Dave McClure’s 500 Startups has unveiled d.fund, a seed fund dedicated to mentoring and funding designers who want to start their own companies.
The new fund, which will start accepting applications for its first class in May, will give seed funding to design-minded founders of different startups. The d.fund was announced during the closing remarks of the 500 Startups Demo Day in Mountain View, California.
Enrique Allen of 500 Startups says while some of the world’s most successful startups were founded by designers, most people in the profession are still “mercenaries for hire, helping other people get rich.” He cited YouTube, Tumblr, Airbnb, Android, Flickr, Foodspotting, Slideshare and others as examples of the companies designers have built. His argument: Designers can become great entrepreneurs because of their deep understanding of people, their expertise at figuring out what people want and their potential to become visionary communicators.
Allen says designers have the desire to create great companies, but they don’t have the mentorship and education opportunities currently available to technical or business founders. The d.fund hopes to fix that by giving designer entrepreneurs access to mentorship by some of world’s most successful designer entrepreneurs. It’s essentially a startup bootcamp.
To get the d.fund off the ground, Allen and 500 Startups is challenging the world’s top designers to invest $50,000 to the fund by the end of the month. Then, 500 Startups and its partners will match those investments, creating a multi-million dollar investment vehicle for designer founders. In May, d.fund will open up applications for its first round of investments. To find them, d.fund will advertise its existence at design schools and guilds around the world.
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