A top designer was banned from Dribbble. Now he is building his own competitor. | Techcrunch

Dribble has permanently prohibited dozens of designers from his platform after a new effort to turn to a marketplace and to chase income. This includes one of the most famous designers of the platform, GLEB KUZNETSOVFounder of the San Francisco -based design studio Milkinside.

Dribbble deleted his account with his More than 210 million Followers because he shared his contact details with potential customers via the platform in violation of his new rules.

Kuznetsov noted In a message on x”I have taken more than 100,000 monthly users. 15 years of work. 12,000+ shots. All immediately deleted because a customer asked for my e -mail. One warning. No profession.”

The changes to the company, which helps with the product, UX, web and other digital designers who present their portfolios and present new customers, says Kuznetsov that he has talked to investors about launching a competitor.

Shortly after his social media post, Dribbble users expressed their shock and anger about the decision, in which Kuznetsov was issued as one of their biggest inspirations and lamentation that the platform would make such a misguided movement.

In the meantime, Dribbble says that Kuznetsov was actually warned several times that he was violating the new rules and the E -mail was the final notification.

Dribbble’s pivot point to a marketplace

The issue has to do with a more recent policy change that was first announced on March 17, 2025.

In an e -mail shared in March with the approximately 750,000 approved designers of Dribbble – which means that those who are authorized to communicate with others on the platform – the company said that it was no longer allowed to allow designers to share their contact details with potential customers until their customer had sent the payment via his platform.

The company positioned this change as someone intended to protect designers against non-payment, as well as one that enables Dribbble to continue to support its activities.

The announcement was also posted on social media and the Company blog.

However, Kuznetsov claims that non-payment is not a common problem, and really, this update is about Dribbble who tries to take a larger part of the designers’ things.

Dribbble does not dispute that.

Before the policy change, Dribbble earned money in one of the two ways. From September 2024, Dribbble started to turn to a marketplace that connected designers and customers. Designers can freely communicate on the platform and then share a turnover reduction of 3.5% on customers they have converted or they can pay A Pro subscription To skip the REV share. In March, the company further sharpened the rules and said that everyone who found customers on Dribbble should offer the platform a reduction in their income.

“It was optional to use our transactional functions, was required for non-advertiGers to use our transaction functions if they were on dribble to find customers,” explains “” Dribbble CEO Constantine AnastasakisIn an interview with Techcrunch. “If a user is Dribbble to find inspiration or to get feedback about his work, or to talk to their colleagues, this has no influence on them,” he added.

The Exec, which became a member of the company after he was hired in April at Direct-to-Consumer Lender Lender, Video Marketplace Pond5 (excluded to Shutterstock), and freelancer Marketplace Fiverr, to turn Dribbble in a marketplace. While the company is profitable under parent company SmallIt is still a small team of 20 people and is not dependent on the backing of venture to serve its 7.5 to 10 million monthly unique visitors.

“Dribbble was something that our company really accelerated dramatically in the day,” Kuznetsov told Techcrunch. Before Dribbble there was no platform where designers could share their work with others, he says. It helped to receive designers feedback that came specifically from their colleagues and could learn newer designers from those at the top of the industry.

Kuznetsov is now part of the last group.

In Milkinside, Kuznetsov worked with companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Scandinavian Airlines, United Airlines, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz and other large companies in the Bay Area.

As a result, he probably did not feel that Dribbble would run the risk of prohibiting him because he did not comply with the new conditions.

Anastasakis essentially confirmed that this is true.

He said Techcrunch that Kuznetsov 83 received work questions since the new conditions were rolled out in March and responded to 61. In each message, the site shows a warning that users reminds that contact details should not be shared before payment of the project. Kuznetsov, however, shared his contact details in six messages, which would have shown a stronger warning at that time.

The company then followed a warning e -mail about his repeated violations of the conditions on July 22, which let him know that he risked permanent suspension.

Kuznetsov told us that he did not see this e -mail initially, but Dribbble says it followed that the E -mail was opened three times before his suspension.

“I believe that Dribbble – it was their goal to hurt me so that I can spread it [news] So that they can give a hard lesson to anyone trying [to break the rules]”Says Kuznetsov.

The CEO of Dribbble Anastasakis attached so much to Techcrunch.

“There is really no conceivable way in which he did not realize that what he did risk the permanent suspension of his accounts,” Anastasakis told us.

“I think it was in the end that he believed that we would not take action against a designer of his caliber,” he continued. “If a comment, I actually think he did a big favor to us as far as to get the word about how seriously we take the conditions.”

For Kuznetsov, or every designer who was banned for similar reasons, is the only option to come back to Dribbble by becoming a member of an advertiser, which requires a minimum campaign budget of $ 1500 per month for at least three months.

A new competitor from Dribbble is coming to the fore?

Kuznetsov has decided to forge his own path and says he was injured by the change of Dribbble.

“It will not be a Copycat from Dribbble,” he says about his current startup. Instead, it will be a source for designers who will also use AI.

Although there has been a lot of recoil about AI models that train at the work of creatives without compensation, Kuznetsov believes that there is a use case for technology in terms of inspiration, creation and design.

“It is now a big gap on the market … everyone does AI startups, but nobody really does AI startups for designers,” Kuznetsov notes. “Ai is something that can really increase our ability to create and make it at a much higher level of quality. It will help us not only earn more money and grow, but also create something that we never even thought was to create without specific skills.”

Kuznetsov says he expects one MVP (minimal viable product) Ready in three or four months.

However, he notes that the goal is not to ‘kill’ Dribbble, although investors offered him money for this.

“It is not like that. I try to do something good for the community because I am a designer. So I know how painful it is to be a designer in this world,” says Kuznetsov.

“We really have to be smart in how we invest our time – how we give our best and give our lives to other platforms. Diversification of that investment should be something that everyone should think of,” he adds.