My Journey at Connect2crypto

From founding designer to leading a three-person team at a crypto startup

I joined Connect2crypto in August 2021 as their founding designer. Nearly two years later, when I left in June 2023, I'd grown from being the only designer to leading a team of three. We shipped the entire app from concept to completion, built a design system from scratch, and I learned what it actually means to lead design at a fast-moving startup.

Connect2crypto was building a community app specifically for crypto users. At the time, every crypto project was using Telegram or Discord, apps that weren't designed for crypto at all. They were built for general use cases, which meant crypto communities had to awkwardly force-fit existing features to meet their needs.

Looking back, it's wild how much changed, not just in the product, but in me as a designer.

The Beginning

When I started, the app was mostly designed by a freelancer, and honestly? It had serious problems. The UI was basic, like stock components pulled straight from a front-end library. No branding, no personality, nothing that made it feel exciting or connected to what we were trying to build. It just looked like any other generic app.

But here's what I realized early: this wasn't just a UI problem.

I was hired to do a visual redesign, but instead of jumping straight into making things prettier, I started with research. I wanted to understand if the existing design actually worked, not just visually, but functionally. Did it help us achieve our business goals? Did it serve users well?

Turns out, it failed on both fronts.

When I presented my findings to stakeholders, I didn't just pitch a visual refresh. I showed them we needed to restructure the entire experience to align with our goals. We weren't just building another community app; we were building something crypto-first. That meant every feature needed to ask: how does this serve crypto communities specifically, not just copy what Discord does?

That early decision to lead with research instead of just redesign? It set the tone for everything that came after.

Designing for a Community

We wanted to build something different. Something crypto-first. Every feature we designed came from asking: how do we serve this specific community, not just copy what Discord/Telegram does?

For example, when you created a community on our platform, you could add your token, and we'd track the live price right from the community page. Users didn't need to leave the app to check prices. We reimagined announcements to work the way crypto communities actually use them. Everything was built around making life easier for people in this space.

After the homepage, I redesigned the community detail pages and then moved through the app flow by flow. Each time, we approached it with that crypto-first mindset rather than just looking at other apps and copying what they did.

Rapid Mess Growth

As we kept shipping, something started happening. Investors got interested. Communities joined our waitlist wanting to launch on our platform. We were gaining traction, which meant we needed to scale.

Within six months, we went from one designer to three. We were designing constantly—new flows, new features, new screens. From the outside, it looked like we were crushing it.

But I could see the cracks forming.

Three designers working in different ways meant inconsistencies everywhere. We had design debt piling up faster than we could fix it. My design team was quite young, and we were all learning as we went, which meant making mistakes at startup speed.

I realized something important: moving fast is great, but moving fast without systems just creates mess faster. That's when I started thinking differently about my role. I wasn't just designing screens anymore; I needed to design how we worked.

Building the Foundation

When I became Lead Designer in March 2022, I knew good leadership meant creating systems that help teams work better.

The first thing I did was build our design system. Not because it was easy, but because I knew if we didn't, the inconsistencies would only multiply. I worked closely with engineering to make sure it wasn't just pretty Figma components; it needed to actually work in code.

But I didn't stop at components. I created detailed design handoff processes for different types of work, specific workflows for different user flows, and separate processes for animations. I was thinking at a systems level now, not just a screen level. How do we make sure design decisions translate properly to development? How do we document the why behind our choices, not just the what?

I also introduced other processes: design sprints so we could collaborate better, checklists that caught errors before they reached developers, and biweekly reports to keep everyone aligned. I created templates for the team that gave everyone the tools they needed from day one.

Good leadership isn't about being the best designer in the room. It's about creating systems that make everyone better.

What I Actually Learned

Looking back, the metrics are impressive; engagement more than doubled on some features, we cut errors nearly in half, and timelines got significantly faster. But the real growth wasn't in the numbers.

I learned that research isn't something you do when you have time. It's something you make time for because it saves you from building the wrong thing. That first decision to research before redesigning? It became my default approach.

I learned that slowing down to build systems, even when it feels like you should be shipping features, is often the fastest way forward. That design system felt like a delay, but it became the foundation for everything we built afterward.

I learned that collaboration with developers early and often isn't just nice to have. It's essential. The best designs are ones that can actually be built, and understanding technical constraints makes you a better designer.

Most importantly, I learned what design leadership actually means. It's not about being the most talented designer. It's about creating an environment where good design can happen consistently, through processes, systems, documentation, and culture.

When I Left

By the time I left Connect2crypto in June 2023, we'd built something I'm genuinely proud of. A complete app designed specifically for crypto communities. A design system that worked. Processes that made the team efficient. A culture where design decisions came from research and data, not just opinions.

Unfortunately, the story didn't end the way we'd hoped. As the team scaled and new management joined, the vision shifted from launching a focused community app to building a crypto super app. Features kept getting added instead of validating and shipping what we had. By the time the team was ready to launch, the crypto market had crashed, the company couldn't secure more funding, and eventually had to close down. It was a hard lesson in the importance of focus and validation over endless feature building.

But what I'm taking with me isn't just the portfolio pieces or the metrics. It's knowing that I can walk into chaos and build order. That I can grow from a solo contributor to a team leader. That I can advocate for users while understanding business needs. That I can build systems that scale.