A designer who learned the work by doing the work.

I'm Roberto Pocas Leitao, based in San Diego, CA. My path isn't a straight line. It's hospitality, real estate capital markets, and manufacturing operations. That's exactly what makes me useful. In every one of those rooms, my job was the same: take something messy and confusing and make it clear.

Behind a bar I learned to read people and design experiences in real time. In commercial real estate I underwrote ground-up developments and built the models people bet millions on. Running production at a distillery, I rebuilt the workflows and tools the team relies on. Now I bring that same instinct to product design and code. I use Figma, Python, SQL, and AI agents to build things people actually understand.

I'm a relentless learner (also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt, which is mostly a lesson in showing up and improving by inches). I love working with founders and engineers on smart, creative, AI-powered products.