# Danny Saltaren > Public portfolio overview, project profiles and their relationships. Readable without JavaScript or panel navigation. [Website](https://dsaltaren.com/#work) [24th: interfaces that read naturally](https://dsaltaren.com/design-system) ## About I design products and build companies. I’m co-founder and Chief Design Officer at [MITO](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/how-i-work/mito), backed by Lightspeed, and co-founder of [Modulor](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/responsibility/modulor), bootstrapped to 130 people. I live in San Francisco. I’m working on AI, and slowly on hardware. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannysaltaren/) ## Reading this portfolio The human-facing website has three surfaces: introduction, narrative exploration, and project detail. The links below preserve those relationships. Project summaries and the Modulor chapters are generated from the same records used by the website. This document is an overview, not a transcript of every narrative panel or linked external essay. Projects described as in progress or exploratory are unfinished. The Modulor headcount is approximate; intermediate dates and headcounts are not supplied. Personal accounts and claims are the author’s own, not independent verification. ## Narrative journeys ### [How I work](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/how-i-work) I listen, find the pattern and turn it into a direction people can use. I connect business and product strategy with the details of what ships. At MITO, that includes [the first-run experience](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/how-i-work/mito) and [the AI Director](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/how-i-work/ai-director). This site uses [24th](https://dsaltaren.com/design-system), my system for interfaces built around reading. Related work: [MITO](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/how-i-work/mito), [AI Director](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/how-i-work/ai-director). ### [What I’ve helped build](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/responsibility) Building [Modulor](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/responsibility/modulor) taught me that growing a studio means helping its people grow. My role grew from design into hiring, developing the team and shaping how we worked. I started [the Handbook](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/responsibility/handbook) to make that practice shareable. The team and community keep building it. Related work: [Modulor](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/responsibility/modulor), [Product Design Handbook](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/responsibility/handbook). ### [What I’m exploring](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/exploring) Two open threads: agents and hardware. Yelmo explores how to make design taste usable by agents. With hardware, I’m exploring software and physical tools together. I also want to [write more, and share what I learn](https://dsaltaren.com/blog). Related work: [Yelmo](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/exploring/yelmo), [Hardware](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/exploring/hardware). ### [Where it began](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/origins) My father is a robotics professor; my mother is a painter. I grew up around computers, drawing and music. Design began with work for musician friends while I was working in radio. Kendo, my first studio, came in 2014. In 2017, André and I founded mendesaltaren, which became [Modulor](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/origins/modulor). Related work: [Modulor](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/origins/modulor). ### [Who I’d like to work with](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/wishlist) [People and brands I’d like to work with](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/wishlist/wishlist), and what we could explore together. Some connections begin with [what inspires me](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/references/references). Related work: [Who I’d like to work with](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/wishlist/wishlist). ### [References & things I like](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/references) [What I return to and learn from](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/references/references): people, objects and ideas that shape my work. Some may become [future collaborators](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/wishlist/wishlist). Related work: [References & things I like](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/references/references). ## Project profiles ### MITO [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/mito) Designing an AI video platform where filmmakers and AI agents create together. My work includes moving the first run from canvas-first to creation-first, removing the wizard and pricing page from that flow. [Explore MITO](https://mito.ai/) [MITO in Lightspeed’s portfolio](https://lsvp.com/company/mito-ai/) [Image from the MITO filmmaking platform website](https://dsaltaren.com/media/mito.webp) MITO · AI filmmaking platform ### Modulor [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/modulor) From mendesaltaren to a group of specialist digital studios. We’ve