James Buckhouse

James Buckhouse believes story, art, and design can bend the arc of humanity’s progress, if you do it right, and brings that idea into everything he does: from movies to startups to paintings to books and to ballets. As Design Partner at Sequoia, James Buckhouse works with founders from idea to IPO and beyond to help them design their companies, products, cultures, and businesses. Buckhouse got his start in film, lensing shots, crafting character arcs, and punching up story for some of the biggest film franchises, including the Shrek, Madagascar, and Matrix series. Today he is a sought-after writer and collaborator for some of Hollywood’s most creative producers and directors. As an artist, he has exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, the Solomon R. Guggenheim’s Works & Process Series, The Institute of Contemporary Art in London, The Berkeley Art Museum, and the Dia Center. He has collaborated with leading choreographers at the New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, LA Dance Project, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Pennsylvania Ballet. Buckhouse regularly guest lectures at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Yale School of Architecture, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and Stanford’s d.school. Prior to joining Sequoia in 2014, he was the Senior Experience Architect at Twitter, with patents for single-tap emoji replies, opinion polls on social, and more once-novel interactions that are now commonplace. He has a B.A. in Visual Art from Brown University.