Designer Fund Partnership
We view our relationships with founders and companies as long-term partnerships, not deals. When we invest in you, we apply the best practices we’ve learned over the past decade investing and serving multi-billion dollar companies like Stripe, Gusto, Notion, Commure and Netlify.
Designer Fund Partnership is the best $500K investment and design support offer for early stage startups. We help you hire and manage exceptional design teams, provide expert product and brand design advice, accelerate your fundraising process, and connect you to our community of top designers, founders, and advisors.
How our investment works
During open application periods, you can apply for an average investment of $500K and design support. We’ll respond within 1-2 weeks with a status update if it makes sense to setup an intro meeting. We're looking for early stage companies, Pre-seed to Series A, that use design to improve health, prosperity, and sustainability for all. Our average investment is $500K for 5% but we understand that may not make sense for every company. Depending on your traction and funding to date, we can adjust our investment terms. We recommend that you apply regardless of your stage, location and fundraising timeline.
How our design support works
After we invest, we have a kickoff meeting and then are available for monthly design help tailored to what you need throughout the next 12 months. We’re not an accelerator and we don’t have a curriculum you have to follow. Rather, we focus on the following types of collaborative work sessions when you need them most:
- Kickoff: We start with an onboarding meeting to better understand your milestones for the next year and how we can best help you accomplish them.
- Hiring: We assess your design hiring needs, recommend curated contractors and full-time design talent, and participate in your interview process.
- Design management: As you hire a team, we can coach them to overcome challenges while scaling high-performing design teams.
- Design advice: We host office hours to provide feedback on your product, brand and how to use design strategically across your business.
- Community: We connect you to design leaders and advisors in our community for specific expertise via the Designer Fund Collective private Slack workspace and invite you to members-only events and trainings.
- Fundraising support: We help improve your pitch, develop an outreach plan, and make warm introductions to potential customers and value-add investors.
After one year of monthly design help, we’ll shift to a quarterly cadence and help with any of these areas on demand. You’ll continue to have access to the growing Designer Fund Collective community, how-to resources and professional development opportunities as we strive to keep adding value long after the seed stage.
How we add value
We help you hire and manage great design talent
With our funding, you should be able to hire design talent and take your team to the next level. We help throughout the interview process to hire the right type of designer, from a project based contractor to a full-time employee, and ensure the relationship yields results. We maintain relationships with curated freelancers, studios and designers looking for new opportunities. We promote your company to thousands of designers through our newsletter, social media and job board. As you hire a team, we can coach and mentor them with design leaders in our network who've managed high performing teams from early to growth stages at scale.
There’s no way we would have been able to hire the designer we did without Designer Fund. Starting with sourcing, Designer Fund helped us get the word out to high-quality candidates. They sat in on portfolio presentations and then helped us close our top choice by showing continued involvement. We feel very lucky to have Designer Fund in our corner and can’t imagine a fund that can be as helpful as they’ve been hiring a designer.Chris Olmanson, Founder of Beaming Health
Landscape was a Designer Fund referral. We’d been working with Ben and Enrique for the past few years and trusted their recommendations and guidance. They're the best in the design community!Max Hsieh, CTO of Forma
We provide expert design advice when it matters
We provide office hours with our network of expert advisors to help guide you with the latest best practices for designing a world-class product and brand to grow your business. For example, you can request an in-depth review of your product end-to-end. We can also assist with strategic design projects like establishing a design system and improving your design process. We give feedback based on the unique context of your product, team, and company, instead of cookie cutter advice.
