About Us

We empower creators to do the work they love.

Mentor-led, online design education with a focus on quality and outcomes.

Harish Venkatesan, one of our co-founders, came up with the idea for the company in 2012 while reading Creative Workshop, a book of design exercises. It became clear that a continuous cycle of feedback and iteration is essential for anyone aspiring to improve their design skills. Over the past five years, we’ve brought that idea to life by crafting our vision of an ideal online learning platform. Every Designlab student is paired with an expert designer as their mentor, completes several hands-on projects, and receives ongoing design feedback and peer support from our student community.

Our mission is to empower creators.

With today’s design tools, creators can build products and services with the potential to enrich the lives of billions of people worldwide. New products are launched every day, so good design is crucial to staying relevant in a competitive market. Today, more than ever before, you can cheaply experiment and reinvent your skills until you find what you truly love. After all, you spend 60% of your waking hours at work, so itโ€™s only right that you enjoy it.

In this environment, we believe these traits are more important than ever: Creativity. Lifelong learning. Passion for your work.

These have no place: Crippling student debt. Unfulfilling jobs. Unsatisfying careers that we choose by default.

We’re combining the power of the internet with the magic of 1-on-1 mentoring to create an invaluable educational experience that is affordable and accessible worldwide. Our goal is to guide you to find the creative work you love, and to help you become a master of your craft. Join us!

Our Team

We’re a distributed team of creators & doers located across the globe.

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Harish Venkatesan

Founder/CEO

Built product at Venmo & Grubwithus; graduated from UPenn

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Daniel Shapiro

Founder/CTO

Previously full-stack developer at YCharts; graduated from Duke

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Patrick Multani

Design & Mentorship

Studied Concept Design; worked at Less & Better to listen and understand

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Madi Waggoner

Director of Operations

Studied at University of Colorado (UCCS); also a UX Academy graduate

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Andrew Wilshere

Content & Design

PhD in Philosophy from University of Manchester; previously project manager

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Edgar Salazar

Software Development

Builds products for nonprofits and startups; graduated from MIT & University of Manchester

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Will Anderson

Growth & Sales

Graduated from Transylvania University in History; previously led partnerships at Crew

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Renee Tracy

Operations

Studied Psych at University of Alaska; brings perceptive fine-tuning to startup ops

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Teresa Lamb

Front-End

UX Designer turned Developer; studied at Florida State & New York University

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Sandy Chen

Mentorship

Digital product design strategy, mentorship; MFA from Parsons Design & Technology

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Lauren Lankford

Student Success

Studied at New York University; created partnerships at Digiday

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Manuela Odell

Business Development

BD & Partnerships at Luxe & CardFlight; graduated from Bates College

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Gina Medranda

Support

Studied Art and Design at CCNY; obsessed with Customer Happiness

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Austin Basallo

Operations

Philosophy & Lit @NYU; trying to make everyone else's life easier through ops

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Chris Blechschmidt

Growth

Growing tech & media startups for 16 yrs; 1st post-college job was Radio DJ

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Annie Devine

Design

UMich & UXA graduate; Designer with a background in marketing & software development

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Maria Jennings

Copywriting

Political aide turned designer and writer, UC Santa Cruz and UXA grad

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Joey Kirk

Curriculum

Product Designer & Design Educator; graduated from Texas Tech

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Diego Torres-Galvan

Support

Studied at UC Berkeley; previously at Uber & Handy

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Vivian Kalea

Mentor Operations

Outdoorsy dog mom, food lover, and live music enthusiast

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Alen Worsoff

Software Development

Previously full-stack developer at SelfDecode. Startup enthusiast.

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Mandy Kerr

People Ops

Graduate of the University of Cape Town: geographer turned people ninja

Designlab by the numbers

Thousands of students have taken our courses.

Students Enrolled

3,000+

Project Submissions

55,000+

1-on-1 Mentor Sessions

14,000+

Mentor Feedback Comments

70,000+

Mentors

Over 400 industry professionals from tech’s hottest companies

Apply to become a mentor
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Sangeeta Balasubramani

Periscope Data
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James Andrews-Coulter

Toptal
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Bence K Csernak

Bencium
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Gabriel Golcher

SecurityScorecard
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Kevin Lee

WeSell Socks
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รถzlem gรผrsoy

tinqs
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Frank Overland

ecoATM Gazelle
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Jeff Kloosterman

Redbox
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Gรผlcan Aloglu

Cobi.Bike
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Nikki Oettinger

Academy of Art University
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Diana Santos

Intelia
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Ric Rios

J.P.M.Chase
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Students

Our international student community is formed of driven, aspiring designers who work together to achieve their career goals

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Peter Javorkai

UI Designer at Adidas

“I got a job offer from Adidas just before I started my second capstone project on UX Academy!”

Read Peter's story
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Sammy de Joya

UX Designer at Comrade Agency

“UX Academy was great. It helped give me the kick start that I needed to learn all the basic design concepts.”

Read Sammy's story
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Wendy Pei

Product Designer at Microsoft

“The confidence I came out with really propelled me into the job hunt. I received several offers in just a month.”

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Celeste North

UX Designer at Backbase

“I learned sketching, wireframing, prototyping, UI kits, personas, and user flows. These are all key skills for my work.”

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Marko Vuletic

Freelancer

“What I really liked about the Designlab course were the assignments and the weekly mentor calls.”

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Tracy Lin

UX/UI Designer at TechStyle Fashion Group

“Those who encouraged and affirmed me turned out to be right, because I graduated and I got the job.”

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Jonathan Netek

UX / Visual Designer at Flightaware

“I already had 13 years in the design industry, but I still learned valuable new skills in UXA.”

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YOU

What is your dream job?

We offer short courses and an intensive UX Academy. Whether you want to upskill or build a new career, Designlab is for you.

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