Industry
Design as a Service
Client
NewGlue
Branding that sticks
As Founder & Co-CEO, I built and led NewGlue—an award-winning BrandTech startup that scaled globally and was acquired by Eniro in 2022.
NewGlue was a pioneering BrandTech platform on a mission to democratize design. Through proprietary automation and a global design community, we delivered fully trademarkable brand identities to small businesses in minutes. I founded and led NewGlue from idea to acquisition—owning strategy, product, design, growth, and brand. By combining storytelling, user-centric thinking, and scalable tech, we created a platform that made professional branding radically more accessible to small businesses.
Problem
Small businesses couldn’t afford to hire high-quality professionals — and platforms like Fiverr and 99designs were slow, inconsistent, and often underwhelming in quality.
Most existing platforms paired users with anonymous freelancers, resulting in unpredictable timelines and variable quality. While tools like Canva made design more accessible, they didn’t solve the core problem: helping businesses, on a budget and without design experience, to look and feel truly professional. As a design enthusiast and brand strategist, I saw an opportunity to radically improve the experience by productizing branding itself—creating something affordable, scalable, and really fun.
Solution
We built an automated design system that delivered exclusive, high-quality brand identities in minutes—powered by machine learning, smart UX, and a thriving designer community.
Unlike Canva or competitors, NewGlue offered logos that were sold only once — ensuring uniqueness and trademark safety. We worked with 700+ vetted designers who uploaded over 100,000 pre-designed (but unsold) icons, which our system automatically turned into complete brand kits: logos, color palettes, fonts, stationery, social templates, websites, and even merch — delivered instantly inside a personal Brand Hub. To drive growth, we captured as much information as possible on each user through a short, fun onboarding flow - and from their answers we knew exactly what additional products they would need, e.g. web design. Additionally, we took an e-commerce SEO approach with targeted pages like “sun logos” and “C logos,” capturing high-intent traffic and avoiding competing with Fiverr and Canva on popular keywords like "design logo". Retargeting campaigns emphasized urgency (“Only sold once!"), while email nurturing sequences reminded users when others were eyeing the same logo. A powerful affiliate program gave each designer a personal store and bonuses — fostering loyalty and organic promotion across social channels.
Result
In five years, we scaled globally, raised millions from top-tier investors, and were acquired by a public company.
NewGlue grew to a 700-designer community with 10k+ paying customers.
Hit 30% MoM MRR growth and 40% MoM customer growth.
Email flows saw 30%+ open rates and 8%+ CTRs.
Over 18k organic Instagram followers.
Raised over $3M from Luminar Ventures, Truesight Ventures, Provider Investment and others.
Won awards from Venture Cup, SEB Innovation Forum, and StartUp Grind in Silicon Valley.
In 2022, NewGlue was acquired by the Nordic listed tech group Eniro