Deadline: 31-Oct-22
The Designer Fund Partnership is now open for applications.
Designer Fund Partnership is the best investment and design support offer for early stage startups with an average investment of $500K, monthly design help to hire and manage exceptional design teams, expert product and brand design advice, and professional development with their community of top designers.
They are looking for early stage companies, Pre-seed to Series A, that use design to improve health, prosperity, and sustainability for all.
Funding Information
- You can apply for an average investment of $500K and design support.
- They looking for early stage companies, Pre-seed to Series A, that use design to improve health, prosperity, and sustainability for all. Their average investment is $500K for 5% but they understand that may not make sense for every company. Depending on your traction and funding to date, they can adjust their investment terms.
What are you looking for in a company?
- Founders who are mission-driven, value design and come from diverse backgrounds
- Businesses that are inherently good for the world and align with their desired impact outcomes: prosperity, health and sustainability for all
- Orders of magnitude better products compared to alternatives
- Multi-billion dollar addressable markets with poor user experiences
How their Design Support Works?
- New Designer Fund Partnerships will kick off by this December and include monthly design help tailored to what you need throughout 2023. They are not an accelerator and they don’t have a curriculum you have to follow. Rather, They focus on the following types of collaborative work sessions when you need them most:
- Kickoff: They start with an onboarding meeting to better understand your milestones for the next year and how they can best help you accomplish them.
- Hiring: They assess your design needs and support your recruitment process whether you’re looking for a project based contractor or a full-time employee.
- Design management: As you hire a team, they can coach them to overcome challenges while scaling high-performing design teams.
- Design advice: They host office hours to provide feedback on your product, brand and how to use design strategically across your business.
- Professional development: They connect you to design leaders and advisors in their community for specific expertise via the Designer Fund Collective private Slack workspace and invite you to members-only events and trainings.
- Pitch support: They make warm introductions to potential customers, lead VCs and value-add investors, hone your pitch, and develop an outreach plan.
- After one year of monthly design help, they will shift to a quarterly cadence and help with any of these areas on demand. You’ll continue to have access to the growing Designer Fund Collective community, how-to resources and professional development opportunities as they strive to keep adding value long after the seed stage.
Eligibility Criteria
- They are primarily looking for early stage tech startups, Pre-seed to Series A, with mission-driven founders who value design that are based in the US. However, they consider making exceptions for later stage companies.
Criteria
- You can apply for an investment and design support here by October 31st and we’ll respond within one week (7 business days). The earlier you apply the better so they have time to get to know each other. Their decision-making process typically happens in 4 steps:
- Review your materials by November 9th — they will review the info, deck and materials you shared with them and respond within one week with a status update about whether to meet.
- Intro meeting by November 18th — If there’s a potential fit, they will schedule an intro meeting to learn more about your team, market and product.
- Q&A and references by December 9th — Then they will follow up with questions about key risks and/or a follow-up meeting. In addition, they usually speak with a few references to better understand your team and customers.
- Finalize Investment by December 16th — Lastly, they will finalize their investment terms based off your current or last round financing. They also want to ensure you’re committed to building a world class design team and will carve out the appropriate budget for your stage.
- After you submit your application, their goal is to make a decision as soon as possible on whether a Designer Fund Partnership makes sense, however, scheduling logistics may stretch their timeline to 3-6 weeks. If their application schedule doesn’t fit your timeline, they recommend that you still apply and note your preferred timing in your application.
For more information, visit https://www.designerfund.com/page/partnership
