Edition 01
Design in the AI Age
The Design Firm for the AI Age.
I've always been obsessed with how people connect—how communities form, ideas spread, and brands build real relationships. Over a decade ago, I joined Greg to tackle the “what to watch” problem on mobile. 9 months later the company got acquired, and we landed in the Bay Area where we topped the App Store charts, and saw firsthand how niche communities drive massive engagement.
In 2020 we got the band back together to start Late Checkout; a holding company that grows, builds, and buys what we call community-based products. From there we launched our product design and innovation firm, LCA, with one core belief: Connection drives everything. The best brands don't just sell—they create belonging. And our tool for making that happen? Product design.
From AI interfaces to agents to addictive apps, we design for the future. We don't follow trends; we create them—driving billion-dollar businesses. Leaders at top brands hire us to design and build AI-powered experiences that connect, unlock new revenue streams, and scale seamlessly. We've helped turn a cloud company into an AI powerhouse, evolved e-commerce into social commerce, and designed AI-driven products that define industries.
This magazine gives you an insider's view into how we think and where we believe the world is headed. But more than that, it's a way for us to connect. If you're interested in learning more about how AI and design can transform your business, shoot me a text — I'd love to chat.
— Theo Tabah
Credits — Author: Ed Landon. Creative Direction: Collin Briggs & Gabriel Arnone. Editorial Design: Luthfi Kautsar. Illustration: Solichan. Editor: Theo Tabah.
Read the issue
- Part One — The New Landscape
The technical bar for products is vanishing faster than anyone predicted. As AI democratizes functionality, design — not features — becomes the competitive edge.
- Part Two — The Economics of Excellence
When AI lifts every product to "good," raw capability stops being the differentiator. The margins — execution quality and community understanding — decide who wins.
- Part Three — The Power of Resonance
AI can optimize the rhythm, but humans still write the music. Resonance — cultural fluency and emotional processing — is design’s last pure form of human authorship.
- Part Four — The Niche Advantage
When baseline competence is universal, understanding a niche community becomes a compounding flywheel — cultural lock-in that no generic product can copy.