Let's push
things forward.

I'm a Product Design Leader who's spent 20+ years helping startups come out of stealth, find product-market fit and scale.

Amongst other things, I helped Liftoff come out of stealth, led the Wonderbly team to their acquisition by Penguin Random House, helped Farfetch ship the first iteration of their e-commerce app and grew the Fresha design team from 3 to over 10 people.

Now I'm working with early stage companies around the world to help them do the same.

See work hey@dantase.com

Founding Designer

I'm a hands-on design partner for founding teams looking to ship the first iteration of their product to market, or for early stage companies struggling to find product-market fit.

I join your team as a Founding Designer, helping you tackle all design related aspects: from research and strategy, to hands-on Product Design, to fundraising and brand work.

What I'm offering

Your full-time design partner for the 1st year of running your startup.

I'll be your Founding Designer

I'll join your team as a full-time Founding Designer for the 1st year of running your start-up. I'll handle every design related aspect: from research and strategy, to hands-on Product Design, to fundraising and brand work.

I'll move fast and share progress often

I get things done, and share progress early and often. I believe the best way to understand something is by interacting with it, so we'll spend most of our time revving on designs and prototypes, not Docs and Sheets.

I operate like a founder

I'm always aware of what's happening within the business, proactively take steps to help, and push the work forward without needing to be managed.

I'm scaling with your needs

When needed, I'll recruit, hire and manage other specialists from my close network of collaborators. I made sure the best people out there always pick up when I call.

I'm preparing you for the future

As we wrap up, I'll help you figure out what kind of designer you need for the next few years, and help you hire that person.

Why not hire a full-time Founding Designer?

Hiring a Founding Product Designer is fucking hard.

The design role evolves faster than you think

In a startup, your design needs change fast. The designer you need at 0 → 1 looks radically different than the designer you need when scaling.

You don't know if they're great until too late

By the time you realize they can't ship or handle ambiguity (3–6 months), you've already lost time and money. Plus, a bad hire really damages momentum and team morale.

You can't attract exceptional designers without a design culture

Top designers look for design-driven companies. Part of my work is helping you establish that foundation early, so great talent wants to join you later.

Design Advisor

I'm a design advisor for early stage teams that want to build design-driven cultures but don't know where to start.

I help you make the right design hires, build processes that actually work, and work with you to figure out what to build and when. Think of me as your Design Leader on speed dial — someone in your corner to help you navigate the messy early days.

What I'm offering

Ongoing support for startups ready to make design their competitive edge.

Your design leader on speed dial

I'll be your strategic design advisor, helping you make smarter decisions faster, providing guidance & feedback to your team, and helping you hire.

One hands-on jam per month

Each month, we'll tackle your biggest challenge in a longer work session. Sometimes we'll ideate, brainstorm and sketch ideas, other times we'll go into Figma and design together.

Slack channel for advice & feedback

We'll have a joint Slack channel for anything you need: from rapid feedback, to design or product questions, to brainstorming solutions.

Recruitment help

When you're ready to grow your team, I'll use my network to help you source, interview and hire great designers across Brand, Product Design, Marketing and more.

Priced quarterly, paid up front.

I'm incredibly grateful to have been introduced to Dan. He's an action-oriented, collaborative design partner and the kind of person you want to spend more time with. Dan is someone you want on your team, especially during the messy zero-to-one phase of building. He played a key role in bringing our app to life from scratch in a remarkably short time.

Brandon Christie

CEO & Founder at Jetty Health

Dan is a phenomenal designer that I had the pleasure of working with when I was building a new product from scratch. Not only is he incredibly talented at helping morph disparate thoughts into an amazing user experience, he's a joy to work with along the way. I've recommended him many times since then and can't wait to work with him again in the future.

Eric Mandell

Founder & CEO at Upward

Dan has brought a design-led thinking and collaborative approach to all of the problems we're tackling, and doing it all: from customer research, to hands on design, to leading workshops, to managing our design team. I'd jump at the opportunity to work together again.

Tom Waterfall

CPO at Wonderbly

We worked with Dan on multiple features across different Product groups at GetYourGuide. He's very seasoned in working with cross functional product teams, and therefore integrated and contributed quickly. I can only recommend you bring him in for your next project.

Marlene Rosner

Director of Design at GetYourGuide

It's been such a pleasure working with Dan during our growth phase at Multiverse. I've really enjoyed our conversations and all the lovely energy he brought to our team.

Rachel Ilan Simpson

Director of Design at Multiverse

Backstory

Trattoria Corva — the dusty basement in Bucharest

That dusty basement in the outskirts of Bucharest, now a bad restaurant.

Still one of the best design tools I've used.

Did somebody say Just Eat?

NYSE, baby!

A different court, but a familiar feeling.

Start-ups were my first love. I vividly remember the excitement back in 2008, stepping into a dusty basement in the outskirts of Bucharest for one of my first design interviews. I was as prepared as one could be: wearing my freshly ironed shirt, with a portfolio showcasing my best work, and my responses to potential questions rehearsed to perfection.

Little did I know, I was about to step into a world where traditional rules didn't apply. No portfolio review. No 'Where do you see yourself in 5 years?'. Not even a hint of corporate slang. Just a casual conversation about a big and daunting question: 'How can we make this work?'.

What followed was endless days and nights spent in front of the computer, hundreds of screens designed in Adobe Fireworks (remember that?), passionate debates about how things should function, and an overarching ambition to change the world as we knew it back then.

That rush—the uncertainty, the possibility, the thrill of building something from nothing—made me the designer I am today.

Since then, I've helped launch start-ups that became leaders in their field, seen companies go from idea to IPO, and navigated every stage of a builder's journey. The industry has changed, but my excitement hasn't.

Whenever I have a conversation with a founder, I'm back in that dusty basement, ready to get to work.