Design Founders

Bear Liu
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The founder's journey, seen differently — real conversations with design-minded founders about the product decisions that matter: MVP trade-offs, growth bottlenecks, AI workflows, and the thinking behind what actually gets built.

Episodes

  1. EP02: Free Is Expensive | Felix Lee, ADPList

    18 MAR

    EP02: Free Is Expensive | Felix Lee, ADPList

    Felix Lee built ADPList from a Google Spreadsheet during the pandemic into the world's largest free mentorship platform, with over 300 million minutes of mentorship and a Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition. But the story behind the numbers is messier than the headlines suggest. After nearly three years of giving everything away for free, ADPList was about to run out of money. The community loved it. The servers didn't care. In this episode, Felix shares the moment he realised free was going to kill his company, the brutal public backlash when he started charging, and why he says he'll never create anything for free again. We also get into his time as the founding designer at GoTrade (a YC company), where he spent 30% of his time in Figma and 70% in spreadsheets, and how that experience turned him from a designer into a founder who thinks in funnels. The second half of our conversation dives into vibe coding and the future of design. Felix lays out a concrete 5-step workflow for designers to go from idea to working prototype in three hours, without opening Figma or writing a line of code. His core argument: designers are hypothesis testers, and vibe coding lets them validate before they invest in polished design. ## In This Episode - Felix's decision to move from Singapore to San Francisco - San Francisco as "traveling into the future" and the founder-as-translator framework - The anti-FOMO approach: hold a long-term vision, ignore the noise - How ADPList went from pandemic spreadsheet to global platform - "Free is expensive": the near-death moment that changed everything - Why Felix fires designers who separate business and design - 30% Figma, 70% spreadsheets: the GoTrade origin story - Vibe coding as a process reversal: build first, design after validation - The 5-step workflow: AI challenge, PRD, flowchart, Figma MCP, deploy - Why designers need to stop assuming and start experimenting ## Timestamps 0:00 Intro 0:46 Bear's opening 2:02 Felix joins: China trip and moving to San Francisco 3:30 Why San Francisco: the story of meeting a stranger 5:25 The AI era and consumer products 8:10 SF as "traveling into the future" 9:30 Best founders are translators of technology 10:45 The anti-FOMO framework 17:25 The ADPList origin story 28:30 "Business and design are the same thing" 32:35 30% Figma, 70% spreadsheets at GoTrade 35:40 "Free is expensive": ADPList's near-death moment 42:20 Vibe coding flips the design process 48:55 The 5-step vibe coding workflow 53:40 Advice for designers 58:25 Closing ## Links - ADPList: https://adplist.org - Felix on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/felixleezd - Felix on X: https://x.com/felixleezd - Design Founders: https://bearliu.com/podcast - Bear's newsletter: https://bear.academy

    1hr 1min
  2. EP01: Why Selling Design Keeps Designers Stuck | Luca Richards, Skarlo

    17 MAR

    EP01: Why Selling Design Keeps Designers Stuck | Luca Richards, Skarlo

    Most designers try to sell design. And that's exactly why they stay stuck. Luca Richards runs Skarlo, a London-based product studio that's now taking equity in the YC and Antler companies they design for. In this conversation, we unpack how he went from selling $1,000 websites to sharing cap tables with venture-backed startups, and why the game has shifted from "why design" to "why you." ## In this episode Luca and Bear dig into the real mechanics of running a design studio that works with venture-backed startups. You'll hear how Skarlo landed their first equity deal with a YC company, why AI tools are making every startup dashboard look identical (and what that means for designers), and the operational principle that Luca says changed how they retain clients: stop giving them homework. Bear also shares how these patterns connect to what he sees in his own Fractional Design Partner work, and the two discover a shared childhood obsession that shaped both their design sensibilities. ## Key topics - Selling your design service vs selling design as a philosophy - Why AI tools make every startup look the same (and what to do about it) - The design-for-equity model: how Skarlo structures deals with YC companies - Why your cheapest clients are always your hardest clients - The "no homework" principle: how to reduce client cognitive load - Product is no longer the differentiator in the age of AI - Design inspiration from unexpected places (Tintin, film, classical music) ## Timestamps 0:00 Intro 0:47 Welcome and how Bear and Luca met 3:05 The energy in London's tech scene right now 6:05 Luca's path: from computer science to design 8:40 Starting a design career during COVID lockdown 13:55 From freelance designer to building Skarlo 18:40 Translating art and music taste into tech 21:10 Why product is no longer the differentiator 25:00 The shift from product studio to venture studio 28:35 Design-for-equity: how the model works 31:45 Convincing founders to share equity with designers 35:20 How to frame design ROI to a founder 39:05 The elevator pitch: selling service vs selling design 41:05 AI makes everything look the same 45:25 $1,000 clients were the hardest clients 46:55 Don't give your clients homework 51:00 How AI is transforming the design workflow 53:45 Quick fire round: Luca's typical week 54:55 Top tools: Notion, Slack, Framer, pen and paper 56:05 Book recommendations 58:40 Design inspiration: Tintin, film, and classical music 1:00:40 Closing thoughts and how to connect with Luca ## Guest Luca Richards, Founder at Skarlo Website: https://skarlo.co/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucarichards/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/lsodesign --- Design Founders is a podcast about what happens when designers build companies. Hosted by Bear Liu, Fractional Design Partner. Work with Bear: https://bearliu.com Newsletter: https://bear.academy

    1hr 3min
  • 2 Episodes

About

The founder's journey, seen differently — real conversations with design-minded founders about the product decisions that matter: MVP trade-offs, growth bottlenecks, AI workflows, and the thinking behind what actually gets built.

Information

  • Creator
    Bear Liu
  • Years Active
    2k
  • Episodes
    2
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Design Founders