spent years working with a forward-deployed engineering model, and it has become a core expertise: working closely with client teams to understand their problems and build the products that solve them. Modulor brings together specialist studios in design, creativity, engineering, AI and e-commerce. Each contributes its own expertise, while the group connects client relationships, projects and operational support. [Read the story of Modulor](https://saltaren.substack.com/p/por-que-invertir-en-modulor) [Partners of the Modulor Ventures group gathered together](https://dsaltaren.com/media/modulor.jpg) Some of the partners of Modulor Ventures · 2024 [Team members gathered at a Modulor summit](https://dsaltaren.com/media/modulor-summit.jpeg) Modulor summit · From “Como agua y aceite”, 2024 #### How we got here ##### Now · Culture and AI Building a group where great people can do their best work. We invest in culture to attract and care for exceptional professionals, giving them room to grow and build together. From Spain, we are working to become a leading European AI-native group, bringing AI into how we work and what we create. ##### 2026 · The next chapter Growing as one connected group. Today, around 130 of us work across the group. mendesaltaren grew into Modulor, a group of specialized studios across design, technology, AI, marketing and e-commerce. We grew organically and by bringing studios into the group, without external capital. For 2026, we are targeting more than €12 million in annual revenue and 30% organic growth. I remain Modulor’s largest shareholder. My focus today is MITO and the US market. At our Spring Summit, we shared our strongest quarter to date, with 25% organic growth. Across the studios, we are building shared tools, knowledge, agents and automations. ##### SSTIL · A new identity From Minimum.run to SSTIL. Minimum.run became SSTIL, with a new identity for a broader creative practice spanning strategy, creative direction, branding and digital experiences. ##### 2025 · €9m in revenue Bootstrapped since 2017. We started mendesaltaren in 2017. By 2025, the group had reached about €9 million in annual revenue, staying profitable and without external capital. ##### Fik acquisition · Year to confirm Fik joins the group. After Nocodehackers and Tailor Hub, we brought Fik into the group, adding expertise in e-commerce. ##### 2024 · Tailor Hub growth Nearly three times the revenue in one year. Tailor Hub grew from €650,000 in 2023 to €1.9 million in 2024, its first year after joining Modulor. The group connected Tailor with new clients and supported strategy, finance, operations and legal work. Tailor expanded its work in AI and software development. The acquisition case study records more than ten projects shared with other studios in the group. That collaboration is part of what we set out to build. ##### 2023 · Tailor Hub acquisition Tailor Hub joins Modulor. Acquiring Tailor Hub brought engineering into the group, connecting product design and technology. ##### 2023 · The team The team in 2023. ##### 2022 · Together online Together online. ##### 2021 · Nocodehackers joins Nocodehackers joins Minimum.run. Bringing Nocodehackers into the group added education in no-code tools, helping more people build digital products. ##### Minimum.run founded · Year to confirm We founded Minimum.run. After mendesaltaren, we founded Minimum.run to build digital products with no-code tools. ##### 2020 · CoronaMadrid Helping Spain respond to COVID-19. We helped design CoronaMadrid with public health authorities to support symptom self-assessment and ease pressure on emergency phone lines. The Ministry of Health later extended the initiative to other regions. ##### 2020 · The team The team in 2020. ##### 2018 · Sharing design systems Taking design systems to the UX community. We began advocating for design systems at UX conferences, sharing what we were learning in practice and helping other teams adopt a more systematic approach to design. ##### 2018 · The team The team in 2018. ##### 2017 · mendesaltaren founded We founded mendesaltaren. In 2017, André and I started mendesaltaren. It was my second studio. ### Robotics [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/robotics) Available through a contextual or legacy route; not featured in the home collection. Prototyping how families hand work off to robots. Status: Exploration in progress. ### Moviola [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/moviola) Available through a contextual or legacy route; not featured in the home collection. Prototyping Moviola, from code to physical parts. Status: In development. ### Polyflow [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/polyflow) Available through a contextual or legacy route; not featured in the home collection. Co-creating, launching and selling Polyflow, bringing design and engineering together. [Read the story behind Polyflow](https://saltaren.substack.com/p/como-agua-y-aceite) ### Product Design Handbook [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/handbook) An open-source guide to running a design studio, built by Modulor and the community. I initiated the idea and led the project, starting with the processes we used to build our studio. Today, the Handbook is a Modulor product shaped by many contributors and the wider community. [Read the handbook](https://designhandbook.com/) [Browsing the Product Design Handbook](https://dsaltaren.com/media/handbook-loop.mp4) Product