Lead · Starsurfer Media01-01-2023

  Founded and operate a production-services business serving authors, publishers, and creators. Clients include Hachette Audio and Penguin Random House. Designed and built the entire customer-acquisition surface: positioning, marketing site at starsurfer.com, lead magnet (the ACX Toolkit), funnel automation, and a free public tool at acx-checker.starsurfer.com that validates audiobook files against ACX requirements before submission. The work spans product strategy, UX, visual design, and front-end implementation.

• Senior Product Designer · Coursera06-01-2017 – 05-01-2022

  Senior Product Designer on the Educator and Growth teams, leading design for B2B SaaS surfaces serving Coursera's institutional and enterprise customers. Worked across research, IA, interaction design, component systems, and engineering partnership in a mature product organization. Projects included Payments and Enrollments, Staff Management, and Course Authoring.

• Product Designer · Lending Club08-01-2014 – 06-01-2017

  Lead UX for Investor product - the institutional and accredited-investor side of LendingClub, serving the funding supply for loans on the platform. Designed and implemented solutions across mobile, web dashboard, and marketing surfaces under real business and technical constraints at a public company. Projects included Mobile App, Investor Account Dashboard, Investor Onboarding Flow, Product Home Pages, and Marketing Landing Pages.

• UX / Product Designer · Freelance05-01-2013 – 12-01-2014

  Consulting and Designing services for emerging brands. Responsive Websites, Mobile Applications and Kiosks. Strategy and Concepting, Information Architecture, UI Design, Full Visual Designs, and Front End Development. Notable project: EastGarrison.com — A website designed to get prospective home buyers interested in communities being developed on what was part of the Fort Ord military base near Monterey, CA. 2015 Best Website Winner, Excellence in Home Building Awards, BIA Bay Area.

• UI / Interactive Designer · Gauger + Associates01-01-2013 – 05-01-2013

  Leading Design of new online Experiences for rebranding and growing clients. Strategy and Concepting, UI Design, Sitemaps and Wireframes, Visual Designs, Front End Development, and CMS maintenance.

• Audio Engineer and Editor · Penguin Random House01-01-1998 – 01-01-2013

  Engineering and editing audiobooks for one of the largest publishers in the world, working across hundreds of titles. The deep production knowledge from this period is the foundation for both Starsurfer Media's services business and the stealth B2B SaaS for audiobook production workflows.

• Interactive Designer · Lunchbox09-01-2012 – 11-01-2012

  Providing Strategy, Wireframing, Design & Delivery of Online Brand Engagement Experiences. Notable Brands include Walmart, T-Mobile, Axe, Nestlé, Jimmy Dean, and Huggies.

• Assistant Instructor · UCLA01-01-2010 – 01-01-2012

  Giving instruction and demonstration for students learning Adobe CS software, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, InDesign, and Flash.

Education

• UCLABachelor of Arts (B.A.), Political Science
• UCLA ExtensionAdvanced Web & Interaction, Design Communication Arts, Web and UX Design
• Cooper Professional EducationInteraction Design
• Cooper Professional EducationLeading Creative Ideation

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