Blog
Insights from Designer Fund
Articles, guides, and interviews that document what we learn from supporting design-driven founders and leaders.
June 23, 2025 | Designer Fund
Welcome Jackie Berardo to the Designer Fund Investment Team
May 20, 2025 | Robyn Park
Four Shifts Designers Can’t Ignore in the Age of AI
April 9, 2025 | Ben Blumenrose
A Historic Moment for Designer Founders
March 5, 2025 | Majo Molfino, Ben Blumenrose, Steve Vassallo
Announcing the Enrique Allen Memorial Scholarship
November 13, 2024 | Designer Fund
How to Unlock Product Success Through Growth Design
September 26, 2024 | Ben Blumenrose
Designer Fund Guide to Designing Your Fundraising Process
September 4, 2024 | Designer Fund
Applications Open for Designer Fund Partnership
August 7, 2024 | Designer Fund
8 Startups Using Design to Create Climate Solutions
June 20, 2024 | Designer Fund
Welcoming Marissa Cui and Nina Mehta to Designer Fund
May 16, 2024 | Designer Fund
Brand Building in the AI Era: Q&A with Jessica Rosenberg
May 8, 2024 | Designer Fund
A Designer's Guide to Climate Tech
March 25, 2024 | Santhi Analytis
How to Design Climate-Forward AI Companies
March 12, 2024 | Santhi Analytis
How Sway is Turning Seaweed Into Plastic and Designing a More Sustainable Future
January 23, 2024 | Designer Fund
The Future of 3D Design: An Interview with Bezi's Co-Founder Cecilia Uhr
December 12, 2023 | Designer Fund
How Figma, Midjourney, Databricks, and Modyfi Harness AI with Design
October 25, 2023 | Designer Fund
The Top 10 Talks on the Future of AI and Design From 2023
October 3, 2023 | Designer Fund
The Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Startup Design Team
September 6, 2023 | Ben Blumenrose
Designer Fund Guide to Building a Winning VC Pitch Deck
August 30, 2023 | Designer Fund
How to Build a Design-Forward Company: Lessons from Northstar’s Will Peng
August 1, 2023 | Ben Blumenrose
What You Need to Know Before Becoming a Designer Founder
July 13, 2023 | Designer Fund
Meet Santhi Analytis, Our New Venture Fellow
July 12, 2023 | Danielle LaRoy & Jessica Strelioff
The ROI of Branding: Best Practices for a High-Impact Project
July 6, 2023 | Designer Fund
How to Succeed as a Design Manager at a Startup
May 10, 2023 | Designer Fund
Leading the Way to Climate Impact Through Design: Meet Lumen Energy
April 13, 2023 | Designer Fund
Building a Product People Love: Q&A with Figma’s Jenny Wen
February 6, 2023 | Designer Fund
Setting Up & Scaling DesignOps: Q&A with Taylor Oliva
November 17, 2022 | Designer Fund
Building Design Teams From the Ground Up
October 27, 2022 | Designer Fund
Demystifying the Founding Designer Role
October 17, 2022 | Designer Fund
Monograph's Design DNA: Q&A with Moe Amaya
September 28, 2022 | Ben Blumenrose
Announcing Designer Fund – Fund III
September 21, 2022 | Designer Fund
Announcing Dopt: Building for Builders
September 7, 2022 | Robyn Park
Driving Impact Through Design: A Fireside Chat with Alissa Briggs
July 28, 2022 | Robyn Park
From Twic to Forma: Rebranding the world of benefits
May 24, 2022 | Designer Fund
6 Companies Building the Future of Creative Tools
February 9, 2022 | Designer Fund
Open Roles at Companies That Value Design
January 26, 2022 | Enrique Allen
Design at Gusto: Keeping Collaboration and Customers at the Core
October 20, 2021 | Ben Blumenrose
Announcing Mage: Helping more businesses harness AI
September 13, 2021 | Ben Blumenrose
Embedding Design into the Fiber of Fintech
July 14, 2021 | Designer Fund
Summer Design Office Hours
April 22, 2021 | Enrique Allen
Climate Tech Primer for Founders
April 22, 2021 | Enrique Allen
A Primer on Climate Tech for Founders
April 16, 2021 | Designer Fund
A Primer on Climate Tech for Founders OLD OLD
April 1, 2021 | Designer Fund
Our Continued Commitment to Building a More Inclusive Design & Venture Ecosystem
March 30, 2021 | Designer Fund
