ADPList, (Amazing Design People List), a platform for mentoring designers has raised $1.3 million to support the design community.
Felix Lee and Ghanaian co-founder James Baduor secured their first external funding from Surge, a rapid scale-up program run by Sequoia Capital India for start-ups in India and Southeast Asia.
Launched last year, Lee and co-founder James Baduor simply wanted to do something to support the design community, as talented people around the globe found themselves out of a job. Their idea initially was to set up a list of people prepared to offer support and advice to fellow designers struggling during the Covid-19 crisis.
The platform currently has 2,500 mentors who are providing more than 5,000 booked sessions a month.
“We started ADPList during the height of the pandemic, and the success of the platform has since shown us that there is a global network of people ready to connect and provide support for others in their communities,” says Lee.
“The evolution of ADPList today continues to build on the belief that every mentor’s voice can transform people’s career anxiety to agency, and our platform provides them with an entirely new, accessible and engaging way to do so.”
ADPList provides instant, one-click access to a global network of mentors who have signed up to provide their time and wisdom to others in the design industry.
Mentors themselves indicate their availability on a shared calendar for mentees to select and schedule virtual sessions. Video calls are conducted within the platform along with feedback and ratings after each session. Beyond one-on-one mentoring, the platform also offers small group mentoring, townhall-style talks and other formats.
