About · Zach Self · Seattle
I’m Zach Self. Twenty years across music, design, engineering and product, from Deloitte Digital to CPO. Now I design, build and ship end to end, with frontier AI doing the work a team used to. Senior work, no handoffs, studio output.
What I do
Trained in graphic design, sharpened at agencies. Interfaces, systems and the details people feel before they notice.
Next.js, React, TypeScript, Supabase. I started as a web engineer at Deloitte Digital and still write the code.
Agentic pipelines, LLM apps and vector search. Vemra, my AI growth platform, has generated 9,000+ websites on its own.
Names, marks, voice and the system that keeps them consistent, for my products and for clients.
Ran product as a CPO with a 12–20 person team. Now I take ideas from zero to one, end to end.
Campaigns for Target, Xbox and ESPN. At Smartsheet, a ~50% lift in lead-gen CTR through design and testing.
Previously
Audio engineer + producer · Studio + label
Ran a recording studio and label: 12+ releases, plus youth outreach programs.
Web engineer + designer · Deloitte Digital
Mobile-first apps and responsive platforms for Target, REI and Alaska Airlines.
Art director · POP Agency
Digital campaigns for Target, Xbox 360 and ESPN.
Creative director · Smartsheet
Performance landing pages and email. Lead-gen CTR up ~50%.
Founder, President & Chief Creative Technologist · ZTUDIO
An AI-native studio: client work for brands like FARIS, plus products and games of its own.
Chief product officer · A fantasy sports platform
Product, UX and a 12–20 person team across web and mobile.
President (fractional) · Black Love
Turning a media brand into a tech-enabled ecosystem: the Black Love AI Advisor and Love Lab games.
The range
Airlines, retail, sports, gaming, health, media and fashion on one side, including an AI commerce overhaul for FARIS that grew key categories 30–50%. Products and games I dream up and ship myself on the other. Each makes me better at the other.
How I work
One person with frontier AI is a different kind of studio: the speed of a startup, the craft of a senior designer, and nobody between you and the work.
Same rule at Built by Self, my Seattle construction company: my name goes on the work, so I do the work.
You work with the person doing the work. No account managers, no telephone game between the idea and the code.
AI handles the volume a team used to, so weeks become days and ideas get tested the same afternoon.
Every decision, pixel and commit is mine. Nothing gets handed down to a junior to finish.
Strategy, brand, design, build, launch. One throughline from the first sketch to the store listing.