Equipping Underrepresented Designers to Grow as Business Leaders
December 21, 2020 | Designer Fund
Announcing Revi: Helping Local Businesses Thrive
October 29, 2020 | Designer Fund
Design for Business Impact featuring Gusto & Zendesk
September 17, 2020 | Designer Fund
Diversity Scholarships Available for Business Essentials Workshop
September 9, 2020 | Heather Phillips
A Founders’ Guide to Hiring your First Designer
July 28, 2020 | Nathalie Arbel and Kelsey Aroian
A Guide for Working with Design Freelancers and Creative Studios
July 6, 2020 | Designer Fund
Design for Business Impact Featuring Twitter & Slack
June 18, 2020 | Designer Fund
Office Hours for Black & Underrepresented Founders
June 8, 2020 | Designer Fund
Building a More Inclusive Design + Venture Ecosystem
April 29, 2020 | Designer Fund
Design for Business Impact featuring Dropbox & Pinterest
April 15, 2020 | Designer Fund
Announcing Primer: Create a Space You Love
April 2, 2020 | Designer Fund
Recommended Books from LA Design Leaders
March 6, 2020 | Designer Fund
Announcing Northstar: Automating Personal Finance
January 28, 2020 | Enrique Allen
20 Levers for Communicating the Business Impact of Design
December 16, 2019 | Patrick Weiss
Taking the “I” Out of Design
December 6, 2019 | Designer Fund
Recommended reading from design leaders
September 10, 2019 | Ben Blumenrose
Announcing Flatfile: AI-powered data importing
May 22, 2019 | Ben Blumenrose
Designer Fund raises $23.5M Fund II to fix the design gap in tech
February 20, 2019 | Designer Fund
Design for Business Impact in SF, NYC and more
October 16, 2018 | Designer Fund
3 Case Studies on the Business Impact of Design: Pinterest, Gusto, & Slack
October 9, 2018 | Designer Fund
Announcing Heartbeat: Redesigning Cardiology
September 19, 2018 | Patrick Weiss
3 Tips for Designing Behavior Change
September 5, 2018 | Designer Fund
4 Ways Design Can Improve our Healthcare System
August 23, 2018 | Designer Fund
Join us for The Business Impact of Design on September 12th
July 24, 2018 | Designer Fund
An Evening on Designing for Digital Health
July 17, 2018 | Designer Fund
It’s Time to Redesign Design Tools: 5 Ways to Create A Healthier Ecosystem For Designers
December 21, 2017 | Designer Fund
Our 2017 Investments in Design Innovation
November 7, 2017 | Designer Fund
10 Design Leaders on How to Empower Women in the Workplace
October 26, 2017 | Designer Fund
The Future of Design Entrepreneurship
October 18, 2017 | Julie Norvaisas
Helping Each Other: Safe Spaces
October 11, 2017 | Designer Fund
Moxxly Acquired to Redesign the Breast Pump Experience
September 6, 2017 | Designer Fund
Women in Design 2017: Women Working Together
August 30, 2017 | Amanda Linden
How I Build Effective Design Teams
July 18, 2017 | Designer Fund
Behind the Rebrand: How Hustle is Designing for Impact
June 22, 2017 | Mia Blume
Shaping Design Culture
June 6, 2017 | Audrey Liu
Thrown Into Management: Lessons Learned Leading Thumbtack’s Design Team
May 31, 2017 | Ben Blumenrose
Introducing Framer Design, Bridging The Gap Between Code and Design
May 9, 2017 | Designer Fund
Approachable, Human Design: How an Illustrator & Letterer Bring the Gusto Brand to Life
April 25, 2017 | Designer Fund
Respect the Maker: How to Weave Creativity Back into Your Day to Day
April 18, 2017 | Ben Blumenrose
Announcing Better: Improving Your Health Insurance Experience
April 3, 2017 | Willem Van Lancker
A Designer’s Guide to Working in Tech
March 14, 2017 | Designer Fund
Design Leadership: Insights from Source Summit 2017
February 27, 2017 | Designer Fund
Career Spotlight: Ed Lea, Product Designer at Google
February 3, 2017 | Heather Phillips
The Right Way to Accept a Job Offer
January 23, 2017 | Designer Fund
Announcing Bridge 2017
December 8, 2016 | Designer Fund
Design Critiques: How to Maintain Trust at Scale
November 29, 2016 | Designer Fund
How to Communicate the ROI of Design
November 29, 2016 | Designer Fund
