Craig Phillips

I work alongside early-stage technical founders as a senior thinking partner who can also build.

I'm not a designer-for-hire. The founders I work with aren't hiring a designer — they're getting someone who can help shape what they're making before the decisions get expensive to undo. Design is my tool, not my job title.

My sweet spot is the pre-product or early beta stage, with a technical founding team that has little or no design on staff. Products that are still forming, small teams moving fast, founders who need a thinking partner as much as an executor.

I've been doing this — in various forms — for the last decade. Before going independent, I led product design at several startups across Europe, and worked with founders at every stage from idea to Series B. I've sat in the room where the product decisions got made, and I know what good looks like at each of those stages.

I work under Fluke Design Services, a ZZP registered in the Netherlands. If you're a founder at the start of something and you think there's fit, I'd like to hear from you.