The founder design stack

A tight toolkit for founders who need great design without a big team. Nine tools, most of them free to start, covering everything from first sketch to shipped site.

1.

Figma

Design and collaborate all in the browser

Curator note

Start here even if you don't consider yourself a designer. The free tier is generous and every contractor, agency, and future hire will expect it.

2.

Framer

A powerful product that blends design and development

Curator note

The fastest path to a real marketing site that doesn't look templated. Design and publish in one place, no developer required for changes.

3.

v0

Generate React interfaces from a prompt, built on shadcn/ui and Tailwind

Curator note

When you need product UI rather than a marketing page. Generates React that a future engineer will recognise rather than resent.

4.

Realtime Colors

See a palette on a real layout before you commit to it

Curator note

The fastest way to stop your product looking generic. See a palette on real typography and real layout before you commit to it anywhere.

5.

Fontshare

Free, genuinely good fonts from the Indian Type Foundry

Curator note

Free, properly-drawn typefaces with clear licences. Two well-chosen fonts do more for perceived quality than almost anything else you can do in an hour.

6.

Lucide

Huge, consistent open-source icon set — the modern Feather

Curator note

One icon set, used consistently. Mixing icon sets is the most common and most visible sign that nobody's minding the details.

7.

Lummi

Free AI-generated stock imagery that doesn't look like stock

Curator note

Free imagery that doesn't look like stock photography, which matters more than it should for whether a landing page reads as credible.

8.

Claude

Draft and iterate on websites, graphics, documents, and code

Curator note

For all the writing — landing page copy, onboarding, error messages, and the investor update you're avoiding. Give it your voice and it stops sounding generic.

9.

Raycast

Launcher, clipboard history, and snippets — the designer's command bar

Curator note

Not a design tool, but the thing that makes everything else faster. Clipboard history alone pays for the setup time in a week.

10.

Linear

Issue tracking that design and engineering both actually use

Curator note

Because the design work that never gets built might as well not exist. The lightest tracker that a small team will genuinely keep using.