Resources
Guides and templates for the community
Access the frameworks we use with portfolio founders and design leaders. Each resource is now modelled as structured content in Sanity.
Culture
We’ve documented how hundreds of high-performance design teams operate. Patterns show that successful.
Fundraising
Fundraising
Designer Fund Guide to Designing Your Fundraising Process
Fundraising
Designer Fund's Guide to Building a Winning VC Pitch Deck
If you’re looking to land VC funding for your company, one of the smartest investments you can make is to build a stellar pitch deck. We share what we think truly makes a great deck—and where and why founders go wrong.
Hiring and Managing Designers
Discover resources for optimizing design hiring and building effective design teams.
Hiring and Managing Designers
The Comprehensive Guide to Building Your Startup Design Team
Drawing from our deeply knowledgable network and some of our own experiences, we’ve put together a list of advice, proven tips, and resources you can use to build your first design team.
Hiring and Managing Designers
How to Succeed as a Design Manager at a Startup
We asked several design leaders in our community to help answer the six most common questions designers have about succeeding as a design manager, especially at startups.
Hiring and Managing Designers
Designer Fund Job Board
Discover great roles at mission-driven startups that value design through our job board.
Hiring and Managing Designers
A Founders' Guide to Hiring your First Designer
Understand who the right first designer is for your company and how to build an environment where design can thrive.
Women in Design
Through our Women in Design event series, we aspire to elevate female perspectives that will help women craft fulfilling careers as leaders within their companies.
Design Management & Leadership
We’ve documented how hundreds of high-performance design teams operate. Patterns show that successful.
Design Management & Leadership
Driving Impact Through Design: A Fireside Chat with Alissa Briggs
Alissa Briggs shares invaluable lessons on driving significant business outcomes through design decisions, navigating a company acquisition, using facilitative leadership to align and empower her team, and more.
Design Management & Leadership
Design for Business Impact Case Study Library
Design Management & Leadership
A Design Team’s Guide to Leveling
Design Management & Leadership
3 Ways To Be A Better Design Leader
Design Management & Leadership
Achieving Alignment in the Design Process
Design Management & Leadership
How to Communicate the ROI of Design
Design Management & Leadership
Design Critiques: How to Maintain Trust at Scale
Design Management & Leadership
Thrown into Management: Lessons Learned Leading Thumbtack’s Design Team
Design Management & Leadership
How to Create a Process Map for Your Team
Design Management & Leadership
Level Up: A Framework for Growing High-Performing Design Teams
See how your team stacks up against others of its size with this seven-question self-assessment, developed by Heather Phillips in partnership with Designer Fund and Ueno. You’ll see where you excel, pinpoint what needs work, and get a worksheet to try it with your team.
Design for Business Impact Case Studies
Designers need to understand and demonstrate how their work impacts the success of their business. Leaders outside of design also need to know how to use design more strategically. By open-sourcing rare case studies from both multi-billion dollar companies and early stage startups, we aim to help you use design as a strategic business partner at your company.
Company Building
Company Building
What You Need to Know Before Becoming a Designer Founder
Company Building
Climate Tech Primer for Founders
We know it can be overwhelming if you're new to Climate Tech, so we're highlighting some of the basics for founders, designers and builders who want to solve earth scale problems.
Company Building
A Guide for Working with Design Freelancers and Creative Studios
Nearly every startup needs creative help at some point in their lifecycle—often during key inflection points, such as raising funds, upleveling into a new market, or communicating who they are to the world for the very first time. Freelancers, studios, and agencies can also be more than just an extra pair of hands; they can be strategic thought partners, helping you create work that is core to your business.
For Founders
Resources to help founders harness design as a strategic advantage and create businesses with meaningful impact.
For Founders
How to Build a Design-Forward Company: Lessons from Northstar’s Will Peng
We sat down with Will to get some of his advice around building a design-forward company, starting with his first product iteration to now. What do designer-founders need to know—and what can founders from non-design backgrounds learn to help them gain a competitive advantage?
For Founders
Building Design Teams From the Ground Up
How do you build a great design org from the ground up? Here are best practices and advice from three design leaders in our community on hiring designers at early-stage startups.
For Founders
Designer for Business Impact Case Studies
By open-sourcing rare case studies from both multi-billion dollar companies and early stage startups, we aim to help you use design as a strategic business partner at your company.
For Founders
The Future of Design Entrepreneurship
Career Guidance
We've put together resources for designers at all stages
Career Guidance
Climate Tech Guide for Designers
We put together this guide to help designers build a career in climate tech and discover companies that are paving the future of sustainability.
Career Guidance
How to Ace Your Portfolio Presentation
Career Guidance
Going Pro – What it Takes to be a Lead Designer at a Top Startup
Career Guidance
How to Understand and Negotiate Your Startup Compensation
Career Guidance
5 Dos and Don’ts for Your Design Portfolio
Career Guidance
The Right Way to Accept a Job Offer
Career Guidance
A Designer’s Guide to Working in Tech
Craft and Practice
We’ve documented how hundreds of high-performance design teams operate. Patterns show that successful.
Craft and Practice
The ROI of Branding: Best Practices for a High-Impact Project
Craft and Practice
Stripe: Embedding Design into the Fiber of Fintech
Design has had an impact at Stripe because it is valued, nurtured from the top, and focuses on making a positive impact on people.
Craft and Practice
3 Tips for Designing Behavior Change
Craft and Practice
To Drive Growth, Dive into Data
Craft and Practice
How to Use Photography in Branding
Craft and Practice
How to Use Photography in UI
Craft and Practice