Getting to Yes: Achieving Alignment in the Design Process
November 29, 2016 | Designer Fund
3 Ways To Be A Better Design Leader
November 29, 2016 | Designer Fund
A Design Team’s Guide to Leveling
October 25, 2016 | Ben Blumenrose
How AND CO is Designing a System to Take Care of Freelancers
June 17, 2016 | Ben Blumenrose
Recommended Tools by Designer Founder Guild
May 12, 2016 | Enrique Allen
Designer Fund Announces Designer Founder Guild to Help Designers Build Companies
May 10, 2016 | Designer Fund
How to Trust Yourself: Insights from 6 Top Women Leaders in Design & Tech
May 3, 2016 | Enrique Allen
Designer Fund raises over $20M to invest in great design, tech and community
March 22, 2016 | Ben Blumenrose
Introducing Lingo – A Home for Your Visual Language
March 10, 2016 | Ben Blumenrose
Introducing Coach (Now Podia): A New Way to Run Your Tutoring Business
February 25, 2016 | Designer Fund
5 Dos and Don’ts for Your Design Portfolio
October 15, 2015 | Designer Fund
Magical Experiences: Monument Valley
October 8, 2015 | Designer Fund
How to Use Your Space to Change Behavior
October 5, 2015 | Ben Blumenrose
How to Understand and Negotiate Your Startup Compensation
October 1, 2015 | Designer Fund
Insights from “Designing for Financial Services”
September 25, 2015 | Designer Fund
A Designer’s Guide to Joining a Startup
September 9, 2015 | Designer Fund
How to Use Photography in UI
August 31, 2015 | Designer Fund
Women in design share keys to creative confidence
August 25, 2015 | Designer Fund
How to Get Unstuck and other Tips with Jessica Hische
August 18, 2015 | Ben Blumenrose
Introducing Wake – A New Way to Share and Discuss Design Work
August 12, 2015 | Ben Blumenrose
Join us for Design for Financial Services
August 10, 2015 | Ben Blumenrose
What I’ve Learned Building Storehouse
August 7, 2015 | Designer Fund
When Your Side Project Becomes Your Main Gig
August 3, 2015 | Ben Blumenrose
What I’ve Learned Building Elevate
July 30, 2015 | Designer Fund
Women in Design: Creative Confidence
July 29, 2015 | Designer Fund
How to Use Photography in Branding
July 22, 2015 | Designer Fund
A Labor of Love: Designers and their Side Projects
June 2, 2015 | Enrique Allen
Design For Edu
April 24, 2015 | Ben Blumenrose
Operator – Designing a Better Way for People and Businesses to Connect
March 3, 2015 | Ben Blumenrose
The Next Generation of Creative Tools
October 23, 2014 | Ben Blumenrose
Going Pro – What it takes to be a lead designer at a top startup
October 21, 2014 | Designer Fund
How Rules and Repetition Inspire Creativity
October 8, 2014 | Ben Blumenrose
Coursera Design – An Inside Look
October 2, 2014 | Enrique Allen
Bridge Preview Night with Biz Stone
September 30, 2014 | Ben Blumenrose
Tips for Building a World Class Design Portfolio
September 18, 2014 | Ben Blumenrose
How to Ace Your Portfolio Presentation
February 27, 2014 | Ben Blumenrose
Day in the Life at Airbnb: Steph Bain
February 26, 2014 | Ben Blumenrose
Two Steps Back: Growing Your Career by Embracing the Unknown
February 18, 2014 | Designer Fund
Learning from Twitter to Make Medium
November 7, 2013 | Designer Fund
To Drive Growth, Dive into Data
October 23, 2013 | Designer Fund
Designing a Better Way to Work
July 12, 2013 | Ben Blumenrose
Day in the Life at Dropbox: Rasmus Andersson
July 11, 2013 | Ben Blumenrose
Interviewing with Startups: Tips for Designers
July 10, 2013 | Ben Blumenrose
Day in the Life at Path: Jenny Ji
July 9, 2013 | Ben Blumenrose
Day in the Life at Asana: Andrew Watterson
July 3, 2013 | Ben Blumenrose
Day in the Life at Pinterest: Jason Wilson
June 28, 2013 | Ben Blumenrose
Day in the Life at Rdio: Ryan Sims
March 10, 2013 | Ben Blumenrose
Interview with Stripe’s Ludwig Pettersson
March 8, 2013 | Designer Fund
Why Andrew Watterson Designs at Asana
November 13, 2012 | Ben Blumenrose
Designing a New Medical Record
October 9, 2012 | Designer Fund