A prime designer was banned from Dribbble. Now he is constructing his personal competitor.
Dribbble has completely banned dozens of designers from its platform following a brand new effort to pivot to a market and chase monetization. This contains one of many platform’s most well-known designers, Gleb Kuznetsov, founder of the San Francisco-based design studio Milkinside.
Dribbble deleted his account with its over 210 million followers as a result of he shared his contact data with potential shoppers by means of the platform in violation of its new guidelines.
Remarked Kuznetsov in a post on X, “I introduced 100,000+ month-to-month customers. 15 years of labor. 12,000+ photographs. All immediately deleted, as a result of a shopper requested for my e mail. One warning. No enchantment.”
Fed up with the modifications on the firm, which helps product, UX, internet, and different digital designers showcase their portfolios and discover new shoppers, Kuznetsov says he’s been speaking to buyers about launching a competitor.
Shortly after his social media publish, Dribbble customers expressed their shock and anger over the choice, crediting Kuznetsov as being one in all their largest inspirations and lamenting that the platform would make such a misguided transfer.
Dribbble, in the meantime, says Kuznetsov was truly warned a number of instances that he was violating the brand new guidelines and the e-mail was the ultimate discover.
Dribbble’s pivot to a market
The difficulty has to do with a newer coverage change first introduced on March 17, 2025.
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In an e mail shared in March with Dribbble’s some 750,000 accredited designers — which means those that are approved to speak with others on the platform — the corporate mentioned it was not permitting designers to share their contact data with potential shoppers till after their shopper despatched cost by means of its platform.
The corporate positioned this variation as one meant to guard designers from non-payment, in addition to one that permits Dribbble to proceed to maintain its enterprise.
The announcement was additionally posted to social media and the company blog.
Nevertheless, Kuznetsov claims that non-payment isn’t a quite common drawback, and actually, this replace is about Dribbble trying to take a bigger lower of designers’ enterprise.
Dribbble doesn’t dispute that.
Earlier than the coverage change, Dribbble made cash in one in all two methods. Beginning in September 2024, Dribbble started pivoting to a market that linked designers and shoppers. Designers may talk freely on the platform after which both share a 3.5% income lower on shoppers they transformed, or they may pay for a Pro subscription to skip the rev share. In March, the corporate tightened the foundations additional, saying that anybody discovering shoppers on Dribbble would wish to supply the platform a lower of their income.
“It went from it was non-obligatory to make use of our transactional options to it was required for non-advertisers to make use of our transactional options, in the event that they had been on Dribbble, to seek out shoppers,” explains Dribbble CEO Constantine Anastasakis, in an interview with TechCrunch. “If a consumer is on Dribbble to seek out inspiration or to get suggestions on their work, or to speak store with their friends, none of this impacts them,” he added.
The exec, who joined the corporate after working at direct-to-consumer lender Decrease, video market Pond5 (exited to Shutterstock), and freelancer market Fiverr, was employed final April to pivot Dribbble right into a market. Whereas the corporate is worthwhile beneath guardian firm Tiny, it’s nonetheless a small 20-person staff and isn’t reliant on enterprise backing to serve its 7.5 to 10 million month-to-month distinctive guests.
“Dribbble was one thing that actually accelerated our enterprise dramatically again within the day,” Kuznetsov advised TechCrunch. Earlier than Dribbble, there was no platform the place designers may share their work with others, he says. It helped designers obtain suggestions that got here particularly from their friends and allowed newer designers to be taught from these on the prime of the business.
Kuznetsov is now a part of the latter group.
At Milkinside, Kuznetsov has labored with firms like Apple, Google, Amazon, Scandinavian Airways, United Airways, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, and different massive firms within the Bay Space.
Because of this, he seemingly didn’t really feel that Dribbble would danger banning him for not abiding by the brand new phrases.
Anastasakis basically confirmed this to be true.
He advised TechCrunch that Kuznetsov obtained 83 work inquiries for the reason that new phrases rolled out in March, and responded to 61. In every message, the positioning exhibits a warning that reminds customers that contact particulars shouldn’t be shared earlier than venture cost. Nevertheless, Kuznetsov shared his contact data in six messages, which might have displayed a stronger warning at the moment.
The corporate then adopted up with a warning e mail on July 22 about his repeated terms-of-service violations, which knowledgeable him he was risking everlasting suspension.
Kuznetsov advised us he didn’t see this e mail initially, however Dribbble says it tracked that the e-mail was opened thrice earlier than his suspension.
“I consider that Dribbble — it was their purpose to harm me so I can unfold that [news] to allow them to give a harsh lesson to everybody who tries [to break the rules],” Kuznetsov says.
Anastasakis confirmed as a lot to TechCrunch.
“There’s actually no conceivable manner by which he didn’t understand that what he was doing risked everlasting suspension of his accounts,” Anastasakis advised us.
“I feel that finally it was that he believed that we wouldn’t take motion towards a designer of his caliber,” he continued. “As a aspect notice, I truly assume that he’s performed us a giant favor so far as getting the phrase out about how critically we take the phrases.”
For Kuznetsov, or any designer who was banned for related causes, the one possibility to return again to Dribbble is by becoming a member of as an advertiser, which requires a minimal marketing campaign finances of $1,500 monthly for at the least three months.
A brand new competitor to Dribbble emerges?
Kuznetsov has determined to forge his personal path, saying that he’s harm by Dribbble’s change.
“It’s not going to be a copycat of Dribbble,” he says of his pending startup. As an alternative, will probably be a useful resource for designers that may even leverage AI.
Whereas there was numerous backlash about AI fashions coaching on creatives’ work with out compensation, Kuznetsov believes there’s a use case for the know-how when it comes to inspiration, creation, and design.
“It’s a giant gap proper now available in the market … Everyone’s doing AI startups, however no one’s actually doing AI startups for designers,” Kuznetsov notes. “AI is one thing that actually can elevate our potential to create, and make it on a a lot increased stage of high quality. It’s going to assist us to not solely earn more cash and develop, but in addition create one thing we by no means even thought was attainable to create and not using a particular ability set.”
Kuznetsov says he expects to have an MVP (minimal viable product) prepared in three or 4 months.
Nevertheless, he notes the purpose is to not “kill” Dribbble, regardless that buyers provided him cash to take action.
“It’s not like that. I’m attempting to do one thing good for the neighborhood as a result of I’m a designer. So I understand how painful it’s to be a designer on this world,” says Kuznetsov.
“We should be actually good about how we make investments our time — how we give our greatest and provides our life to different platforms. Diversification of that funding must be one thing that everybody must be occupied with,” he provides.
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