Experience
Where I've led
Before design school, I spent years building and running online communities, gaming guilds, and crypto projects, while running my own contracting business. That's where I learned to find the right people, get them on the same page, and turn ideas into something real. Most of my roles came from people who had watched me work.
At a glance
Community
Orange Cats Being Orange Cats
2026 – NowA Facebook community that grew to over 85,000 members in one summer, and has since passed 101,000.
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2026 – Now
Founder & Community Leader
Orange Cats Being Orange Cats · Facebook group
An existing group by the same name was being overrun by bots and harmful content, and its owner had gone quiet. I rebuilt it from scratch with safety and community at the centre: automated admin rules to keep bots out, engagement posts twice a week, and a milestone post every time 200 new members join. It grew to over 85,000 members in one summer and has since passed 101,000.
Now designing the group's first merch launch.
Visit the group →
Business
Crowsnest Construction
2016 – 2026Ten years of running my own company: finding the work, planning it, and delivering it.
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2016 – 2026
Owner & Operator
Crowsnest Construction · Contracting and subcontracting
Owned and operated my own contracting and subcontracting company for ten years, working in carpentry, gutter installation, heavy machine operating, insulation, flooring, and metal flashing and fascia cover. I found work through word of mouth and networking, quoted and planned each job, and managed clients, budgets, and deadlines from start to finish.
Web3
From investor to co-founder
2020 – 2024The team leadership and organizing I'd built up over the years helped me rise quickly in crypto. I started as an investor in YTC and was soon asked to help moderate its community. Every role after that came from people who'd seen how I ran things.
Someone involved with XEEB noticed my work at YTC and scouted me as lead admin. One of XEEB's major early investors then brought me on as business development manager for his own project, Reward Miner Coin. While I was there, a fellow YTC moderator and I co-founded FlappyFloki, a playable game we built with a team of developers and animators. When it grew faster than the two of us could manage, we brought in a third partner to run the community and marketing.
For a while, I was running three of these roles at once.
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2020 – 2021
Moderator
YTC
Came in as an investor and was soon asked to help moderate the community. It's where XEEB's team first noticed my work, and where I met my future FlappyFloki co-founder.
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2021 – 2023
Lead Admin
XEEB
Scouted from my moderating work at YTC. I hired, trained, and led the admin and moderation team, organized community events, and rallied members to promote the project across social media. When the launch went badly and leadership went quiet, I became the steady voice that kept investors informed and the community together.
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2021 – 2024
Business Development Manager
Reward Miner Coin
An investor who saw my work with YTC and XEEB brought me on as business development manager for his project. I helped land partnerships with marketers and promoters for launch interviews, with the FlappyFloki team, and with another crypto project that we integrated into our ecosystem, running AMAs, cross-promotions, and giveaways along the way.
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2021 – 2022
Co-founder
FlappyFloki · Browser and Android game
One of three partners behind a side-scrolling game with its own coin. I ran operations and was the public face of the project, led investor outreach, hosted every AMA, and found and partnered with the developers and animators who built the game. When we couldn't connect the coin to the Google Play version, we built score competitions with prizes around the browser version instead.
Read the case study →
Gaming
Insane Asylum
2006 – 2024Eighteen years of building, organizing, and keeping a community together.
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2006 – 2024
Guild Founder & Community Leader
Insane Asylum · Online gaming guilds
Founded and led my guild (and Discord community), Insane Asylum, through success in many games over a span of 18 years, keeping much of the community together from game to game and consistently growing the guild into one of the top 3.
I treated onboarding like a product. I worked out what new members needed to learn, organized it into guides (first on forums, later in organized Discord channels), tested it with the group, and refined it based on what actually helped people succeed and stay. Most recently, I took the same approach into an interactive Notion guide for another guild I helped lead.
Education
Still growing
Also learning
- Google UX Design Professional CertificateCoursera · In progress
- Google Project Management Professional CertificateCoursera · In progress
- Journey MappingInteraction Design Foundation · In progress
- Agile Methods for UX DesignInteraction Design Foundation · In progress
- Perception and Memory in HCI and UXInteraction Design Foundation · In progress
- AI for DesignersInteraction Design Foundation · In progress
Up next
- Get Your Product Used: Adoption and AppropriationInteraction Design Foundation · Planned
- Digital Product Management (University of Virginia)Coursera · Planned
- User Research: Methods and Best PracticesInteraction Design Foundation · Planned
- Accessibility in PracticeInteraction Design Foundation · Planned
- Conducting Usability TestingInteraction Design Foundation · Planned
- IBM Product Manager Professional CertificateCoursera · Planned
Contact
Let's make something
dustin@asylumental.com