Design Handbook. ### Arantxa Barcia [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/arantxa) Creative director in fashion and advertising, and co-founder of MITO. Her personal portfolio brings together film and analogue photography. [Arantxa Barcia’s portfolio: introduction and navigation](https://dsaltaren.com/media/arantxa-1.mp4) Introduction and navigation. [Arantxa Barcia’s portfolio: analogue photography](https://dsaltaren.com/media/arantxa-2.mp4) Analogue photography. ### Yelmo [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/yelmo) Available through a contextual or legacy route; not featured in the home collection. An open archive of agentic UX patterns, structured to be read by agents. Taste as data. Status: In progress. ### Hardware [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/hardware) Exploring hardware and software together, consumer first and industrial later. Right now that means a 3D printer, an ESP32 dial called Sobremesa, and a robot that isn’t finished. Status: Exploration in progress. ### AI Director [Portfolio detail](https://dsaltaren.com/#work/ai-director) Available through a contextual or legacy route; not featured in the home collection. Naming the AI Director as part of my design work at MITO. ## Personal collections The wishlist expresses future collaboration interests. References express inspiration. Neither implies a past collaboration, affiliation or endorsement. ### [Who I’d like to work with](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/wishlist/wishlist) An open wishlist of people, companies and brands I’d like to make something with. No entries have been supplied yet. ### [References & things I like](https://dsaltaren.com/#explore/references/references) People who inspire me, and things I keep coming back to. No entries have been supplied yet. ## Writing ### [Fears are distractions](https://dsaltaren.com/blog/fears-are-distractions) Three clips, three experiments for getting unstuck: name the fear, question the label and set a direction. [Read essay](https://dsaltaren.com/blog/fears-are-distractions) The full essay is hosted externally; its text is not reproduced here. ### [From fog to form](https://dsaltaren.com/blog/from-fog-to-form) A method for turning vague worries into something you can name, define and test. [Read essay](https://dsaltaren.com/blog/from-fog-to-form) The complete, practical method. Fifteen minutes of reading. By the end, you should be able to apply it to something of your own, today. There are two kinds of problems in your life. Those with a shape, and those without one. Problems with a shape can be tackled: a bill to pay, a flight to book, a bug to fix. They are annoying, but not frightening. You know where they begin, roughly where they end, and what solving them would look like. Problems without a shape are different. “I don’t know where my career is going.” “Something isn’t working in this relationship.” “I need to grow the business and don’t know how.” “I should take better care of myself.” They are not problems yet. They are fog. They have no edges, so they have no size; and anything without a size tends toward infinity. That is why a small patch of fog can weigh more than ten big problems: you cannot measure it, only feel it. And because you cannot tackle it, you circle around it. For months. Sometimes years. This method does one thing: it turns fog into objects. An object is something with a name and edges, something you can point to, measure, break apart and move. The method does not solve the object. That comes later, and sometimes it does not come at all. What it does is something earlier and rarer: it gives you back the ability to look at it without running away. It also produces a side effect that is the real reason to use it: calm arrives when something has edges, not when it has been resolved. Think about it and you have already experienced this: the relief of specific bad news compared with the anxiety of vague uncertainty. A diagnosis reassures you before treatment begins. A fixed quote reassures you before the work is done. A difficult conversation you have already had, even if it went badly, weighs less than the conversation still waiting to happen. This is not just an impression. Research points in that direction. Studies of affect labeling by Lieberman and colleagues at UCLA show that putting an emotional state into words reduces activity in the amygdala, the part of the brain that sounds the alarm. Naming literally turns down the volume of fear. Take that as support, not dogma, but it matches what you may feel when you carry out step three. Before it has a name, fog does not exist as something you can work with. It exists as a feeling: a weight when you wake up, a particular reluctance, a subject you avoid. You cannot work with a sensation. You can work with an object. The passage from sensation to object moves through four states, always in the same order: fog → name → edges → object Each state has its own emotion: vertigo, relief, calm and action. Notice that calm appears in the third state, before you have done anything. That is the method’s entire thesis. The action that makes this passage possible has four steps and fits into five minutes. What follows explains each step, its rules, common mistakes and examples. Read it all once, then try it with paper in front of you. Do not start with the biggest one. Start with something you have been circling for a while: the thought that appears just before