Ben Blumenrose
@benblumenrose
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Co-founder @designerfund | Investor in @Stripe , @GustoHQ , @Omadahealth , @Netlify , @commurehealth , @HummingbirdFin , @framer - Always hiring designers
Joined March 2008
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Pinned Tweet
Any product designers in-between jobs doing freelancing these days? A number of companies looking for support have reached out this past week...
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Increasingly becoming convinced that now is a great time to tackle a meaningful problem with 2-3 people, raise $500k - $1.5M at a fair valuation, and do some heads down building. Seed funds are open for business, talent is looking for work, and no shortage of problems to solve.
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Man the need for skilled Product/UX Designers is so ridiculously high right now. Most of our companies are hiring for this role and it's similar across all tech companies. We need to at least 10x # of design schools, design bootcamps, professional development programs, etc.
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For designers who see their path as: designer > senior designer > design manager > design director/VP of Design/CDO. Where do you want to go after you "climbed the ladder"? Stay as VP? Founder? Teach?
Been talking to a number of design leaders who are having a "now what" moment.
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Senior designer would’ve titled it “Gifts”, used larger type with more contrast for product names, shown an example with a longer product name, presented it as a working prototype, etc. the chasm between good and great is not just ability to kern sadly…
Junior vs Senior Designer
Can you spot the difference? 👀
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Lots of layoffs hitting designers while at the same time there are thousands of jobs for designers (e.g.
@stripe
alone has 30 open product design roles to fill) Has anyone seen a spreadsheet/airtable of recently laid off designers?
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Excited to announce
@designerfund
Fund II, a new $23.5M fund that brings our total funds under management to $43.5M. We’ll continue to invest in mission-driven entrepreneurs who are committed to using design to improve the world.
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Anyone move to have Arc from The Browser Company be their default browser - ? If so curious how you use it differently than Chrome/FF...
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Nearly a decade ago,
@EnriqueAllen
and I set out to bring great design to early-stage startups. We believed doing so would ensure the next generation of products and services would better serve the world. It’s taken a village to get here but the progress is undeniable: [1/7]
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There’s a list of VCs to avoid because they stood up for Israel but it’s incomplete! Use this more complete list when considering your fundraise. It has over 800 funds that should be avoided (of course avoid all partners at those funds too) -
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Hearing about more designers getting interested in angel investing/doing more angel investing. Let me know if you'd like us to add you/someone you admire to our list of angels to consider in rounds.
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Seeing a
@ycombinator
vibe change under
@garrytan
's leadership. It feels more intimate, return to quality, more focus on relationships, better storytelling, etc. Not surprising given his designer background. Garry, YC and SF are super lucky to have you. Keep it up!
Tech gave me everything I have
Its capacity to lift people into abundance is incredible and there is nothing like it
We must make that into prosperity for everyone
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Who designed/built ?? Can we talk about how Biden/Harris might make federal government design great again? Accessibility, beautiful typography, elegant fade-ins... ❤️
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Is it just me or is Safari now 5x faster than chrome? Anyone use safari as their default browser now?
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I hear the critiques but I have no plans to leave. Anyone else ready to continue to invest in SF?
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Oh wow, Twitter to stop counting photos AND links in their character counts. I'm so excited that i'll finally be able to express a full thou
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For years I thought
@designerfund
would inspire more designers to become VCs. The reality is most designers don't want to be full-time investors. It could be that the future is not 100s of full-time designers turned VCs but 10s of thousands of part-time angels, DAO members, etc.
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New Guide Announcement: The Designer’s Guide to Building a Winning VC Pitch Deck
I've wanted to write this forever and it's finally here – jammed full of examples and specific tactics for how to make a deck/memo that'll get you a first meeting.
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Crazy to me how many pitch decks we still receive that haven't been designed! Founders: designers whole craft is about effective communication. Given how accessible design/designers are today please take the time/$ to work with them if you're putting a deck together.
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“Everyone should be allowed to love two cities, their own and San Francisco.” — Gene Fowler
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Is it me or was that the best
@JoeBiden
has ever sounded? I would've voted for him in the primary with that message/energy...
