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About

Saad Benryane smiling, wearing glasses and a black sweater.

I use design and technology to solve problems that matter in people's lives.

Since my early teens I've sat in front of computers, in awe of what they could do. I broke them, fixed them, then started making things with them.

I studied industrial product design at Cégep du Vieux-Montréal in Canada, then product design, architecture, cinema, and visual communication at ECAL, the prestigious design school in Lausanne, Switzerland. I've always lived between the artistic world and the engineering world. That's why I chose design as my calling. Or maybe it chose me.

Throughout my career, people came to me with raw ideas, a sketch of a business or a way to push an existing one further, and asked me to help make it tangible. From designing brands and websites to founding Spont Creative Agency, then into product ownership: VP Product at Paper, CTO at Openfair, co-founder of 1Health. Over twenty years, I've built inside companies and started new ones. The pattern never changed: every project is an experiment. We ship, we learn, and the learning is what creates the impact.

Before Paper, I founded Spont Creative Agency, my studio for branding, marketing, and app design. Across 100+ client projects, I took half-formed ideas and turned them into brands, campaigns, and apps people actually used. See the branding portfolio.

At Paper I joined the founding team and helped take the platform from marketplace to SaaS, reaching millions of learners. Since then I've co-founded Openfair (0 to $1M+ ARR in 8 months), led product across PE-backed portfolios, and advised NGOs, nonprofits, and impact organizations on delivery and conversion, including UNDP's global biodiversity platform. Today I lead product at 1Health, a UAE healthcare discovery startup from vision through BETA, brand, and monetization.

I've also taught founders how to plan what to build next, including a product roadmap workshop at McGill.

I work with founders and established teams from the first decisions through delivery. That can mean setting product direction, leading the team, running a workshop, or getting into the design and code myself. We work out what matters, decide what to build, and stay close to how people use it.

I keep myself sharp by tinkering, reading, and trying new tools. These days I build with coding agents daily, following new research and testing what it changes in real projects.

When I'm not building software, I bodyboard or spend time by the sea. I love the horizon and sunsets, and capturing moments in photo and video.

Depending on where I am, I also like hiking and the smell of pine trees after the rain.

Saad on a boat, wearing a white Kraken shirt.

If you're building something and need someone who can shape the direction, lead the team, and do the work alongside you, I'd like to hear from you.

Let’s talk