About

Get in touch: hello@thoughtmerchants.com.

Our Bias

Scale with a soul. Scaling a business is hard. We solve for people, processes, and products to foster successful, operational, and profitable businesses for years to come.

Design is not magic. Design is a journey. It's a continuous process made of many, many decisions and improvements.

Start with your hardest problem. Wherever that may be, and take it from there.

Take care of the person. The work experience is directly related to the consumer's experience.

Steve Berry — Founder, Thought Merchants

Steve Berry is a designer, entrepreneur, and strategic advisor with over two decades of experience building brands, digital products, and operational frameworks for high-growth companies. As the founder of Thought Merchants, Steve leads a multidisciplinary team focused on helping businesses scale with intention — strengthening their people, refining their processes, and elevating their products.

A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Steve's early career spanned graphic design, web development, and agile software practices — disciplines he fused into a unique approach to brand and product design. His philosophy blends creative rigor with operational excellence, helping companies not only build memorable experiences but sustainable businesses.

Before founding Thought Merchants, Steve co-founded Code Climate, a leading software analytics platform, where he helped pioneer early best practices around agile product design and engineering workflows. Throughout his career, Steve has advised and collaborated with a wide range of startups and venture-backed companies, offering expertise that bridges UX design, product strategy, brand development, and corporate growth.

Steve has been a trusted advisor through every stage of company evolution — from early-stage ideation to investment raises, acquisition negotiations, and post-transaction transitions. His impact has consistently shaped businesses that are not just successful in market, but healthy at their core.

Today, from his studio in Venice, California, Steve continues to work at the intersection of design, storytelling, and business strategy — partnering with visionary teams to build the next generation of resilient, soulful companies.

Serving Emerging and High-Growth Companies

• Casper: Developed a high-performance checkout experience.
• Harry's: Designed the first men's shave plan.
• STX: Designed an ice hockey stick—so fun.
• Chainlink: Branding for the 12th most valuable blockchain globally.
• Code Climate: Co-founded and reinvented the product multiple times over six years.
• Riot Games: Contributed to League of Legends, one of the world's most popular games.

A Favorite Email

Steve, what's up?

Hope you're doing well. It's been too long; we need to catch up soon. In the meantime, meet Philip Krim—a great guy who recently started a company called Casper. They've had an amazing launch and are looking for help to continue building out their web product. Naturally, I thought of you.

Philip, as mentioned, Steve's awesome.

— Jeff Raider, HARRY'S