Design Minute — free for early-stage founders
Length
30 minutes
Format
Online, private call
When
Thursdays, 2–5pm GMT+7
Places
Five startups a week
Cost
Free
Most products don’t fail on code. They fail on first impression.
Founders ship products that work, then lose users in the first minute and investors in the first slide. The pitch says one thing, the interface says another, the brand says nothing at all. After weeks inside your own product, you can’t see it anymore. We can, in 30 minutes.
Product and experience
Onboarding, key user flows, the moments where people hesitate or leave.
Story and pitch
Whether your deck and your product make the same promise.
Brand and first impression
What your visual identity signals, and whether it matches your ambition.
Website
Whether a visitor understands what you do, and what to do next, in under 10 seconds.
0–5 min
You show us
A live demo, a walkthrough or the idea. Real screens preferred, no slides required.
5–25 min
We take it apart
Where the product loses the user, where the story loses the listener, where the brand undercuts the claim.
25–30 min
Your first fixes
The two things to fix first, and in which order.
A written Friction Note, within 48 hours.
A one-page summary you can share with your team.
The three friction points we found, ranked by impact
The first fix, explained clearly enough to act on
What it would take to close the gap properly
Friction Note
Sample — details changed
Seed-stage fintech, Singapore
Their question
Why do users drop off during signup?
Friction points, ranked
1. Signup asks for bank details before showing any value.
2. The landing page promises automated savings; the app opens on a budgeting dashboard.
3. Three greens, no rule. Screens look like they were built by different teams.
First fix
Move bank linking after the first insight. Show one real number before asking for anything.
Book a private session
A 45-minute follow-up to work through one specific problem in depth. Free for now, one per startup.
Work with us
We send a scoped proposal with a clear timeline and a price.
A good fit if you are
Preparing to launch, raise or pitch in the next 3 months
Pre-seed to Series A, with a product, a prototype or a clear idea
Ready to hear direct feedback
Not the right fit if
You want free design production. We diagnose, we don’t draw in the call.
You haven’t decided what you’re building yet
Give your cohort a design review before demo day.
We run a dedicated Design Minute for your program: up to five founders, one afternoon, online or on site in Phnom Penh. Each founder receives their own Friction Note. You receive a one-page read on where your cohort is structurally weak as a group.
No cost to the program. You bring five names, we handle the rest.
Book a cohort session
Reviewed by a product architect, not a template.
Every session is led by Alexis de Coninck, founder of AC Design Studio. Sixteen years designing physical and digital products across Paris, Shanghai, New York, San Francisco and Jakarta. He brings the rigor of manufacturing, where mistakes are expensive, to digital products, where they are just harder to see.
EuroCham Cambodia · Etixio · Meerabel · Atlantem · Pickleball Cambodia
Questions.
Is it really free?
Is my idea confidential?
Do I need a finished product?
What if I’m not selected this week?
Can I apply more than once?
Which languages?
Five places. Every Thursday.
Apply for a Thursday slot