Raphael Schaad (@raphaelschaad) / X

Raphael Schaad

20K posts

Raphael Schaad

@raphaelschaad

Visiting Partner @ycombinator, helping founders build iconic startups. Swiss designer, MIT engineer, founder Cron (acq by Notion). I run through forests.

Joined July 2008

Pinned
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Sep 4, 2025
Life update: I'm joining @ycombinator as Visiting Partner 🤩 Software ate the world, and now AI is eating software — the founders building in this shift will redefine how we compute, work, and live. In my new role, I'm excited to find those founders and help them build the
143K
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Sep 14, 2022
Still one of the best images on the Internet.
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Oct 31, 2022
2022 redesign of Swiss passport retains iconic red color on the outside and now has maps inside 🤩
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Jun 10, 2025
Visual explanation — Anatomy of a water drop:
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Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
May 11, 2024
Every time I come across this (rare) UX pattern, I smile. The "Only" option for a list of checkboxes (where radios don't apply) is genius.
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515K
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Jul 9, 2013
When an app is loading & you use a custom loading indicator, users think the app is slow—showing a standard spinny, they blame their phone.
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Nov 4, 2025
Worst h1 of a startup landing page in a while?
Venkat
@venkatofl
Nov 2, 2025
we’ve been building in silence reimagining what productivity should feel like today, we’re opening the waitlist for slane. your new intelligent workspace for teams and founders projects, ai workflows, and clarity. → slane.app
505K
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Jan 17, 2024
Super excited to introduce: Notion Calendar It's the best way to manage, organize, and prioritize your time across work and life. But why build a better calendar? Time is arguably our most precious resource. To reimagine how we interact with time, I founded Cron in 2019. Since
475K
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Oct 19, 2025
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Oct 17, 2025
Best “PRDs” I’ve “written” were annotations in Figma files …
194K
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Aug 29, 2025
Today is my last day @NotionHQ 🤍 In 2019, I founded Cron Inc. to build a beautiful tool that helps people make the most of their time. Cron Calendar quickly became beloved for its craft — and slotted into Notion like a missing Lego piece. Together, we grew Notion into a
127K
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
May 7, 2025
Hot take 🌶️ Figma Sites → @framer competitor Figma Make → @lovable competitor Figma Buzz → @canva competitor Figma Draw → @Illustrator competitor #Config2025 on a roll today!
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Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Mar 17, 2023
Today, we're launching calendar.cron.com — bringing the native-like @cron experience to the web. And to pull it off, we went as far as helping to improve Apple's browser engine @webkit back in 2020:
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321K
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Jun 2, 2022
To aspiring designers, I recommend this selection of books:
Raphael Schaad
@raphaelschaad
Sep 16, 2024
Anyone know what Apple Interface Designers use these days to “prototype” these types of interactions/effects? Assuming (other than fairy dust) Metal shaders directly, in little Swift prototypes. But curious what folks are happy to share or know.
Chan Karunamuni
@chan_k
Sep 16, 2024
A little side project I worked on this year was the design of this new flashlight UI in iOS 18.
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