About

About

Creative technologist.
lawyer. founder.
crate digger.

Creative technologist.
lawyer. founder.
crate digger.

Creative technologist.
lawyer. founder.
crate digger.

Summer Watson, black and white portrait
SUMMER WATSON

01

Summer Watson

Summer Watson

Summer Watson during her KZSU years at Stanford, in a Brooklyn hoodie
STANFORD

02

Stanford

Stanford

At Stanford, Summer found the radio station before she found her major. A chance meeting led to a gig hosting the Wax On Hip Hop Show on KZSU 90.1 FM. Student by day and DJ by night, she eventually settled on a Mathematical and Computational Sciences major with an Econ minor, then stayed for Stanford Law School. She spent her graduation gift money on two Technics 1200s and a Vestax PMC-05 Pro, and they still live in a room full of vinyl at her home today.

At Stanford, Summer found the radio station before she found her major. A chance meeting led to a gig hosting the Wax On Hip Hop Show on KZSU 90.1 FM. Student by day and DJ by night, she eventually settled on a Mathematical and Computational Sciences major with an Econ minor, then stayed for Stanford Law School. She spent her graduation gift money on two Technics 1200s and a Vestax PMC-05 Pro, and they still live in a room full of vinyl at her home today.

Summer Watson in a Hieroglyphics hoodie under the Aku sign
OAKLAND

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Oakland

Oakland

Summer’s love of music landed her an internship at ABB Records, the indie hip-hop label that shared a building with Hieroglyphics and Solesides/Quannum. She made the drive up from Stanford in Palo Alto so often that she spent more time in Oakland than on campus, promoting local shows on the side and also building a web directory of weekly live shows happening across the Bay. Here, she learned the value of curation and taste, and how to get an audience who owes you nothing to actually care about what you’re doing.

Summer’s love of music landed her an internship at ABB Records, the indie hip-hop label that shared a building with Hieroglyphics and Solesides/Quannum. She made the drive up from Stanford in Palo Alto so often that she spent more time in Oakland than on campus, promoting local shows on the side and also building a web directory of weekly live shows happening across the Bay. Here, she learned the value of curation and taste, and how to get an audience who owes you nothing to actually care about what you’re doing.

Record bins with Japanese genre labels in a Tokyo-area record shop
KYOTO · TSUKUBA · TOKYO

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Kyoto · Tsukuba · Tokyo

Kyoto · Tsukuba · Tokyo

After studying in Kyoto at the Stanford Center for Technology and Innovation, Summer moved to Tsukuba to intern at Intel Japan. On her first day, driving on the “other” side under the first time in torrential rain, she drove her car into a crevice in her driveway that happened to be exactly as wide as her tires. She worked tirelessly to prove herself, while on weekends she headed into Tokyo to see friends, dig for records, and fall deeply in love (with the city).

After studying in Kyoto at the Stanford Center for Technology and Innovation, Summer moved to Tsukuba to intern at Intel Japan. On her first day, driving on the “other” side under the first time in torrential rain, she drove her car into a crevice in her driveway that happened to be exactly as wide as her tires. She worked tirelessly to prove herself, while on weekends she headed into Tokyo to see friends, dig for records, and fall deeply in love (with the city).

Photo: chinnian, CC BY-SA 2.0

The U.S. Court House on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles
THE LAW

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The law

The law

Before crossing into the world of the entrepreneur, Summer clerked for Chief Judge Consuelo B. Marshall of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and practiced as an associate at BigLaw (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Sidley Austin).

Photo: MikeJiroch, CC BY-SA 3.0

Runway at Tom Ford’s FW20 show, produced by CS Global
THE LEAP

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The Leap

The Leap

Thoroughly certain that BigLaw was not her destiny, Summer co-founded the creative agency and production company CS Global with her best friend from junior high school, Jonathan Reed. One of their first major clients was TOM FORD, which has worked with the agency from inception through its sale to Estée Lauder. Summer ran photoshoots, exclusive private events and runway shows concept to buildout. Of Summer and Jonathan's earlier ideas from high school (a network of vending machines, graphic design for mail order companies, transporting who knows what on paid trips to who knows where), this was certainly the most successful.

