Founder Testimonials

It’s rare to find an investment firm that prioritizes and understands design like Designer Fund. In working with them, we found the support we needed to build the product and brand we envisioned. When it comes to building impressive and impactful products, hiring talented designers, or helping navigate growth, there is no one better than Designer Fund. Max Hsieh, CTO of Forma

Designer Fund has been one of our earliest backers and helped us raise our seed round. They've built one of the most supportive design communities and networks that you should want on your cap table. Sofya Polyakov, Co-founder of Noun Project

Designer Fund is one of the kindest, smartest, and most thoughtful funds you'll ever work with. Partnering with them has helped us grow our design team and develop a rigorously design strategy. Sam Hashemi, Co-founder of Felt

Designer Fund has been a phenomenal partner to Omada Health. Even many years post investment, they send design talent our way, offer design perspectives, and proactively ask how they can help. Sean Duffy, CEO of Omada Health

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

Designer Fund has been very supportive at every stage of AtoB’s product evolution. From helping us hire the right designers to providing regular feedback about our product design and being a constant sounding board on company matters, their partnership has been invaluable to us. Ben and Enrique are among the best design minds in the industry and a pleasure to work with and learn from. Vignan Velivela, Co-founder of AtoB

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

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

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

Designer Fund was one of our seed stage investors who've been with us for a large part of our journey. They've always been incredibly supportive, including helping with design hiring and interviewing as well as thinking through the role of design in our organization. They even went as far as helping design our Series A deck back in the day which led to 5+ term sheets! Matt Billmann, Co-founder of Netlify

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

Foundation is a design-led company in a space that has traditionally eschewed the value of design. Designer Fund has been our partner since day 1 of our journey. Designer Fund’s network and Enrique and Ben’s counsel have been instrumental to us as we've grown and reshaped public perceptions around web3. Matt Vernon, Co-founder of Foundation

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

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

Designer Fund's Enrique Allen and Ben Blumenrose are doing it right, with heart. I'm proud to be an LP and get a chance to participate in what they enable. They've stood behind designer-founders and companies willing to put design front-and-center in their business strategy for a long time now. Most designers in tech owe this crew more than they realize for their contributions to how the discipline has progressed. Randy Hunt, Chief Product Officer, Morning