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Loved seeing so many friends last week at
@figma
Config. And after a week like that - super grateful to have a quiet space to get some focused work done this week :)
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Man
@Pitch
is a great product. Not an investor but this is excellent product execution. Also the fact that non-designers I collaborate with have no issue picking it up and modifying presentations is a great signal. Kudos to that team. Let me know if you need more $ or support ;)
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A few ways -
1. Invest in more founders who value design
2. Folks starting companies should consider having designers on their founding team
3. Bring on investors/angels who can help you build a strong design/product foundation from day e.g.
@designerfund
;)
4. My DMs are open
Great UX and design seems like a bit of a lost art in 2024 for new builders and founders. What can we do to fix this?
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All - we just opened applications for Designer Fund Partnership: the best $500K investment and design support offer for early stage startups. No warm intro needed 👇
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Was reflecting this morning on how success sometimes comes from simply outlasting, doing something longer than 99% of people would. For example - v45 or v46 on a design idea or doing a podcast/video series for 100+ videos where others would stop after a few.
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One more thing – I'm going to do a designing effective pitch decks session in September where I'll break down decks of companies in our portfolio and why they worked/didn’t. It’s rare to see these shared but seeing examples is the best way to learn this -
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Today, we’re announcing a new $40M Fund III that will focus on early-stage companies—pre-seed to series A—and raise the bar for the type of impact we want to see in the world. We’ll be focusing on companies that improve sustainability, health, and prosperity for all people. [4/7]
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At Config, Brian Chesky urged designers to “rise up and start companies”. The raucous response from the crowd means designers have the will, but being a designer founder can be both a strength and a weakness. What you need to know before taking the leap –
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Decades ago
@johnmaeda
used to talk a lot about not relying on Photoshop or other “off-the-shelf” tools for design work and how building your own tooling gave you 100x the solution space. Love seeing
@stripe
design team embodying that philosophy today.
Excited that we finally have a place to share some peeks behind the scenes of our design work at Stripe, like this generative tool for the Sessions 2021 identity:
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Hot off the
@stripepress
- originally published in 1985. I’d read more history books if they looked like this :)
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Introducing
@designerfund
's open-source library of case studies about design and business from top companies like
@airbnbdesign
@dropboxdesign
@pinterestdesign
and more
This is the type of resource I would have loved as a design lead/manager.
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Someone will build a huge agency with a core service of moving websites onto
@framer
. The value prop would be never have to deal with paying engineers going forward for updates, creating new pages, etc. It’s a no brainer.
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OK, new year and lots has changed. What designer angels are still angel investing? Some great investments coming up and there may be room for some value-add small checks :)
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A number of our companies are still looking to hire designers. If you or a designer friend you know is looking - my DMs are open :)
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Given all the AI tools out there - has anyone seen anything that will record a customer/transcript a call and summarize key takeaways? Ideally I'd like something super lightweight - e.g. copy call notes into a doc and it summarizes key takeaways.
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Design twitter - what grad schools or self-managed design education would you recommend for a young aspiring designer looking to build an exceptional foundation to set them up for a great career in product design - e.g. type, color, technical skills, etc.
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💯 - you can now even raise money from designers too ;)
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Seeing this sarcastic post in my feed from
@jessicahische
made me realize how different design career paths are today compared to a few years ago (wood worker still being the holy grail of course). Some unfiltered thoughts here -
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Israel - 40 year olds and above can get vaccinated starting today. San Francisco - "Ben we will notify you when you are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. We expect by end of 2021." I see a trip to Israel in my future...
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Another great example of the importance and recognition of design/product as a super power for executives. Adam's had an amazing career at FB/Instagram, starting as a product designer in 2008 and rising now to running Instagram, a $100B+ business.
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Any designers out there using the Magic Trackpad 2 over a mouse? Worth giving it a shot or?
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Some designer(s) should open up an agency that is building websites on
@framer
Sites similar to for Webflow. Once you do I will send you lots of work/$ :)
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Sometimes when i meet an early-stage founder I wonder: can I envision you as a leader in front of hundreds of people, commanding their attention? With
@rsms
and Playbit, I guess we already have our answer :)
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Why we need better design in healthcare. How many 3 second heart attacks are being caused by something as simple as an ill-considered line break in test results.
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Design/content teams - what are you using as your "source of truth" for UI/UX copy? Does it just live live in the app/product + random docs? Anyone use a tool/system for UI/UX copy creation + approval?
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Beautiful day in SF with
@koenbok
,
@jornvandijk
and
@EnriqueAllen
. Also got a glimpse into the future of
@framer
and holy smokes - 🤯
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Hypothetical: someone you know is starting a company but doesn't have a ton of funding and they want a brand done well - logo, type color, and some basic applications of the mark/brand. Where do you send them? How much would you tell them to budget for it?