Summer Watson on a panel stage in a NASA hoodie, holding a microphone
WORK
Summer Watson and Pusha T at the Aku x Google Tech Equity Collective event
WORK
Summer Watson and Pusha T laughing on stage at a Boardroom panel
WORK

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The Grind

The Grind

From CS Global, Summer moved into consumer tech, leading product, content and growth at Playdom, TuneIn, Episode and Skybound, including co-leading Playdom’s $763M sale to Disney. She co-founded Aku, an NFT-born character that made the cover of TIME and drove $100M in sales, and with Pusha-T, she co-founded Heir, a hip-hop discovery app where fans voted up tracks and earned rewards. She also led Vol. 1 Music, an artist management company and JV label with Sony.

The thread through all of it is the same one from the radio booth: find the thing worth taking in, and get it to the people who’ll love it.

From CS Global, Summer moved into consumer tech, leading product, content and growth at Playdom, TuneIn, Episode and Skybound, including co-leading Playdom’s $763M sale to Disney. She co-founded Aku, an NFT-born character that made the cover of TIME and drove $100M in sales, and with Pusha-T, she co-founded Heir, a hip-hop discovery app where fans voted up tracks and earned rewards. She also led Vol. 1 Music, an artist management company and JV label with Sony.

The thread through all of it is the same one from the radio booth: find the thing worth taking in, and get it to the people who’ll love it.

From CS Global, Summer moved into consumer tech, leading product, content and growth at Playdom, TuneIn, Episode and Skybound, including co-leading Playdom’s $763M sale to Disney. She co-founded Aku, an NFT-born character that made the cover of TIME and drove $100M in sales, and with Pusha-T, she co-founded Heir, a hip-hop discovery app where fans voted up tracks and earned rewards. She also led Vol. 1 Music, an artist management company and JV label with Sony.


The thread through all of it is the same one from the radio booth: find the thing worth taking in, and get it to the people who’ll love it.

See the work →

Summer Watson in conversation at a House of Paper event
GIVING BACK

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Giving back

Giving back

Summer served on the boards of First Place for Youth and the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice. She is a team lead at Tech for Campaigns, and is a member of Virgin Unite’s Criminal Justice Reform Collective.

She sits on the Creative Council of House of Paper, a patronage movement that gives musicians the space and capital to create beyond the pressure of streaming metrics. With some good friends, she started OFF/ MARKET, a small, trusted space where AI builders demo what they shipped that week.

Summer served on the boards of First Place for Youth and the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice. She is a team lead at Tech for Campaigns, and is a member of Virgin Unite’s Criminal Justice Reform Collective.

She sits on the Creative Council of House of Paper, a patronage movement that gives musicians the space and capital to create beyond the pressure of streaming metrics. With some good friends, she started OFF/ MARKET, a small, trusted space where AI builders demo what they shipped that week.

Summer Watson with her extended family outside a restaurant at night
OFF THE CLOCK
Summer Watson on a couch being filmed, camera monitor in the foreground
OFF THE CLOCK
Summer Watson at work on her laptop
OFF THE CLOCK

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Off the Clock

Off the Clock

Family and the pups come first. After that, she makes time for neighborhood walks, AI coding and design, art viewing, films, live shows and good food. She lives by The Code: consistent, loyal, methodical, resilient, acting with integrity. Say what you’ll do, do what you say.

Family and the pups come first. After that, she makes time for neighborhood walks, AI coding and design, art viewing, films, live shows and good food. She lives by The Code: consistent, loyal, methodical, resilient, acting with integrity. Say what you’ll do, do what you say.

Currently: [🎧 Clipse | Let God Sort Em Out] · [🏗️: Tracks] · [🌐: Los Angeles]

CREATIVE GROUNDING. SYSTEMS EXECUTION.

Let's build.

sw@summerwatson.com

CREATIVE GROUNDING. SYSTEMS EXECUTION.

Let's build.

sw@summerwatson.com

VISION & WORDS BY DOUBTLESS

VISION & WORDS BY DOUBTLESS

ART & DESIGN BY JAEDYN TANG

ART & DESIGN BY JAEDYN TANG