This Stanford lecturer co-hosts one of the most popular design podcasts

Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter launched Design Better as a branded podcast but then eventually spun it off into its own media company.

When Eli Woolery and Aarron Walter launched the Design Better podcast, their mission was straightforward: build a platform that could both educate the design community and raise awareness for InVision, the design software company that employed them. But what began as a corporate content marketing initiative would, years later, become a thriving independent media company in its own right.

Today, Design Better reaches hundreds of thousands of listeners and subscribers, boasts multiple revenue streams, and stands as a case study in how a side project can outgrow the company that birthed it. For Woolery and Walter, the journey has been one of creative reinvention, entrepreneurial experimentation, and a steady push to make design education accessible at scale.

Early Roots: From Fine Art to Product Design

Both hosts arrived at podcasting through winding creative paths. Woolery began in physical product design, working on underwater cameras, bike lights, and other engineered goods. He detoured into magazine design and underwater photography, running a globe-trotting photography publication modeled on National Geographic. While creatively fulfilling, the magazine wasn’t financially sustainable, and the birth of his children nudged him toward more stable income streams. That transition eventually led him into software design, startup culture, and teaching product design at Stanford, where he has helped guide students through capstone projects for over a decade.