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If you need a break from news/Twitter/doomscrolling go watch My Octopus Teacher on Netflix 🐙 It’s a visual underwater meditation + therapy session that will give you a great appreciation for nature, relationships, and what’s important.
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Consistently doing what you'll say you'll do by the time you say you'll do it by puts you in the top 10% of employees, investors, founders, managers, etc.
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Asked the new ChatGPT 4o who the best venture fund is for designer founders... totally nailed it. Good job
@OpenAI
team! (thanks for the tip
@tomerlondon
)
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Are you interested in the intersection of design and venture? We're looking for a producer to help us on many fronts - design leadership events, portfolio support, marketing, and more.
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Looking for a new design opportunity? Below are a few interesting design roles available right now at Designer Fund companies👇 -
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I'm still learning about NFTs/crypto but man
@lootproject
clicked for me quickly. I've seen the power of financial incentives + creative license + having tons of fun + community once before: Facebook team circa 2007. Last time it created $1T company... wonder what happens here :)
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So given how close we are to having to wear facemasks outside of the house - when will Nike, Everlane, etc. start making face masks? It's only a matter of time and I actually think design here will make a huge impact on adherence.
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@titus_k
if you're raising $500k: $5M - $7M. If raising ~$1M: $7M - $8M valuation. If you're raising $1.5M-$2M: $8M - $10M valuation.
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If you want to do something -
@Everytown
are the people doing the hard work to change gun laws in this country year after year. Turn your anger and frustration into $$$ and awareness for their efforts.
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This might sound crazy BUT we had a beautiful day in SF today AND I hope that whatever city you live in for whatever reason you chose that you did to. Enjoying the city you live in is not zero sum :)
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In case you wonder why so many of us refuse to give up on San Francisco ❤️
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When I joined I knew html/css etc quite well but not PHP. First day on the job 3 books were sitting on my desk - “Intro to PHP”, “intermediate PHP”, and “Advanced PHP”. Welcome to Facebook.
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Love seeing more designers go from designers, to founders, to investors who invest in more designers to become founders, who can then become investors who invest in more designers to become founders... and so on ;) Congrats
@koenbok
and
@jornvandijk
!
I’m thrilled to announce that
@koenbok
and I have launched an investment fund together 🚀
Meet →
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For the first time since we started
@designerfund
, we’re adding an investment associate who is passionate about investing in early-stage companies that use design to improve health, sustainability, and prosperity for all people. More about this role here -
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The sunsets in SF have been absolutely epic the last couple of weeks (a couple pics attached but honestly they don't really do the real thing justice). If you're not here during the summer seriously what are you doing?
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Omg losing it - 🇺🇸 - so excited for Biden / Harris. His energy and message is 💯
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It appears that if you mess with design Twitter we might just build our own Twitter and leave... will be interesting to see where design twitter congregates over the coming months :)
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Man so sad to hear about
@mkruz
- we'd been collaborating more and more about the intersection of design, venture, and climate. He was always generous with his time and knowledge and man felt like we were just getting started... gutted.
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A couple points to build on this - 1. the idea of a career "ladder" is a terrible mental model. I've heard "lattice" be used but ultimately a design career should almost be like an adventure game, where you can explore different lands as you gather tools/relationships.
For designers who see their path as: designer > senior designer > design manager > design director/VP of Design/CDO. Where do you want to go after you "climbed the ladder"? Stay as VP? Founder? Teach?
Been talking to a number of design leaders who are having a "now what" moment.
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@MollySOShea
- but know that "Visually dope" is one thing - effective communication and compelling story are another...
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Rage rage Israel rage rage... oh it wasn't Israel? Then: 🦗🦗🦗.
Not a word condemning Islamic Jihad for causing the hospital explosion in Gaza and killing hundreds of Palestinian civilians.
Not a word from the UN.
Not a word from Israel’s usual critics, who rushed to judgement with a blood libel.
Not a word from Hamas (no surprises).
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After 6+ years working with
@stripe
's design team - we decided it was time to do a deep dive on the team and how they work. So many designers see the beautiful output, but don't get how much grit and process go into making it work...
What makes design at
@stripe
so special? We talked to current & former designers for a window into some of its successes (and failures).
#DesignerFundInsights
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All I want is a Macbook Air with a retina display and for Apple to make monitors again. Is that asking too much?
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A good reminder for every VC to ask - 1. How is the world improved if your company is successful and 2. What are the unintended consequences of your success? We need to know more about the products and people we back.
