Michael Gough

Michael Gough is a Design Partner at Khosla Ventures and a design leader who has spent his career helping companies turn ambitious ideas into products that resonate with real people. He works at the intersection of design, technology, and business, guided by the belief that the hardest problems are rarely about interfaces—and more often about vision, culture, and clarity.

At Khosla Ventures, Michael partners with founders to bring design thinking into the earliest stages of company building, helping teams navigate uncertainty and create products people genuinely enjoy using.

Before joining Khosla Ventures, Michael led large, global design organizations across multiple industries. He served as Chief Creative Officer at Macromedia, where the company helped shape the modern creative industry, and later played a key role in guiding Adobe through its transition to Creative Cloud. He went on to become Chief Design Officer for Microsoft Office and later led product and brand design at Uber during a period of rapid growth and transformation.

Earlier in his career, Michael worked across brand, digital media, architecture, and emerging technology. His experience includes leading global brand design teams at Nike, building early immersive digital experiences, and founding design and architecture practices in San Francisco.

Michael studied architecture at the University of Oregon and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.