# Chris Kalani

> Chris Kalani is the co-founder and chief product officer of Phantom, the multichain crypto wallet. His path runs from product design at Facebook through founding the design-collaboration company Wake, leading design and Matcha at 0x, and building Phantom with former 0x colleagues Brandon Millman and Francesco Agosti. The useful thread is not a tidy rise but a correction: after learning at Wake that he did not enjoy every part of the CEO job, Kalani deliberately chose a co-founding role that kept him close to product while surrounding himself with complementary partners.

- **Role:** Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Phantom
- **Organizations:** Phantom, 0x Labs, Matcha, Wake, Facebook, Jive Software
- **Nationality:** American
- **Known for:** Co-founded Phantom and helped shape its product strategy around making crypto easier to use., Founded Wake, which was used by design teams at companies including Airbnb, Spotify, Stripe and Facebook before its 2018 acquisition by InVision., Led design at 0x and served as general manager of Matcha.

## Career timeline

- **Early career** — Worked at Jive Software and at agencies building products for clients including Microsoft and Nike.
- **2011-2013** — Worked as a product designer at Facebook on growth, Graph Search and Messenger.
- **2013-2018** — Founded and led Wake, a design collaboration product for sharing work in progress and gathering feedback.
- **2018** — Wake was acquired by InVision; the entire Wake team joined the acquirer.
- **2018-2021** — Joined 0x, serving as Director of Design and later General Manager of Matcha; met future Phantom co-founders Brandon Millman and Francesco Agosti there.
- **2021** — Co-founded Phantom and became Chief Product Officer.
- **2022** — Phantom announced a $109 million Series B.
- **2025** — Phantom announced a $150 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation and reported more than 15 million users.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Phantom and helped shape its product strategy around making crypto easier to use.
- Founded Wake, which was used by design teams at companies including Airbnb, Spotify, Stripe and Facebook before its 2018 acquisition by InVision.
- Led design at 0x and served as general manager of Matcha.
- Worked on growth, Graph Search and Messenger as a product designer at Facebook.
- Built Phantom to 20,000 waitlist signups before fundraising; Phantom later reported more than 15 million users.
- Has disclosed investments listed in Glider, Meso, Global Illumination and Magic Eden.

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — A Designer Founders interview detailed Kalani's lessons on co-founder selection, business fluency and validating products before fundraising.
- **2025-01** — Phantom announced a $150 million Series C co-led by Sequoia Capital and Paradigm at a $3 billion valuation; the company reported more than 15 million users.

## Links

- Website: https://chriskalani.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskalani

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/chris-kalani
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27