I'm Brent LaRue, a product designer who co-founded Circle Medical and helped build it to $114M on $12M raised.
Product Designer, 2x YC Founder, Olympian. Based in Zürich 🇨🇭
Practice automation for private practices
Swiss practice assistants spend most of their day on the phone. I designed an AI agent to handle patient communication end to end, and the brand and landing page that carried it.
See the work →A design system for the field
I built Fieldwire's mobile design system backwards from production. Every inconsistency in the shipped apps became one token, style or component, and light, dark and three typefaces became modes of the same variables.
Explore the system →
Finding the real problem with ON!Track's storage assets
Storage assets had a reputation for bad UX and churn, and nobody knew how bad. My research found 25+ issues, sorted them by severity and effort, and traced the worst to one root cause no one had named.
See the research →Software Design System
Hilti had no shared design language across mobile and web. I built their first design system: components and documentation, all within strict brand guidelines.
Explore the system →
Real-time insurance verification
Not understanding insurance is one of the two biggest reasons people delay going to the doctor. I designed a real-time verification system that removed that friction at the moment of booking, laying the foundation to reach 400,000 patients and over 2 million appointments.
See how it worked →Icons, swag, illustrations and more
An assortment of hobby projects from icons, swag and illustrations to a Swiss vintage steel bike restoration.
Browse the projects →
People I’ve built with
- Circle Medical
“Brent owned product and design, and the patient experience that got us there is his.
He’s the rare founder who’s equally comfortable setting direction and grinding through the details himself, and I’d build with him again without hesitation.”
JS Boulanger Co-founder & CTO
Read JS Boulanger’s full recommendation on LinkedIn - Hilti
“Brent is a highly skilled design professional and an impactful mentor I’ve had the privilege of working with!
We worked closely on several projects including design system, engineering software, icon library… and every collaboration was a valuable experience.”
Johny Chan UX Designer
Read Johny Chan’s full recommendation on LinkedIn - Circle Medical
“You want Brent on your team.
He sets a direction, gets the right people behind it, and gets into the weeds himself. Few do all three.”
Phil Huot Senior Product Manager
Read Phil Huot’s full recommendation on LinkedIn - Circle Medical
“Brent is especially well suited to senior roles that call for both strategic leadership and hands-on contribution.
He can set direction, work through complex product challenges, and help a team do its best work.”
Adam Rattner Deputy General Counsel
Read Adam Rattner’s full recommendation on LinkedIn
Latest writing
View all →Nov 2, 2026
Designing When Everything Is Easy
AI made building cheap, and the cost of building was quietly doing two jobs: filtering bad ideas and signaling care. What five YC Design Review episodes say about designing with AI now.
Oct 21, 2026
I Took Garry Tan's Advice and Built My Own AI Brain
Ten weeks ago I made the first commit on my own AI brain: a folder of markdown pages, skills and scripts, run by Claude Code on an old MacBook at home. What it is, what I learned building it, and what it changed.
Aug 20, 2026
Metric Theater
The wellness industry sells the tip of the performance pyramid, and four incentives make that the rational thing to do. Why health products detect and treat, wellness products measure, and almost everyone is still at the base.
Aug 18, 2026
I Gave Myself an Hour
One hour to find out how far an AI agent could get building a real app. Eight months later I still open the result a couple of times a week. What The Signal is, and what building it taught me about product work.
Mar 3, 2026
Healthcare Waste Is Organ Fat, Not Belly Fat
The most common thesis in healthcare investing is that the system is bloated. That's right, but the waste isn't sitting in a pocket waiting to be removed. It's wrapped around every critical function.
Nov 29, 2024
From Track to Tech: A Sprinting Mindset for Building Resilient Startups
An interview with Pioneer Fund on how elite athletics training shaped my approach to building Circle Medical, from managing intensity to embracing uncertainty.
400m hurdles at the 2012 London Olympic Games
Athletics was my first love, and competing at that level taught me things about discipline and pressure that still shape how I build.
Read the story →