BIO:

I’m a multidisciplinary entrepreneur whose career spans industries and mediums—shaped by years as a designer, artist, consultant, and investor. My work orbits around systemic needs: how we live, what we eat, how we feel, and what we build. My curiosity spans ritual culture, well-being, architectural design, biology, and materiality—fields that, together, deepen our sensory experience and spark solutions oriented projects. This broad and serious curiosity enables me to operate across sectors while anchoring in human experience, cultural continuity, and deep meaning-making.

I was privileged to invest early on. One of my first formal seed investments was in Justin’s Nut Butter, a natural food startup launched from a home kitchen. It signals my enduring interest in specialty agriculture and sustainable food—interests not far from my roots. Since then, I’ve continued to advise and invest in brilliant teams and companies ranging from molecular infrastructure to large-scale aerospace systems. In recent years, I’ve refined my focus on founders/co’s building long-term, systemic change: from replacing the deorbiting International Space Station, to detecting illness at the earliest biological stage, to delivering highly precise meteorological data. These ventures solve at both molecular and inter-planet scale. Others, like Kimino—a Japanese beverage company I joined nearly a decade ago as an advisor and investor—bridge traditional agriculture and commerce, now distributing hand-harvested Japanese drinks in over 65 countries.

In parallel, I co-founded and led Sightful, a research and design consultancy that worked with leadership inside of General Motors, Meta, Microsoft, and Viacom. My time at Sightful brought me into boardrooms with brilliant leaders and helped sharpen my principles around the purpose in work. Often, I guided complex organizations in articulating who they are—translating mission into product, messaging, and experiences designed to respond to gathered cultural intelligence and real and felt needs. I directed projects across brand, strategy, and cultural research, and was randomly a member of Fast Company’s Creative Braintrust. Sightful’s IP was acquired in 2023. Before founding Sightful with Schuyler Brown, I started a small brand studio called Playtime Collective with my best friend Joel Morley while we were still at Parsons. Somehow in our 20s we convinced companies to let us design their brand materials, and even build interior spaces. During that time we landed a mix of clients —including LVMH, MTV, Prudential, and Microsoft.

I was born in a farm house and raised in rural Connecticut by artist-educator-writer polymath parents who, during my childhood, also started and ran a traditional tofu factory in Middletown, Connecticut. My upbringing was steeped in Japanese food, thought, imagination, and creativity. I was the kid with the bento box at lunch—more familiar with miso than Jello, more eastern in thought than in the religious traditions my lineage presumed. I’ve always been highly attuned—sensitive to place, people, and environment in ways that shaped me deeply and challenge me to this day. Much of my work is driven by the desire to create for that version of myself: Design with deep intent doesn’t just include the margins—it reshapes the center and permiates outward.

I studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art (Fine Art), Parsons (Service Design & Technology), Eugene Lang (Environmental Science), and Columbia Business School (Business Strategy). When I was a child I proudly went to Space Camp (I can’t believe I’m investing in Spaceships and the ISS replacement). I’ve served on the board of The Noguchi Museum, contributing to both its design and finance committees. I split my time between New York City, New England, and Tokyo—with my eyes on Sea Ranch. Over the past decade, my presence in Japan has deepened—through tea ceremony, onsen, and immersion in nature. Everything I pursue is in service of the child in me who was curious, sensitive, and caring of others.

MICAH SPEAR, 2025