Designer Fund

We are looking for talented product and design engineers Lemni. If you’re hungry for mentorship, eager to master your craft, and passionate about building beautiful AI augmented tools, come join our in-person team in Amsterdam. Junior Product Engineer → https://lnkd.in/gHPrMHny Junior Design Engineer → https://lnkd.in/gU4xVEiu Other roles, including senior positions → https://lnkd.in/gDm3A49a

It's with a lot of emotion--both heavy and light--and much excitement that Ben Blumenrose, Majo Molfino, and I would like to announce the Enrique Allen Memorial Scholarship at Stanford University. One of Enrique's life missions was to give every designer a seat at the startup table—to push them to think bigger, beyond the craft, and in the context of the larger universe. This memorial scholarship was his very last design project (a perpetual pay-it-forward of sorts) and we’re so thrilled to extend his legacy and empower countless curious minds who embody his values and light-bearing purpose. Humongous thank you to Trae and Jocelyn as well as our fellow founding donors... ???? Joe G. Christina & Evan Sharp Lenny Rachitsky & Michelle Rial Eric Giovanola & Jess Mike Davidson & Chelan Kelly Elliot Loh Kathleen & Dan Bomze Dylan Field Soleio & Kater Craig Mod Didier Hilhorst Scott Belsky Malthe Sigurdsson Paul Holland & Linda Yates

Announcing the Enrique Allen Memorial Scholarship at Stanford University! In the weeks since Enrique's passing we've been thinking a lot about how to honor the legacy he wanted to leave behind. Stanford and the Stanford d.School held a very special place in his heart. It's where he discovered his love for design and met incredible people that would go on to shape the early part of his career. We want more people who embody his ambition, love of community service, passion for design/tech, and desire to change the world to have that same opportunity. If you'd like to make a gift and join us in setting this up, you can do so here - https://lnkd.in/g62KFNhq Lastly, in addition to my wife Jocelyn and me, this scholarship was made possible by some key founding members. We would like to give a special thank you to the following people for helping us establish this scholarship and honor Enrique's legacy: Steve Vassallo & Trae Vassallo Joe G. Christina & Evan Sharp Lenny Rachitsky & Michelle Rial Eric & Jess Mike Davidson & Chelan Kelly Elliot Loh Dan Bomze & Kathleen Bomze Dylan Field Soleio & Kater Craig Mod Didier Hilhorst Malthe Sigurdsson Scott Belsky If you're interested in becoming a founding member with a larger contribution, please email [email protected]. We'd love to discuss how we can honor Enrique's memory together. You can read more about this scholarship here - https://lnkd.in/g287ax-m

At IDEO I watched as software-powered tools transformed designers from craftspeople into systems architects. AI now drives an even more profound evolution. Come join Katie Dill, Head of Design at Stripe, and me next Saturday at SXSW as we explore how AI opens up exciting new possibilities for human-AI workflows, creative collaboration, and the expanding role of designers. After the panel, we’ll continue the conversation at an evening happy hour hosted with our friends at Designer Fund and Framer (no badge necessary). See you in Austin! ??

Accounting is overdue for a redesign. Too many businesses wrestle with delayed cycles, confusing interfaces, and countless hours spent on manual tasks. As an engineer who spent years building financial systems and credit cards from the ground up, Helen Hastings experienced these pain points firsthand. She saw how traditional accounting software made it nearly impossible to answer basic financial questions without immense custom work. Built thoughtfully by a team of experts who've built financial systems at Stripe and Affirm and led accounting at Notion and Intercom, Quanta helps 100x accountants through real-time financial data and automation that lets them focus on strategic work. Congratulations to the entire Quanta team on today's launch! Try it here—pre-seed companies get a discount until April 15th: https://www.usequanta.com More on their story here: https://bit.ly/quanta-tc

AI is challenging long-held assumptions about design processes, tooling, and the role of designers themselves. On March 8th at #SXSW, join Katie Dill, Head of Design at Stripe, and Steve Vassallo, General Partner at Foundation Capital, as they explore where AI is creating real impact for design teams and what designers can do to adapt and thrive in this new era. It’s a conversation we’re excited to help bring to the SXSW stage. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gVnxQQsv That same evening (Saturday, March 8th at 5pm) we’re teaming up with Foundation Capital and Framer to host a design happy hour in Austin. Whether you're local or just in town for the conference, come grab a drink and meet fellow designers! RSVP for the free event: https://lu.ma/w7y344gr

This is what we mean when we say now is the time for designers to come and make AI useful and functional for people/companies. It's one thing to say AI agents will help you automate workflows, etc. etc. It's another to actually make that experience easy for a company to set up and manage. If AI agents will help us do work, how do i set them up easily? How can my team see what the agents are doing and make sure they're doing what we want them to do? This is what it looks like to sweat those details and make high quality software. Not surprising that Krijn Rijshouwer spent years with Jorn van Dijk and Koen Bok at Framer understanding how high quality products are made and decided to become a founder himself :) Try it out here - https://lemni.com/

I keep hearing the same question from designers in Austin: “Where does everyone hang out?” This city has incredible design talent, but the opportunities to get together are few and far between. That's why we're hosting a design happy hour with Foundation Capital and Framer on Saturday, March 8th at 5pm. Come by for drinks, food, and a chance to connect with designers from Austin and beyond. We'd love to see you there, whether you’re local or just in town for #SXSW. RSVP here: https://lu.ma/w7y344gr If you know a designer in Austin, send this their way ??

Euclid is hiring, and I'm looking for a senior product designer to pair with me on projects across the board. Please apply through the job posting or send me your recommendations.?? * I may not be able to respond directly to all LI messages but will take note.

So a recent chat with Jenny Wen about the future of product design made me wonder if what we're experiencing in software is similar to what happened with poker. Meaning - In poker, for many years the people with both talent and time to get reps in became the best in the game - Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, etc. As poker became popular younger players played online and started playing multiple tables at once. Some with even 8+ tables going all at once. What that meant was the learning happened at orders-of-magnitude greater speed and new exceptional players emerged way much more quickly. So in software, 10-15 years ago you had an idea, you designed it for a few weeks, maybe another few weeks of building and then you get feedback on whether your hunch was correct. Engineers maybe went from idea to test in half the time but at less fidelity. But still took days/weeks. But now, designers who want to build software have a way to get way faster reps in. They can potentially build and learn in hours/days what used to take us weeks or months. This means that it's not just that they're faster at building, but faster at LEARNING. That's key because the predominant thing we hear in design right now is - what will happen to the junior designers?! HOWEVER, it could be that the junior designers, they're the ones that will thrive. In 1-2 years, they'll have experience that took us 10+ years. AND they'll have the new way of working as their default. So it could be that young designers are actually best equipped right now to succeed if they approach it correctly and the rest of us are in a “adapt or die” moment... Have a great weekend all and thanks again Jenny for the conversation :)