Buildbetterthings
Simpler tools for
a better world
Software now runs nearly everything, and the tools used to build it have grown harder to use every year. Dashboards sprawl. Settings multiply. The people building the world’s products spend more of their day working around their tools than working with them.
Califa was founded to change that. The company believes that when technical tools become simple, everything downstream improves. Companies ship faster. Teams keep their best people. The software that reaches the public respects the time of the people using it. By simplifying the tools that build the world, Califa makes the world a better place.
Distributed by default.
Supported by friends who work at
“Califa has been steadily improving.”
Dana TimsitJoel’s wife
Our story.
v0.0.1
Seed stage
Born in London. Shipped without documentation.
v0.0.2
Migrated to Tokyo
First international deployment. A sibling company, Jono, shipped from the same region.
v0.0.3
Migrated to Israel
Hebrew reading and writing support added in about six months.
v0.0.4
Series A
First computer acquired. Every release since depends on it.
v0.x
Public beta
Photoshop 5.5, table-based layouts, Internet Explorer 5. The buttons from this era have been responsibly deleted.
v0.9
Deployed to Netcraft
First agency deployment. Telecom and insurance clients, from UX through the back end.
v1.0
Shifted HQ to New York
Certified in Design & Technology by Parsons. Launched Creative Code Club at Parsons and SVA. Delivered the commencement speech.
v2012.0
Deployed to Amicus
First production deployment. Built organizing tools for nonprofits like HRC and Moms Demand Action. The work mattered, which set an inconvenient bar.
v2014.0
Deployed to DigitalOcean
Led Product Design. Built the team, the style guide, and a reputation for candor, warmly delivered.
v2014.1
Design principles a team can actually use. Now part of the platform.
v2014.2
Califa lecture series
Started speaking at conferences.
v2017.0
Deployed to GitHub
Led design on Pull Requests for 65 million developers. The PR favicon tells you when your build fails now.
v2017.1
Design systems, now part of the platform.
v2017.2
Hired Clay’s first designer.
v2018.1
Tiny Wins published
A blog post about small changes with absurd leverage. Became a talk, then a methodology, then a personality trait. Still the most-cited feature.
v2021.2
Deployed to Heap
VP Design. Four years of product analytics. Learned exactly what the numbers say about your redesign, and started saying it out loud.
v2021.3
First release of Quality Boost.
v2025.1
Deployed to Unify
VP Design. Built GTM software where agents do the work. Deployment completed July 2026.
v2025.1.1
Second major release of Quality Boost.
v2025.1.2
Rebrands, now available as a managed service.
v2026.2
Public offeringCurrent
Califa’s full-time capacity is now available.