Thanks for taking time to review our MVP today. One of our team members said ‘it always amazes me what designers are able to see on a product, it's like they're all wearing 4D glasses’ which I think says it all.Gloria Lin, CEO and Co-founder of Siteline
At Lumen, the high art of product is making a very complex journey simple and delightful for our customers. At one point we got stuck. The product strategy session with Designer Fund was an espresso shot of insight, revealing points of confusion easily reconfigured, and an entirely new perspective on how to design the customer journey.Peter Light, CEO and Co-founder of Lumen Energy
We level up your team with our network of design leaders
As part of our Designer Fund Partnership, you and your design team are invited to be members of Designer Fund Collective, our community of 100+ successful founders, advisors and design leaders at companies like Stripe, Airbnb, Slack, Instagram and more. You can ask specific questions, access how-to guides and make connections via our private Slack workspace. You'll also receive invitations to members-only events and trainings for your team. Our goal is for your team to learn how to use design strategically across your company from product to sales, recruiting and culture.
Over the years, Designer Fund has offered multiple programs—mentoring startup founders, assisting ICs in transitioning into management roles, and even providing a platform to discuss angel investing as a designer. With their help, I’ve grown from being a new grad to a design lead and now a founder. I’m looking forward to another decade of inspiration.Effy Zhang, CEO and Co-founder of baserun.ai
The Designer Fund community has been something that has made our design team feel much larger than it actually is. I’ve had random questions that I’ll post to the community, and the number of people that engage and respond to me makes it feel less like I have to figure all of this out by myself. It feels a lot less lonely to have a wider network to tap into—being a small team of two, you need that sometimes.Kamini Iyer, Design Lead at Lumen Energy
We hone your pitch to close sales and investors
We help you navigate finding a lead VC and value-add investors by making warm introductions and sharing references. We curate lists of recommended co-investors including top-tier angels, seed funds and VC firms. We can also hone your pitch to close investors and customers through feedback sessions, improving your decks, and developing an outreach plan. We aim to be one of the most valuable investors on your cap table and earn the right to continue investing in your company from Seed stage through Series B. Unlike consultants, we’re investors and partners in your business with real skin in the game so our interests are aligned long-term.
Designer Fund has been by our side throughout our fundraising process when others weren't. They helped improve our story, make introductions and be a reference to close new investors.Eugene Johnson, Founder of Revi
Designer Fund was instrumental in helping us find the right lead VC. We felt we had a leg up because of their network, insider recommendations on firms and partners who would be a good fit for us, and warm introductions.Phil Vander Broek, Co-founder of Dopt
How Designer Fund Collective works
When you partner with Designer Fund, our whole team is available to support your company. In addition, we invite you to become part of Designer Fund Collective, a community of some of the best founders, angels, advisors and design leaders in tech from companies like Asana, Dropbox, Instagram, Faire, Pinterest, Shopify, Square, and more, who will help you and your design team succeed. We also aim to match you with a design expert from our network who will provide additional support as an angel investor and/or formal advisor to your company.
How our application works
You can apply for an investment and design support here when applications open, and we’ll respond if there is mutual interest to move on to the next stage. The earlier you apply the better so we have time to get to know each other. Our decision-making process typically happens in 4 steps:
- Review your application (1 - 2 weeks from submission) — We’ll review the info, deck and materials you shared with us as soon as possible. We typically respond within one week with a status update and may request additional information if needed.
- Intro meeting (2 - 4 weeks from submission) — If there’s a potential fit, we’ll schedule an intro meeting to learn more about your team, market and product.
- Q&A and references (4 - 6 weeks from submission) — We'll then follow up with questions about key risks and/or setup a second meeting. In addition, we usually speak with a handful of target customers and founder references.
- Finalize Investment (6 - 8 weeks from submission) — Lastly, we’ll finalize our investment terms based off your current or last round financing. We also want to ensure you’re committed to building a world class design team and will carve out the appropriate budget for your stage.
After you submit your application, our goal is to make a decision as soon as possible on whether partnering makes sense. However, scheduling logistics may stretch our timeline. If our application schedule doesn’t fit your timeline, we recommend that you still apply and note your preferred timing in your application as we may be able to accelerate our process. For more details, check out our FAQ.
