Designer hiring
for founders
You're making your first design hire and can't afford to get it wrong. I calibrate on the role and the bar, then hand you a shortlist of screened designers worth interviewing, so you can keep building.
30 minutes on the role, aligning the fastest way to your shortlist.
WCD ran our designer search and consistently delivered candidates that matched our exact requirements. Guidione is a thoughtful, dedicated search partner, I recommend them without hesitation for any company hiring senior designers.
“We brought Guidione in for a precise AI product designer search, including work that touched our bank-side partners at BNP Paribas. He understood the brief fast, kept candidate quality high, and ran the process without noise.”
“Nothing on the shortlist made us want to pass. On design quality, we trusted Guidione's judgment completely.”
“WCD delivered a shortlist of 15 product designers for Mozart Bett, mix of active and passive talent. The quality was exactly what we needed. I was super happy with it.”
How I filter before your shortlist
What I check before a name reaches you.
Before anyone reaches your shortlist, I read their work by hand — craft, research, systems, storytelling — the same pass I'd make if I were hiring them myself.
Curious what designers actually earn? See the salary data
Case Study
Stripe Dashboard Redesign
2.2/3
Craft & Visual Design
Polished, consistent UI with a clear grid, with a couple of spacing inconsistencies on secondary screens.
User-Centered Research
Research is described but few artifacts are shown; no testing evidence or user quotes.
Interaction & Systems Thinking
Strong flows and states; component reuse is implied but a system isn't made explicit.
Communication & Storytelling
Problem is framed well; impact is asserted but not quantified.
Hiring signals
Green flags
Clean, confident visual craft that reads as senior. Clear before/after problem framing.
Yellow flags
Research process claimed but not evidenced. Probe in interview. Impact stated without metrics.
Red flags
No usability testing or user feedback shown.
Illustrative example. This is my checklist, not a product report — every shortlist name has been through it.
How it works
From your brief to someone in the seat.
I set the brief and the bar with you up front, then source, read the work, shortlist, and stay on it until someone starts, so you always know what's coming, and when.
I read the work
I go through portfolios by hand (the shipped product, not keywords) and calibrate against your role before I go wide.
You get: A first read on real product, and a bar you and I set together.
Read, not searched
Shortlist & Rank
I rank the field against your job, top to bottom, on shipped work, and tell you what each portfolio proves and what to probe.
You get: A ranked shortlist with the why for every name.
Judged on evidence
I stay until someone starts
You meet the shortlist and run the calls you want. I keep the process moving. No inbox triage, no silent weeks.
You get: Someone in the seat, not a stalled search.
Until someone startsBuilt for founders making their first design hire
You're hiring a designer without being one yourself, and this first hire sets the bar for every designer after them.
- You can't tell great work from a great-looking portfolio, and there's no design lead to ask
- Every case study is polished and team-built; you can't see what they actually did, or how senior they really are
- Get it wrong and it's months of runway gone, plus a design bar your next hires inherit
Here's what you actually care about:
Why founders trust me with the first hire
I read shipped work, then shortlist, interview, and hire with you. The whole process, one person, in days not months.
Protect your runway
I've read 10,000+ portfolios. I can tell who ships from who presents.
Reach the right people faster
A large network of designers I've already reviewed gives every search a stronger starting point.
Right on the first hire
I've led 10+ design teams and built products 0→1. I know the bar.
You see every why
I judge the work against a checklist, not the pedigree. You see the evidence behind every name.
Roles I cover
Every designer I put in front of you is read for skill, craft, and shipped results.
Mid
Ships fast and well, even when the brief is still moving.
Senior
Owns a product area end to end and raises the bar.
Staff
Sets direction, mentors, and levels up the whole team.
600,000+ designers in the network. Explore the data
Shopify, Spotify, Klarna, Meta, Revolut, Uber, Adyen, Microsoft, Wise, Zalando
WHO YOU'LL WORK WITH
Ex-Shopify Senior Product Designer.
I'm Guidione, a product designer with 12 years behind me. I was a Senior Product Designer at Shopify, where I learned what world-class work and performance actually look like, and what to look for when hiring. Since then I've run a studio for founders across the US, UK, and Europe. I bring that eye to your search: I read what a designer has actually built, and I only put forward people I'd hire myself.
Guidione Machava · Founder, World Class Design · ex-Shopify
Simple pricing. Hire on proof.
Choose a shortlist or full-search support. You always know what you pay and when.
Shortlist
I read the work and send names, built for founders making their first design hire.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
- I read the portfolios against your role
- A ranked shortlist you can interview
- Profiles judged on shipped work
- You run the interviews from there
- Names in days, not a month of inbox
Full hire
Hand it to me. I run the search, the read, the interviews, until someone starts.
€3,000 to start, then 10% of first-year salary.
Book a free intro callEVERYTHING IN SHORTLIST
- I run the search for you
- Hand-picked, vetted shortlist
- I stay on the process with you
- Interview scheduling and coordination
- Until someone starts in the seat
Already working with me? Log in.
FAQ
Questions founders ask before the first hire.
Fees, what I need from you, and how this is different from a recruiter. Anything else, ask me on the call.
Two ways. A shortlist is a flat €3,000. I read the work and hand you ranked names to interview. A full hire is €3,000 to start, then 10% of first-year salary.
About 30 minutes to align on the role and the bar, then your read on the first names I send. I handle the sourcing, the portfolio read, and keeping the process moving. You run the interviews you want to run.
A generalist recruiter forwards CVs and hopes. I'm a designer. I can read a portfolio for what it actually proves, tell you what to probe in the interview, and flag the risks before you commit.
Product, UX, UI, brand, and design leadership, from your very first design hire to a founding designer who can own product 0→1.
A wider search, the right fit
A great designer is rare, rarer still in any one city. So I don't limit your search to your postcode. I look across a global network of designers who already work with startup teams, then put the right one for your team in front of you. You get a stronger shortlist and the right hire, working the way you already work.
NEXT STEP
Let's get the first hire right.
Book a free call. In 30 minutes I'll help you shape the role, size up who's out there, and map how the search runs from here.