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When do we think google docs will get checkboxes? I feel like we're close...
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Is there a service where you can video chat with a gardener and show them issues your indoor plants are having and have them suggest improvements? Would gladly pay for this and can't find anything online...
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Venture design partner roll call - if you or someone you know are a design partner at a VC firm tag them here. Have spoken to a number of design leaders curious about this path and we want to share learnings and create more access for designers into venture.
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For all you who are reaching out to friends, who are posting your support, who are giving with your time and money, and who are asking how to help. We see you. We appreciate you. Every gesture is the wind at our backs that is sorely needed right now. 🇮🇱 ❤️
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As a designer/investor I was hoping that that making huge investment decisions quickly would also translate to making quick design decisions. Given I'm 3 weeks and 143 pins into choosing a new area rug, the answer is... nope.
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"Facebook isn’t neutral, and it never has been. Making the world more open and connected, strengthening communities, giving everyone a voice — these are not neutral ideas." - a few early
@Facebook
employees got together to urge a change in their policy...
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Dang the design team
@Coway_Global
took an offsite to a Dieter Rams exhibit and just totally went for it. Knowing how hard this change is to pull off at a large company, whoever lead the charge should take a well-earned bow (and write a case study and share it with the world).
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I wish
@BirdRide
had “rare bird” scooters that when you unlock them get special powers like “the condor” that goes 10mph faster, “the great egret” that lights up and plays music as you ride it, or the dodo, that’s just an actual dodo brought to life when you get to it.
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@hiangelali
Hey Angela - if you ever want to talk through design career challenges, happy to do it or connect you with other amazing design leaders. Managed design at FB and now work with dozens of design teams through Designer Fund. Feel free to DM...
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The
@Framer
sites CMS is out - makes setting up a beautiful blog/editable content so easy. Really excited for Sites if you couldn't tell already...
Just added a new CMS section in the
@framer
templates page! 🥳 First addition is this responsive Blog you’ve seen in the video. Grab it here:
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The mass shooting story out of Uvalde Texas just gets worse and worse. It could not be more clear that we need to give more resources to those leading the fight for common sense gun reform. My wife and I will match up to $10k in donations –
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Yes,
@designerfund
will be
@figma
Config :) Beyond saying hi and giving big hugs (which we’re super excited to do), we also want to help! [1/4]
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Just hit 10,000 requests to upgrade to Premium on Youtube! Thanks to everyone that supported my path here, from the growth PMs, to the designers and engineers that worked tirelessly to send me daily reminders to keep me motivated. Feeling blessed.
#seriouslyconsideringitthough
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This is where relentless grit meets product excellence + iteration. Framer is nearly a decade in the making now - many founders want to see quick success but some of the best "overnight successes" take years of building, and building, and building. So much respect for this team.
🔥 I’m thrilled to share that
@framer
has raised $27M in Series C funding from
@meritechcapital
with participation from
@atomico
,
@accel
, and foundation.
Learn more →
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Wordle 220 1/6
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Pro tip: ask someone what today's answer is and then you can just enter it as your first guess! So much easier this way. Also you can spend the time I just saved you on any remaining to do item or just watching the sunset! Enjoy :)
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Test drove a Tesla for the first time and was... underwhelmed? Am I missing something? A lot of decisions seem like - "hmm umm just add another menu to the screen that's fine." Does it just take getting used to it? Anyone have a non-Tesla electric they love?
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Also amazing design and engineering work on the new by
@omgadamho
,
@devinjacoviello
, and
@xDanMorgan
with content support from Kelsey and team of Paladar Studio. They said the marquee tag was dead and you proved them so wrong.
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What's the one book you read this year that most influenced how you approach your work? Can be non-fiction or fiction...
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Visual Electric already puts Midjourney, DALL·E, etc. to shame. As one friend said - “I just get more beautiful images faster with this product”... and they're just getting started. Good work
@colin_dunn
!
⚡️ LAUNCH DAY⚡️
Introducing Visual Electric — the first image generator designed for creatives. Say goodbye to chat and say hello to the generative canvas.
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To learn more about how we got here, where we’re going, and how you can get involved, read our announcement post below. Thank you to everyone who believed in us and supported us with time, knowledge or resources.
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When one of your portfolio companies is also a book/magazine publisher - 🙏 to the fine folks at
@stripe
,
@stripepress
, Stripe Design and the recruiting team for the gift!
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