Oh! You again. Hi! 👋
Let me tell you a little more about myself…
I’m a co-founder of Caveday, a company building community around productivity, training individuals and corporate teams work skills like focus and time management. As the Head of Brand and Content, I’ve pioneered our method of working and designed the website, branding, and over 30 workshops. I also developed Caveday for Teams, our corporate training program sold to nearly 100 companies including Target, Spotify, the NYTimes, VaynerMedia, and Lyft. I led Caveday’s growth to over 10k customers with an ARR of ~$1M.
I’ve spent nearly a decade building products and leading design teams for companies like Johnson&Johnson, Metlife and agencies in NYC, SF, and LA. I’ve had the privilege of creating social impact storytelling for Selma Online, The White House, and Facebook. And I’ve launched the brands and products of early-stage startups like Simply Home, Goodie, and Palabra.
Before that, I spent 8 years in advertising as a creative director and art director at 72andSunny and DeutschLA spearheading campaigns like Samsung Mobile and Google and launching brands like HTC and Skylanders.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and studied fine arts and animation at USC.
Fight on.
Teaching 👨🏫
As a founding US faculty member at The School of Life, I regularly facilitate workshops for corporate teams on topics of emotional intelligence. I’ve led offsite and workshops for teams at The LA Phil, URBY, Target, Day 1 Agency, NYTimes, Spotify and dozens more.
Previously, I’ve been an adjunct professor teaching design, writing, and creative process courses at City College of NY in their graduate branding program, Parsons School of Design, Miami Ad School, OTIS College of Art and Design and 72U.
Speaking 🎙️
I’ve also had the fortune of giving talks all over the world. Talks about creative process, personal projects, productivity, career planning, and more. Most recently, I was invited to give a talk on Anti-Procrastination at ETC Conference in Minneapolis in August 2024.
Now ⛲️
Currently I live in South Orange, NJ with my wife and two kids. You can read a more updated and complete status of what I’m up to now.
Writing ✍🏻
Since December 2018, I have written monthly editions of The Email Refrigerator. Each month, I choos a theme and write short essays, poems, and insights and curate art related to the topic. Sort of like a podcast in your inbox.
I also write about improving our work, energy, and attention for Caveday’s blog and newsletter. For people like you, I write articles about community, purpose, and creative process. I’m not on Substack…for now.
Fine Art 🎨
Speaking of art, I’m is a classically trained painter and illustrator. I’ve had an artist residency in Greece, and won grants here in the States including one to create VR films for senior citizens.
A series of political portraits I painted made the news. And one of my personal favorite projects is my 100 albums painted in 100 days. The first project I ever coded won an Webby Honoree.
I spend a lot of time documenting my life through projects like The List Maps, People In My Life, and The Life Reader.
If you want to work together
or make a new friend,
what are you waiting for?
You can, of course, also ask about the best hummus in Tel Aviv, parenting advice, or my favorite dad joke. Just email me at jakekahana [at] gmail [dot] com
The least creepy ways to follow me
Press Featuring My Work
ABC News, AdAge, AdWeek, Animation, AP, Billboard, Business Insider, CBS News, CNBC, CNet, CNN, Creativity Pick of the Day, Creativity-Online, Detroit Metro Times, Detroit Free Press, FastCo, Forbes, Fox News, TheFWA, Global Citizen, Gizmodo, Huffington Post, HuffPo: Impact, Mashable, Mashable, MacRumors, MacWorld, NY Times, LA Times, NBC News, NPR, PC Mag, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pitchfork, Politico, Radio.com, Reddit Top 10, Road To VR, Rolling Stone, RYOT, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Shoot, Slate, TechCrunch, Time, Thrive Global, The Today Show, The Tonight Show, Twitter, UpRoxx, USA Today, The Verge, Vibe, VR Grid, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, Washington Post, Wired, WNYC