sleep, the subject you change when it comes up, the thing you have spent three Mondays saying you will do this week. Here is a way to choose: if the thought of writing it down makes you disproportionately reluctant, that is the one. The reluctance is the fog defending itself. Just one. This method works on one thing at a time. Write one sentence about what is weighing on you. On paper or anywhere else, but write it down: your mind plays tricks; paper does not. Three rules: ### Be honest, not polished. “I’m worried about money” is enough. Write what you feel, even if it sounds clumsy. ### Name the problem before solving it. “I feel bad about my body and avoid it” names the weight. “I need to exercise” skips straight to a solution. ### Leave out the backstory. No history, explanations or blame. Just one sentence about what weighs on you. How to tell whether you have done it well: reading it gives you a small, clean discomfort, like someone telling you the truth. If you feel nothing, you have written a token sentence. Try again. Give it a name of two or three words. A name, not a description. The difference matters. A description explains; a name points. “The fact that I’ve spent eight months putting off a conversation with my partner about the equity split” is a description: long, vague and impossible to remember. “The pending conversation” is a name: short, solid, something you can point to. From now on, you can say “today is for the pending conversation,” and your mind knows exactly what you mean. What makes a good name: - You can point to it. It fits into a conversation: “This week I want to make progress on ___.” - It is yours. Nobody else needs to understand it. “The empty Sunday” may mean nothing to someone else and everything to you. - It does not contain the solution. “Going to the gym” is not a name for fog. It is a task in disguise. The fog underneath might be called “the neglected body.” - It is not an insult. “I’m a disaster with money” is not a name. It is a judgment, and judgments paralyze. “The unexamined finances” names the same thing without condemning you. Something curious happens when you name it, and it is worth knowing: you start seeing the object everywhere. It is the same effect as buying a car and suddenly noticing that model on every street. They were always there; now your attention has a handle to hold. Fog works the same way: you name “the stalled yes” and discover three examples in your week. This is where fog becomes an object, and where calm arrives. Three questions, in writing: a) What is it? One or two sentences. “The pending conversation is talking to my partner about the equity split before the end of the month.” b) What is it NOT? This matters just as much, or more. The fog grew because it absorbed everything; an edge limits its appetite. “It is NOT renegotiating our entire relationship. It is NOT deciding whether I stay in the company. It is NOT resolving ten years of history.” c) What is outside the scope today? The word “today” is the method’s release valve. You are not giving anything up forever. You are deciding that, for now, it is not your problem. “Outside the scope today: what happens if they say no. That can become another object, if necessary.” When you have answered all three questions, pause and notice what happened. The object is no longer infinite. It has a size, usually much smaller than the shadow it cast. Most of the time, the physical response is a sigh. That is the amygdala quieting down. You have not solved anything yet, and you already feel calmer: you have just tested the thesis in your own body. Two cautions: - These are today’s edges, not permanent ones. If reality contradicts them tomorrow, redraw them. An edge is not a promise. It is a frame for working. - Be careful with the name. The wrong name is worse than none because it creates false clarity: it sends you off to solve the wrong problem. One sign of a wrong name is that you work on the object but the weight does not ease. The answer: return to step one and look again. Renaming is not failure. It is part of the method. Write down the cheapest possible version of a first encounter with the object. Three criteria, all required: - It fits into tomorrow. Not next week: tomorrow. If it does not fit into one day, it is too big. Break it down. - It is reversible. You can undo it or abandon it without serious cost. - It would not hurt to throw it away. If imagining the experiment failing makes you tense up, it is still too expensive. Make it cheaper. The experiment does not exist to solve the object. It exists to answer a question about it. “Is it as serious as it seems?” “Is my partner as closed off as I think?” “Do I really not have an hour a day?” A prototype is a question dressed as an action. Examples of a cheap experiment: not “have the conversation,” but send a message suggesting coffee next week. Not “fix my finances,” but open the account and look at the numbers for fifteen minutes without deciding anything. Not “get back into exercise,” but walk for thirty minutes tomorrow and see how you feel. Ridiculously small on purpose: the first experiment’s job is not to make progress. It is to show you that you can touch the object without getting bitten. The experiment returns information, and information is not a judgment. The world is not expressing an opinion about you. It is responding to what you did. With that response in front of you, choose one of two things: - Refine: the object was named well