Chris Kalani is an American product designer and entrepreneur, best known as the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer (CPO) of the cryptocurrency wallet Phantom. His career includes work at major technology companies like Facebook, the founding of the design collaboration tool Wake, and a pivotal role at the crypto startup 0x before co-founding Phantom. ^{[1] [2]}​

Career

Chris Kalani's career spans design and product leadership roles in both Web2 and Web3. He began his professional journey at Jive Software before moving to agency work, where he was involved in building products for prominent clients such as Microsoft and Nike. Following his time at the agency, Kalani joined Facebook's design team. During his tenure at Facebook, he contributed to several key product areas, including the company's user growth initiatives, its Graph Search engine, and the Messenger application. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Wake

Inspired by the common pain points he had experienced as a professional designer, Kalani founded his first company, Wake. The product was a design collaboration tool created to streamline the process for teams to share their work and receive feedback. Wake was successfully acquired by another company. However, the product was eventually shut down by the acquiring entity post-acquisition. ^{[1] [2] [3]}​

Transition to Web3: 0x

Following the shutdown of Wake, Kalani transitioned into the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector. He joined the crypto startup 0x, where he spent a period of three years. This career move is described as a "three-year detour" that proved to be pivotal for his next venture. While at 0x Labs, he served as the General Manager (GM) for its Matcha product. It was during his time at 0x that Kalani met the colleagues who would later become his co-founders for Phantom. ^{[1] [2] [3]}​

Phantom

After his tenure at 0x, Chris Kalani co-founded Phantom, a cryptocurrency wallet, alongside the co-founders he had met at the startup. In his role as Co-founder and Chief Product Officer (CPO), he has guided the company's product strategy and development. Phantom has since grown to become a significant platform in the cryptocurrency wallet space. ^{[1] [2]}​

The platform has achieved substantial user adoption and financial milestones. As of recent reporting, Phantom hosts 15 million monthly active users and secures 150 million Series C funding round, which brought Phantom's valuation to $3 billion. Sources describe Phantom as the "world’s leading platform in the space." ^{[1] [2] [3]}​