Hire a product designer who ships the code.
Founding designer for a 0-to-1 product, embedded product designer for the long run, or a defined piece of work. For AI and B2B SaaS startups, working directly with founders and CTOs.
Who it’s for
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An AI agent, copilot or workflow product
You’re building agents, AI-assisted features or a workflow builder, and the hard part is the states: suggestions people can trust and correct, steps that aren’t configured yet, limits, errors and empty states. I designed these for three years as the founding designer at Lantern.
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A product that has outgrown its first design
Too many flows, states and admin surfaces for one-off design work. You need someone to own the whole system, the customer app, the admin panel, billing, onboarding and the design system, and keep improving it after launch.
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A founder or CTO who wants one person to own it
From the first flow to production code, across product, website and pitch. I work directly with you, inside the team, rather than handing over static mockups from the outside.
Three ways to work together
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Founding designer, 0 to 1
For a team with an idea, engineers and no designer yet. 0 to 1 means the whole system, not just the customer UI: the admin panel, the billing logic, the email flows and the settings pages, plus the front-end, built with your engineers. At Lantern I was the founding designer for three years and carried the product from 0 to 1 through three pivots.
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Embedded product designer
For a live product that needs a senior designer in the team for the long run. I join your channels and your sprints, work with the engineers on real data and design every state, not just the ideal one. At HelloGov and Public Grid this covered the app, the admin tools, the website and the decks, a year each.
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A defined piece of work
When the product needs it: the marketing website, the pricing page, a sales or investor deck, a design system, or one hard flow designed end to end with every state. Scoped up front, with a start and an end.
What’s included
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Every flow, every state
Empty, error, loading, partial data, expired sessions, first-time and returning. If developers have to ask “what happens when…”, the design wasn’t finished.
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Admin and internal tools
The ops side of the product alongside the customer side: review queues, pipelines, support history, refunds, settings.
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A design system
Built together with your engineering team, so the product stays consistent after I’ve designed the first hundred screens.
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Front-end code
I ship what I design, working alongside your engineers rather than handing over static mockups.
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Website, pricing and decks
When the product needs them, so every touchpoint tells the same story: the site, the pricing page, the sales and investor decks.
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Iteration after launch
Real data, session recordings and experiments, one improvement at a time: higher conversion, fewer support tickets, fewer refunds.
How pricing works
A flat monthly fee, agreed before we start
One number that covers design and front-end, reviewed when the scope changes. No hourly tracking and no agency layer between you and the person doing the work. A defined piece of work is quoted up front as one price.
I sell outcomes, not hours: higher conversion, lower refunds, fewer support tickets, fixed funnels. At Apollo.io that meant +15.7% conversion; at HelloGov and Public Grid, products that kept improving after launch.
Common questions
What stage do you work with?
Early-stage startups building their first product, and teams whose product has outgrown its first design. Mostly B2B SaaS, AI and gov-tech, mostly in the US.
Are you freelance, fractional or full-time?
Embedded, for the long run, without the hiring process. I’m not an employee and not an agency: one senior designer who joins your team and stays. My partnerships last about a year and a half on average.
Do you work with US companies?
Yes. For 12 years I’ve worked mostly with US startups, remotely from Lisbon, plus some European companies, across US and European time zones.
Do you write production code?
Yes. I design the product and build the front-end that ships it, working alongside your engineers.
How do we start?
Email hi@eugenesanu.com with what you’re building, where it’s at and when you’d like to start. If I’m not the right fit, I’ll say so.