Main Highlights
- ADPList, which was founded to help designers support one another announces a $1.3 million funding round as it expands its global mentoring services.
- What began as a way for designers to provide peer support, exchange job possibilities, and offer mentoring has now organically evolved into a platform with 2,500 mentors and over 5,000 booked sessions each month.
- ADPList gives you quick, one-click access to a global network of mentors who have volunteered to share their time and knowledge with others in the design profession.
- The creators of ADPList are now ready to take the platform to the next level, developing their business model and commercializing the service.
Adversity may sometimes foster success. At the height of the global Covid-19 crisis, product designer and tech sector entrepreneur Felix Lee worried about the prospects of his designer colleagues around the world; today, the platform he founded to help designers support one another announces a $1.3 million funding round as it expands its global mentoring services.
The epidemic inspired the creation of ADPList. When it first launched last year, Lee and co-founder James Baduor just wanted to do something to help the design community as great individuals all around the world were laid off. Their first plan was to compile a list of persons willing to provide assistance and advice to fellow designers who were struggling during the Covid-19 issue.
However, Lee and Baduor immediately saw that one tab on the spreadsheet they had constructed was receiving considerably more attention than any other. The majority of designers that accessed their list were searching for mentorship services. And from there, the pair recognized a chance to develop their concept into a long-lasting business – Amazing Design People List, or ADPList for short.
How did ADPList start?
What began as a way for designers to provide peer support, exchange job possibilities, and offer mentoring has now organically evolved into a platform with 2,500 mentors and over 5,000 booked sessions each month. A total of 20,500 mentees have signed up for the program.
“We established ADPList during the height of the epidemic, and the platform’s success has since demonstrated that there is a global network of individuals eager to connect and give support for others in their communities,” Lee adds.
“Today, the evolution of ADPList is based on the conviction that every mentor’s voice has the power to convert people’s career anxiety into the agency, and our platform offers them an altogether new, accessible, and engaging method to do so.”
The idea is straightforward. ADPList gives you quick, one-click access to a global network of mentors who have volunteered to share their time and knowledge with others in the design profession. Because the service is delivered online, geography is no longer an impediment – designers may seek guidance from mentors located anywhere in the globe. Mentors from businesses such as Spotify, Apple, Twitter, LinkedIn, Nike, Netflix, Twitch, and Coinbase have already signed up to participate.
Mentors identify their availability on a shared calendar so that mentees may choose and plan virtual sessions. After each session, video calls are performed within the site, along with comments and ratings. In addition to one-on-one mentoring, the platform provides small group mentorship, town hall-style lectures, and other forms.
According to Michael Tam, global design director at IBM iX, being a mentor on the platform has been a rewarding experience. “From the first minute I started coaching with ADPList, I realized it was more than just a knowledge transfer,” he adds.
“After spending over 6,000 minutes over 10 time zones with over 100 mentees from more than 15 different countries, I can tell you one thing for certain: every session is a unique exchange of our lives, stories, and dreams.”
Future Goals
The creators of ADPList are now ready to take the platform to the next level, developing their business model and commercializing the service; they also see potential to expand the platform outside the design community and into other professions. Lee and Baduor have received $1.3 million in investment from Surge, a quick scale-up program operated by Sequoia Capital India for start-ups in India and Southeast Asia.
Lee sees an excellent opportunity. “At the moment, there is no shared infrastructure that facilitates cross-border mentoring or provides a worldwide network of mentors with varying skill sets and levels,” he adds. “In today’s creative economy, individuals are eager to contribute, assist, and educate others.”