Gabriel Valdivia
Fractional Design Partner for Early-Stage Teams
I help early-stage startups ship fast without compromising quality.
I’ve spent the last fifteen years building 0→1 products for the world’s top tech companies. Today, I partner with founders to bring their ideas to life. As your design partner, I will:
- Help you shape the product strategy without drowning in docs.
- Create high-fidelity interactive prototypes to validate ideas.
- Collaborate directly with engineering teams to iterate fast.
- Build and nurture a design team that’s set up for success.
Capabilities
Approach
Shared ownership. Whether I work independently or integrate with your team, everyone comes along.
I work fast. Quick iteration allows us to zoom through explorations until something feels right.
Show and tell. I frequently share work in progress via screen recordings with voice over.
Bias for action. I prefer tangible artifacts over lengthy documents that go ignored.
I work in systems. I create reusable components whether it's a feature or a design system.
Design is thinking. I explore divergent solutions. The more the merrier!
Clients
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In their words
“Gabe zipped in to our team seamlessly, brought well researched insights and strategic thinking to every concept, and polished the details to a high-shine. We are extremely pleased with the work — not only the output but the process to get there.”
Meghan Harvey
Co-Founder, Bindery Books
“Gabe is a superb designer. He grasps what we are seeking to build and is lightning fast at turning our thoughts into designs. This facilitates a quick feedback cycle leading to designs we are all happy with in an impressively short period of time.”
Greg Dooley
Engineering Partner, GV
“I cannot recommend Gabe enough. Truly world-class in every sense of the word. From helping to visualize an ambitious product story & vision, to playing an active role in bringing on senior full-time talent, and everything in between — Gabe can seemingly do it all. Our product, team, culture, and customers are in a stronger position thanks to our time together.”
Jinen Kamdar
CPO, Gather
“I was blown away by Gabe's ability to quickly synthesize complexity and simplify it for different audiences. Working with Gabe was both fun and productive. Delivery of high quality at high velocity is his superpower.”
Natasha Awasthi
Ritual Dental
“Gabe is an exceptional 0 → 1 design thinker and partner to early-stage founders. He made major contributions to our brand identity and key features. Highly recommend!”
Sandeep Rajan
Grandstand
“Gabe is a master at taming the chaos of the 0 → 1 process. He has the rare ability to jump into the early stages of open-ended projects and rapidly develop structure and systems. He is proactive, works with little to no direction — and he is also very fast!”
Tanuj Lalwani
Daylight
FAQs
Fractional leadership is a flexible model where organizations engage part-time design leaders to drive and guide design strategies and initiatives. Fractional design leaders provide valuable insights, mentorship, and direction to enhance the overall design capabilities and outcomes of the organization, without the need for full-time employment.
A bad hire can have detrimental effects on company culture and founders don't always know how to identify the best designer for their long-term needs. Opting to work with me offers a flexible and lower-commitment solution, ideal for situations where you need to quickly bring your ideas to life without the potential risks associated with a permanent hire. As our partnership evolves, I can guide you in building your own dedicated design team, facilitating a seamless transition to capable hands that align with your long-term goals.
I have a couple designers on staff to help with production work and can tap into a larger network of design collaborators for specific deliverables to increase quality and speed. This is included in my fee. That said, you will always interact directly with me at every step of the way.
I focus on bringing exceptional expertise and product intuition with urgency and high craft. That's why I prefer to work with a flat weekly retainer. That way we can focus on the work without worrying about tracking hours, limited revisions, or rigidly defined scopes. We end when the work is done.
I’m generally available every weekday through Slack and open to Zoom/in-person meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I find it’s best to agree on milestones for the week/month and then focus on delivering those in time, rather than worrying about tracking time.
Need a Design Partner?
If you are creating hardware that would benefit from a thoughtful, delightful software experience, I'd love to hear more about it. Message me at gabe@valdivia.works.