Ben Blumenrose - Investing in the next wave of design founders
Dive Club 🤿12 Syys 2024

Ben Blumenrose - Investing in the next wave of design founders

Ben Blumenrose was one of the earliest designers at Facebook and has spent the last 12 years as a co-founder and Managing Partner of Designer Fund. That’s allowed him to invest in many of the design founders that you’ve heard from on this shown (like Jorn from Framer or Colin from Visual Electric).

So the goal of this conversation is to tap into Ben’s perspective as a designer turned investor. This episode creates a blueprint for people interested in designing for startups or maybe even building a company of your own.

Some highlights:

  • The story of investing in Framer
  • How second-time founders think differently
  • Understanding your gaps as a design founder
  • What it looks like to truly act as an owner at a startup
  • What Ben looks for when investing in design founders
  • What types of market opportunities Ben is most excited about
  • How Ben transformed customer support in his first month at FB
  • The things you should be learning on the job before launching a startup
  • a lot more

Apply for the Designer Fund Partnership program

Jaksot(186)

Rooz Mahdavian - Designing frontier interfaces at Neuralink and Apple

Rooz Mahdavian - Designing frontier interfaces at Neuralink and Apple

We’re talking about craft in B2B SaaS... but what is it like designing for frontier interfaces like the Apple watch or even neural interfaces?We find out in this week’s episode with Rooz Mahdavian. (h...

3 Loka 202556min

Escha Vera - Designing Perplexity’s Comet and Using AI Like an Artist

Escha Vera - Designing Perplexity’s Comet and Using AI Like an Artist

Imagine it’s your first day as a designer at Perplexity... and the VP of Design hands you the keys for their all-new AI browser, [Comet](https://www.perplexity.ai/comet).That’s the story for [Escha Ve...

26 Syys 202557min

Carl Rivera - Shopify’s big bet on design and craft as the differentiator

Carl Rivera - Shopify’s big bet on design and craft as the differentiator

What does the perfect e-commerce platform look like in an AI era?That’s the question Shopify’s Chief Design Officer Carl Rivera has set out to answer so this week’s episode is all about Shopify’s big ...

19 Syys 202551min

Catt Small - How staff designers build influence and lead as ICs

Catt Small - How staff designers build influence and lead as ICs

Only a select few have multiple episodes on Dive Club and today Catt Small joins the ranks.She has a gift for turning messy ideas into practical next steps so it’s no wonder her Staff Designer course ...

12 Syys 202557min

Sara Vienna - Taste, Meaning, and How to Stand Out in an AI world

Sara Vienna - Taste, Meaning, and How to Stand Out in an AI world

What does it take to make people feel something with design...?This week's guest is kind of an expert on the question. Sara Vienna (https://x.com/sravienna?lang=en) , the Chief Design Officer at Metal...

6 Syys 20251h 2min

Gabe Valdivia - How to Thrive as an Independent Designer

Gabe Valdivia - How to Thrive as an Independent Designer

I think we're entering a world where the market for fractional design is about to explode…So this week's episode is with one of my favorite people in the industry, Gabe Valdivia.We're going to explore...

29 Elo 202557min

Behind the scenes of the Inflight startup pitchđź’ˇ

Behind the scenes of the Inflight startup pitchđź’ˇ

Too much of designing a startup happens behind closed doorsSo I want to work with the garage door open while building Inflight (https://www.inflight.co/) as much as possible.You already saw a bunch of...

27 Elo 202510min

Dan Winer - How to become more strategic and advance your career

Dan Winer - How to become more strategic and advance your career

What does it look like to advance your career in the age of AI? That’s what this week’s episode with Dan Winer (Director of Product Design at Kit) is all about. He shares insights from his top-rated M...

22 Elo 202559min