Product, Platform & Operations Leader · 0→1 Launches · Marketplace & B2B2C Systems
I led Artist Shops at Threadless from a blank page to 100k+ global creators and spent 10+ years building the platform, teams, and operations behind it.
I help teams turn complex systems into clearer products, stronger operating rhythms, and better end-to-end experiences.
If you’re building something interesting and could use help making sense of the chaos, let’s talk.
I've been experimenting with how agents can move beyond chat and actually get things done. I configured Hermes Agent as a personal Chief of Staff, with conversational voice control through Telegram that can take actions across Google Workspace, including scheduling meetings and inviting external participants.
I helped establish and iteratively improve a DTF printing operation, from unboxing and initial setup through hardware upgrades, RIP software, networking, workflow, and production reliability. It's a very physical version of the kind of work I've always enjoyed: understanding a complicated system, finding where it breaks down, and making the pieces work better together.
AI has dramatically shortened the distance between an idea and something I can actually build and test. I've been using that leverage to make small products for myself, including an AI advisor for evaluating professional opportunities and my own take on Pocket, while experimenting with new ways to prototype, automate, and ship.
0→1 launches, marketplace systems, onboarding, activation, roadmap ownership, and long-term planning across complex product environments.
Cross-functional execution, dependency management, delivery velocity, and operating rhythms across Product, Engineering, Design, and Operations.
Turning complex operational workflows into intuitive product experiences that reduce friction and improve time-to-value.
Applied LLM workflows and API integrations that improve operational consistency, decision support, and team efficiency.
Led Artist Shops at Threadless from a blank page to 100k+ global creators, a 0→1 creator commerce platform that became a core revenue growth engine for Threadless.
Cut time-to-first-launch ~45% - from weeks to as little as one day - through an end-to-end onboarding and catalog workflow overhaul.
Improved cross-functional delivery velocity ~35% by building planning systems, clarifying ownership, and establishing durable execution cadence across remote teams.
Led operational transformation from a 900k+ unit warehouse model to a global print-on-demand network across 20+ partners, eliminating inventory risk while expanding product and fulfillment capacity.
Shipped an AI-assisted IP risk review system using the OpenAI API - reviewing tens of thousands of designs - improving operational consistency and partner confidence for design review at scale.
Before Artist Shops, Threadless was already something rare: a Chicago-born design community that had helped define what it meant for creators to build an audience online. But the platform's relationship with its creators had a ceiling. Designers could submit work and earn royalties if their design was selected for print. They couldn't build their own businesses.
Artist Shops changed that.
Starting from a blank page in 2013, we built a 0→1 creator commerce platform that gave illustrators, photographers, independent artists and anyone on the internet the tools to launch a branded storefront, manage a product catalog, and sell globally without holding inventory. Every design decision had to work for a non-technical creator who had no patience for friction and no IT department to call.
Getting it right required more than product thinking. It required rebuilding the operational infrastructure behind it: fulfillment partnerships, onboarding workflows, catalog systems, activation loops, and the cross-functional rhythms that kept all of it moving across Product, Engineering, Design, and Operations simultaneously.
By the time the platform matured, Artist Shops had grown to more than 100,000 creator shops worldwide and become a core revenue engine for the business. That work is what I'm built for.
Since 2008, I've kept a personal photo archive at dustinhenderlong.photography. It has nothing to do with roadmaps or operating cadences, and that's the goal. The best product thinking I've done has usually been sharpened by something quieter happening alongside it.
Working on something interesting? I’d love to hear about it.