Enrique Allen: Design and entrepreneurship at Designer Fund

Sep 24, 2024

Enrique Allen, co-founder of Designer Fund, shares insights on merging design with venture capital. He discusses how companies like Stripe and Notion leverage design as a competitive advantage. The conversation covers the evolution of design’s role in startups, the challenges of late-stage design integration, and the importance of finding the right entrepreneurial partners. Enrique also highlights Designer Fund's commitment to investing up to $1 million in design-centric pre-seed and Series A startups, emphasizing the transformative power of effective design.

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ANECDOTE

Design-Driven Companies

Designer Fund portfolio companies like Stripe, Notion, Gusto, and Omada Health view design as a competitive advantage.
They use design to acquire and retain customers, demonstrating its business value.

ANECDOTE

Enrique's Journey

Enrique Allen's journey to Designer Fund began with a focus on social web and user experience through projects at Stanford and Facebook.
Early work with companies like Lyft highlighted the power of customer-centric design.

INSIGHT

Late Design

Many companies seek design help too late in the development process, similar to building a building and then seeking an architect.
Integrating design early is crucial, highlighting the need for a design-focused investment approach.

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Until Designer Fund was founded by Enrique Allen and Ben Blumenrose, venture capital investments rarely considered design strategy when investing. Companies like Stripe, Notion, Gusto, and Omada Health—all in Designer Fund portfolio companies—see design as a competitive advantage and a tool for acquiring and retaining customers. Enrique Allen told us all about the tremendous value design is creating in these and many other companies.

We spoke with Enrique about how they chose design as an investment lens, the changing role of design from when they started until now, why venture capital might not always be the best way to fund a startup business, and how they think about finding good partners and co-founders.

By the way, if you’re starting a design-centric company and seeking investment, Designer Fund is investing up to $1 million for pre-seed and Series A startups. To learn more and apply for funding, visit designerfund.com/partnership. Apply by October 4th.

Bio

Enrique Allen is the co-founder and managing partner at Design Fund. Previously, Enrique was a designer at venture capital firms, including 500 Startups, Facebook’s fbFund, and Venrock, where he helped invest in companies like Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT), Wildfire (acquired by Google) and Behance (acquired by Adobe). He's a Stanford University alum, former Division 1 soccer player and senior lecturer at the Stanford d.school.

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Stay tuned after the interview for a special look at Wix Studio, the intuitive way for agencies and enterprises to design exceptional sites, with full-stack business solutions, multi-site management and built-in AI.

We chat with Kyle Prinsloo, founder of ClientManager.io, about why he loves Wix Studio for its efficient tools like the Figma to Wix Studio plugin, and robust email marketing features, which have greatly improved his workflow and client engagement.

To learn more about Wix Studio, visit dbtr.co/wixstudio.

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