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FAQ
Designer Fund Partnership is the best $500K investment and design support offer for early stage startups. We help you hire and manage exceptional design teams, provide expert product and brand design advice, accelerate your fundraising process, and connect you to our community of top designers, founders, and advisors.
Our average investment is $500k for 5% but we understand that may not make sense for every company. Depending on your stage, traction, and funding to date, we can adjust our investment terms.
We ask for pro rata rights for the next two rounds of financing, typically through Series B, along with information rights because we strive to be long-term partners. Over the years we’ve learned that as our partner companies become more successful, their design needs don’t decrease, they increase with the complexity of the organization. It’s important to us that our interests are aligned long-term so we can continue to add value as you scale your design team and face new challenges we can help you overcome.
Yes! We can help improve your pitch, develop an outreach plan, and make warm introductions to potential customers and value-add investors.
We’re primarily looking for early stage tech startups, Pre-seed to Series A, with mission-driven founders who value design and are based in the US. However, we’ll consider making exceptions for both later stage and international companies.
These are some key traits we look for in a company:
- Founders who are mission-driven, value design, and come from diverse backgrounds.
- Businesses that are inherently good for the world and align with our desired impact outcomes: prosperity, health and sustainability for all.
- Orders of magnitude better products compared to alternatives.
- Multi-billion dollar addressable markets which currently have poor user experiences.
For more information about our Fund III thesis, see here.
We’re aiming to invest in companies that are inherently good for the world and align with our desired impact outcomes:
- Health: Increase wellbeing by preventing disease and improving the cost and delivery of care.
- Prosperity: Create pathways, tools, and infrastructure to give more people access to economic growth.
- Sustainability: Replace legacy and harmful products with more efficient and renewable solutions.
We're excited to invest in companies that are looking to use great design to challenge existing health and wellness paradigms. This includes companies building new digital therapeutics, improving key healthcare infrastructure, updating care to be more accessible, preventative, and personalized like Ro. Our companies including August Health (a new operating system for long-term care facilities), Omada Health (building digital therapeutics), and Heartbeat Health ( telemedicine for cardiologists) are all examples of companies improving the cost, delivery, and systems for greater wellbeing.
In addition, we're excited about transferring the best of traditional tech software as a service and applying those lessons to our climate challenges. There are many opportunities for software to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and accelerate our renewable energy transition like our portfolio company Lumen Energy (helping building owners save money with clean energy). Everything from financial services to carbon accounting to electrifying appliances needs to be easier with products like Kopperfield. In addition, we need new alternatives for nearly every product that's still rooted in petroleum and unsustainable supply chains, from food to building materials. There is also a fundamental shift that we must make towards a circular economy that recognizes we are on a planet with limited natural resources for humans to exploit (example: our portfolio company Zero Acre Farms. Another area that design can have an outsized impact is related to increasing awareness, behavior change, and demand for green products among all consumers and commercial buyers, not just wealthy or niche communities who can afford them.
Also, we're excited to use design to help create new economic opportunities for people of all backgrounds and socioeconomic classes. This includes themes like preparing people to transition to modern forms of knowledge work like Formation. We also expect to see more non-traditional ways for people to generate income by monetizing their creativity on platforms such as Podia. In addition, we're looking for products that help level the playing field for SMBs to compete with big incumbents. For example, our portfolio company Stripe helps anyone easily set up a business and accept money online. Another portfolio company, Gusto, relieves SMBs of their back office overhead with modern payroll, benefits, and HR.
During open application periods, apply as early as you can before our deadline. Don’t hesitate to apply regardless of your stage, location, and fundraising timeline.
We recommend that you still apply and note your preferred timing in your application. We also recommend you get a referral to us using this form.
If you miss our application deadline, we recommend getting a referral to us using this form from a member of our community or one of your investors.
No! We love traction and signals of product-market-fit.
Yes, we’re happy to co-invest with other investors. As collaborative, value-add specialists, we complement lead investors, seed funds and angels. If you don’t have new financing terms set by a lead investor, then we’ll ask to invest on our standard terms or base our offer on your last round of funding.