and the direction is right. Design the next experiment, a little less cheaply. - Rename: the response showed you that the problem was something else. Return to step two without drama. What you invested does not get a vote. Only what you learned does. Then begin again. This is a loop, not a line: see, name, define the edges, test, then look again. To show the whole action in real situations, here are three patches of fog from three different parts of life. A work problem. - See: “I need to grow the business, I don’t know where to start, and I’ve been stuck here for months.” - Name: the growth question. - Edges: It is about understanding the three possible channels for finding customers and choosing one to test this quarter. It is not about becoming a marketing expert, hiring anyone yet or redoing the brand. Outside the scope today: anything that begins with “we should also.” - Test: tomorrow, a twenty-minute call with someone who already sells something similar, with one question: “Where do your customers really come from?” - Read the response: if the call reveals a clear channel, refine by designing an experiment for that channel. If it reveals that the problem is pricing rather than the channel, rename: the fog had a different name. A personal project. - See: “My portfolio has been half-finished for a year, and I feel ashamed every time I think about it.” - Name: the unfinished project. - Edges: It is about deciding what “finished” means and getting there or letting it go. It is not about making the best portfolio of my life. Outside the scope today: redesigning it from scratch or learning a new tool. - Test: tomorrow, fifteen minutes to write a three-line definition of “finished.” For example: five projects, a bio, published, even if imperfect. Nothing else. - Read the response: if the definition fits into two weekends, refine by making a schedule. If writing it reveals that you do not want that portfolio, the fog was something else: perhaps “the outdated showcase.” Rename it. Letting go is also a way to finish. An emotional problem. - See: “Something has felt strange with my sister since the summer, and we keep letting it slide.” - Name: the new distance. - Edges: It is about finding out whether she is hurt by something specific or we are simply both busy. It is not about resolving our entire relationship or deciding who was at fault. Outside the scope today: grievances accumulated over the years. - Test: tomorrow, a two-line message without an agenda: “I miss you. Can I call you on Thursday?” - Read the response: the reply, or its absence, is information, not a verdict. Use it to refine or rename. And pay attention: this is where the method meets its limits, which come next. A method you can trust admits where it ends. This one ends in three places. Not everything needs a name. Some things are damaged by giving them edges: grief while it hurts, love while it grows, a good afternoon that needs no purpose. If you feel the urge to turn something into an object when it simply needs to be lived, let it go. Overdesigning your life is the most elegant cage there is. Chosen ambiguity is not fog. Some uncertainties are ones you decide to inhabit: not yet knowing where you will live, not labeling a relationship yet, not defining who you will be in five years. From the outside, they can look like avoidance. From the inside, they are the opposite, because they have an edge: you chose them. If you want, write down that one edge: “I am leaving this unnamed, and that is my choice.” That, too, is an act of naming. The method does not replace help. If a patch of fog has been there for years and is eating into your sleep or health, naming it is a good first step and a bad last one. A therapist, a doctor, a lawyer or a good friend is sometimes the right small experiment. The action takes five minutes. The habit takes a few weeks. Three suggestions: One patch of fog a week. Do not attempt a complete clear-out on the first day. You will exhaust yourself and return to the fog with new reasons. One a week is a pace you can sustain, and in three months you will have turned the twelve heaviest ones into objects. Keep a list of open questions. A piece of paper or a note containing the names, just the names, of your open objects. It does two things: what you can list, you can prioritize; and you will see that the list is not infinite. Almost nobody has more than ten. Anxiety said there were a thousand. Measure by sleep, not results. The sign that the method works is not that you solve things faster. It is that unresolved things weigh differently. You sleep better with ten named objects than with three unnamed patches of fog. If that is happening, it is working, even if nothing has been closed yet. It does not promise that you will solve what frightens you. It does not promise success, permanent order or a life without fog. As long as you are alive, more will arrive, and some will return under another name. It promises something smaller and testable: the next time something shapeless weighs on you, you will know exactly what to do in the first five minutes. Write it in one sentence. Give it a name. Define its edges. Design the cheapest experiment. And the calm you have spent so long pursuing directly will appear on its own in the third step, as a shadow appears when you place an object in the sun. Now close this and do it. You have had a patch of fog in mind since the third section. You know it. Paper, one sentence, five minutes.