Founding Designer as a Service

Full design ownership while you hire.

Startups often spend 2–4 months hiring a designer, and that gap is more expensive than most founders realize. I close that gap immediately — taking full design ownership and protecting the metrics that matter most while the search continues.

Fully remote — I adapt to your timezone, wherever you're based.
Available 1–3 months.

PROBLEM / SOLUTION

Hiring a designer takes 2–4 months.
Your customers don't wait.

HOW IT WORKS

How it works

01 — Diagnose

Design decisions come from understanding how users arrive, what motivates them, and what the business is trying to achieve. That context is the input.

02 — Execute

With that context, I work with the CEO, the team, and the data to improve any experience that moves the needle — user flows, onboarding, core product moments, design system, delivery speed. Whatever is costing the business most.

03 — Handoff

When your permanent designer starts, I brief them on where everything stands — file infrastructure and the design-business context that took time to build. They hit the ground running.

RESULT

Moving the needle.

Staking Rewards

Staff Product Designer · Remote · 2024–2026

Defined the design direction from scratch, reducing time-to-market and aligning two competing audiences — which resulted in a revenue stream.

Time-to-market -50%
Dead clicks above the fold -37%
Stake leads +15%
Retention +12%

Lodgify

Founding Designer · Barcelona · 2014–2024 · Employee #8

Built the design culture, scaled design maturity and stayed through the full growth arc, from 8 to 300+ people.

Churn · Messaging 9%0%
Revenue share · Payments 0%28%
Adoption · Analytics 10%46%

PRICING

Simple model.
No surprises.

Rate

€450-500 / day

Based on scope and overlap with your team. No hidden fees.

Duration

1-3 months

Aligned to your hiring timeline. I hand off when your permanent designer starts.

Contract

Simple

Contractor invoice. No EOR, no Deel, no complexity. You hire me like a freelancer — one invoice per month.

Ready to stop losing ground while you hire?

20 minutes. Tell me what's happening.
We'll figure out together if it makes sense.

work@matiasrizzo.com