AnswerGrid was an AI-powered research platform helping professionals discover and organize institutional knowledge. As Head of Design, I owned both the brand and the product through the company's most consequential year—getting into Y-Combinator and shipping AnswerGrid Sheets to the public.
Securing Y-Combinator Backing
I directed the end-to-end design of AnswerGrid Sheets, a next-generation tool that unified fragmented research workflows into a single AI-powered system. The work centered on a streamlined UX flow paired with a cohesive brand identity that made the product's value legible at a glance—to investors and customers alike.
I pitched and demoed the product to Y-Combinator partners, and the design system played a central role in AnswerGrid's acceptance into YC's Summer 2024 batch (acceptance rate under 2%). That admission helped close a $700,000 seed round—$500,000 from YC and $200,000 in follow-on investment—by demonstrating both market readiness and the polish of the product. Aligning brand design, usability, and storytelling to YC's evaluation framework lifted the company's public profile and earned recognition across YC's official platforms and startup media.
Designing and Launching AnswerGrid Sheets
Before any pixels, the work began with research—50+ founder conversations narrowed to 30+ in-depth interviews that surfaced the real pain points in fragmented lead-generation and research workflows. From those insights I defined and executed a modular design system that made spreadsheet-like interfaces feel both familiar and capable of advanced AI-driven automation.
Cross-functional collaboration between design, engineering, and marketing kept launch messaging and UX consistent. The Product Hunt launch hit 344 upvotes on day one, ranking among the top daily launches and driving immediate organic adoption. Within three months we reached 2,500 monthly active users and MRR grew 210% in Q1 2025, establishing early financial sustainability.
Y-Combinator leadership recognized AnswerGrid Sheets as one of the best-designed AI products of its batch, featuring it in YC's Design Review with over 156,000 YouTube views—extending reach to founders and designers globally. Beyond the launch metrics, the most lasting outcome was a design-led culture that balanced usability, performance, and commercial appeal—the foundation that made the eventual evolution into Kenley possible.