Apply before September 22nd, and we’ll respond within one week about an introductory meeting if there is a good fit. We aim to decide whether to partner within 2 months. For more information about the timeline, read about How our application works.
Approximately 8 per year, however, this may change depending on the quality of applicants.
Generally we prefer startups with mission-driven founders who value design and have a team with complementary skill sets across business, engineering and design.
No, but we prefer that you have a designer on your team. We also look for evidence that the founders value design and are committed to investing in design as strategic advantage for the business.
We mostly invest in U.S. companies however we’ll consider exceptional international companies.
No, but we’re happy to co-invest with accelerators and incubators. In your application to us, let us know if you’re considering participating in an accelerator and whether you were accepted, so we can prioritize your application. We focus on monthly design help tailored to what you need most, instead of a program you have to follow.
We’d like to meet in person at least once during the first year of our partnership, but it’s not a requirement. The majority of our collaborative work sessions can be done remotely, or in major U.S. cities like San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.
Historically, we’ve mostly invested and partnered with startups that are referred to us. Now given the nature of remote work, distributed talent, and our D&I efforts, we aim to increase access to funding and design resources by enabling any founder to apply for a partnership with us.
Designer Fund Partnership is our new model for investing in early stage startups with improvements including:
- An inclusive application and streamlined process.
- Monthly design sessions focused on the most common questions and challenges early stage startups face with design.
- Membership to Designer Fund Collective’s growing community of founders, designers, and advisors.
- New professional development opportunities including events and trainings like our Business Value of Design and Designing Stories workshops.
As part of our Designer Fund Partnership, you and your design team are invited to be members of Designer Fund Collective, but it’s not a requirement. Through the Designer Fund Collective private Slack workspace, members-only events, and trainings, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with top designers, founders, and advisors in our community to share expertise and resources.
That’s great! You will be offered the same Designer Fund Partnership benefits.
Both of our General Partners will work directly with your team. We also aim to match you with a design expert from our network who will provide additional support for an average of four hours per month as an angel investor and/or advisor to your company.
Generally, we work together on a monthly basis for the first year and quarterly basis thereafter. You can reach out to us anytime and request support as needed.
We also aim to match you with a design expert from our network who will provide additional support for an average of four hours per month as an angel investor and/or advisor to your company.
As part of our Partnership, we'll share a roster of our advisors you can contact for ad hoc questions and occasional office hours. If you would like to have more time with an advisor on an ongoing basis, we'll help match you with one (double opt-in) and recommend setting up a formal advisory agreement on our standard terms, e.g. 0.1% or $10K for 1 year, depending on your company stage.
Typically angels and advisors don’t make large investments and aren’t dedicated to investing full-time. They usually only help for a period of time with narrower expertise, and then become passive. Designer Fund makes larger investments, has been specializing in early stage venture for nearly a decade and is committed to being a partner long-term. We’re complementary to design angel investors and advisors on your cap table and welcome collaborating with them because there is never a shortage of design work to done. We also actively try to match you angels and advisors in our network who can add-value.
There are two ways to work them:
- Design angels: during our application process or after we commit to investing, we’ll invite relevant design angels in our community to review your application, and if there’s mutual interest, we’ll introduce you to consider adding them on your cap table.
- Design advisors: during our application process or after we commit to investing, we’ll invite relevant design advisors in our community to review your application, and if there’s mutual interest, we’ll introduce you to consider adding them as a formal advisor to your team. In addition, we can connect you to design advisors in our network to share domain expertise informally on an ad hoc basis.
Unlike consultants, we’re investors and partners with equity in your business, so our interests are aligned long-term. We’re complementary to design freelancers and studios who are often great for specific expertise that may be needed at various stages of the company. We maintain relationships with curated freelancers and studios that we can recommend and help manage those relationships to effectively get the best work from them.