Rosina Bosco
“Diverse perspectives expand your frame of thinking and lead to better user experiences. Our team crosses continents. Being from different worlds translates to better creativity, critical thinking, and outcomes as we solve problems and design and build software.”
Trove partner Rosina was destined to design beautiful, seamless user experiences. For as long as she can remember, Rosina, the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of software design and development agency Flatirons, has been drawn to creative endeavors. Growing up, she always had a creative outlet, inspired by her dad’s work as a ceramic artist. Coupled with her innate superpower -- empathy -- it’s as if she was meant to be the hypercompetent, compassionate, and successful UI/UX and business leader she is today.
Studying design and entrepreneurship in graduate school led Rosina to realize that designing beautiful, seamless technology solutions was her calling. She observed the power of tech to solve real problems and learned to think like an entrepreneur, identifying and validating problems and designing and building solutions. After graduation, she accepted a UI/UX Designer role at children's edtech company Callaway Digital Arts. This coincided with the launch of the iPad and Callaway was among the first organizations to embrace this new technology and its novel modes of interaction, such as the touchpad, with their work garnering support from Apple and Steve Jobs. In her next role, also at an edtech company, she focused heavily on user research and had the opportunity to build prototypes and sit with kids while they used her products. The opportunity to see first-hand the impact she was having on children’s learning was profound. Rosina became obsessed with technology architecture and creating seamless paths for users of all ages to move through digital experiences.
Rosina’s next career move would prove life- and career-defining. After three years in edtech, she joined Gust, a SaaS startup offering solutions for entrepreneurs to start, operate, and fundraise, and for investors to manage deal flow and relationships. As the company’s lead product designer, she was entrusted to make critical business decisions and shepherd multiple products through the product development process, from soup to nuts. She became embedded in the startup ecosystem, including attending angel investor events and observing VCs evaluate pitches. Coupled with this exposure, working at a scrappy, early-stage company solidified her own entrepreneurial ambitions. At Gust, she also met her eventual Flatirons co-founder (and now husband), Mike, a product and engineering leader.
After a stint at the New York Times, Rosina joined The Knot, where she was the lead designer for wedding registry. At the time, the wedding market was shifting away from traditional registries and toward new gifting models, such as cash and experiences, and more startups were entering the space. Responsible for reimaging the registry model, Rosina and her team introduced an e-commerce experience, a massive shift from the affiliate model in which guests were directed to external sites to purchase registry items. In the face of numerous technical and business constraints, Rosina became intimately familiar with her users’ needs, conducted in-depth competitive research, and built a registry solution that laid the groundwork for The Knot’s current offering.
Around that time, Rosina and Mike began serious discussions about launching a digital design and development agency. Neither of them was too interested in climbing the corporate ladder, so they launched Flatirons on the side and committed to leaving their day jobs when they hit a certain scale. This happened more quickly than expected and for the first time in her career, Rosina began to step away from project work to focus on growing the business. She and Mike became laser-focused on recruiting the right people and building a plan for marketing Flatirons as a company, versus themselves as individuals. They built a robust team of engineers, designers, and project managers based throughout Latin America and launched Iron Startup Challenge, a pitch competition in which winning companies received three months of services. Not only did all three winners also stay on as clients, but the Iron Startup Challenge significantly accelerated client acquisition and led Flatirons to create Flatirons Fund, an investment arm that focuses on advancing the large group of underserved founders who are often underestimated and passed over. Flatirons now has 30 employees based in the U.S. and throughout Latin America and has become a highly respected, go-to digital design and development agency.
While it’s hard for Rosina to point to a single project she’s most proud of, as a new mom, a recent project to redesign and refactor an app for parents with babies in the NICU is top of mind. Parents can now see how their babies are doing from anywhere, not just while at the hospital. As a result of Flatirons’ work, its client signed contracts with several new hospitals and many more parents will have peace of mind. This is the type of impact she had in mind when she founded Flatirons. Rosina also radiates with pride when talking about her team. Talented, high-performing, and collaborative, they have become part of her and Mike’s family. When it comes to being fantastic partners and delivering beautiful, easy to use, intuitive designs and the highest quality digital products, Flatirons has not skipped a beat from the Rosina and Mike days.
Contact Rosina
LinkedIn Website Email: rosina (at) flatirons (dot) com
Email hello@trovecommunity.com or contact us for an introduction.
