Chat She has permanently banned dozens of designers from her platform after a new attempt to turn to a market and chase revenue. This includes one of the most famous designers on the platform, Gleb kuznetsovFounder of Studio Design based in San Francisco Burger.
Dribbble deleted his account with Over 210 million The fans because they shared his contact details with prospective customers through the platform in violation of his new rules.
Noticed Kuznetsov In a post on x“I brought 100,000+ monthly users, 15 years of work.
With the company’s changes that help products, UX, web and other digital designers present their portfolios and find new customers, Kuznetsov says he is talking to investors about starting a competitor.
Shortly after the post of social media, Dribbble users expressed their shock and anger for the decision, crediting Kuznetsov as one of their biggest inspirations and mourning that the platform would make such a wrong move.
Dribbble, meanwhile, says Kuznetsov, has actually warned many times that he was breaking the new rules and the email was the final notice.
Dribbble’s axis in a market
The issue is about a more recent policy change that was first announced on March 17, 2025.
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In an email shared in March with approximately 750,000 approved Dribbble designers – which means those who have been authorized to contact others on the platform – the company said it does not allow designers to share their contact details with prospective customers until their customer.
The company placed this change as someone intended to protect designers from non -payment, as well as one that allows Dribbble to continue maintaining its activities.
The announcement was also published in social media and corporate blog.
However, Kuznetsov claims that non -payment is not a very common problem, and this information is really about the effort that is trying to get a larger cut of designers’ businesses.
DRIBBBLE does not dispute this.
Before changing politics, Dribbble made money in one of the two ways. Since September 2024, Dribbble has begun to rotate in a market connecting designers and customers. Designers could communicate freely on the platform and then share a 3.5% reduction in revenue to customers who have been converted or could pay a pro subscription To skip the REV share. In March, the company tightens the rules further, saying that anyone who finds customers in Dribbble should offer the platform a cut of their revenue.
“He went from this was optional to use our trading features on this required for non -advertisers to use our trading features if they were in dribbble, to find customers,” he explains, he explains, he explains, he explains, he explains, he explains, he explains, Chief executive Constantine AnastasakisIn an interview with TechCrunch. “If a user is in dribbble to find inspiration or get feedback on his work or talk to his peers, none of them affect them,” he added.
The Exec, who joined the company after working on Direct-To-Consumer Lender Lower, Video Marketplace Pond5 (left in Shutterstock), and Freelancer Marketplace Fiverr, was hired last April to throw Dribbble into a market. While the company is profitable under the parent company MicroscopicIt is still a small group of 20 people and is not dependent on Venture’s support to serve 7.5 to 10 million monthly unique visitors.
“Dribbble was something that really accelerates our business dramatically on the day,” Kuznetsov told TechCrunch. Before Dribbble, there was no platform where designers could share their work with others, he says. It helped designers to receive comments that came from their peers specifically and allowed younger designers to learn from those at the top of the industry.
Kuznetsov is now part of the last team.
At Milkinside, Kuznetsov has partnered with companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Scandinavian Airlines, United Airlines, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz and other big companies in Bay Area.
As a result, he probably did not feel that Dribbble would be in danger of banning him because he did not adhere to the new terms.
Anastasaki essentially confirmed that this is true.
He told TechCrunch that Kuznetsov received 83 work surveys since the new terms were released in March and responded to 61. In each message, the site shows a warning reminds users that contact information should not be shared before paying the project. However, Kuznetsov distributed his contact information to six messages, which would have had a stronger warning at the time.
The company then followed a warning email on July 22 on repeated violations of its services, informing him that he was risking permanent suspension.
Kuznetsov told us that he did not initially see this email, but Dribbble says he watched that the email opened three times before it was suspended.
“I believe that dribbble – was their goal of hurting me so I could spread that [news] So they can give a hard lesson to all who try [to break the rules]”Says Kuznetsov.
Anastasakis confirmed so much in TechCrunch.
“There is really no possible way in which he did not realize that what he did is at risk of permanent suspension of his accounts,” Anastasaki told us.
“I think he was in the end that he believed we would not take action against a designer of his caliber,” he continued. “As a side note, I really believe that it has done us a great deal of grace of taking the word for how seriously we take the terms.”
For Kuznetsov or any designer banned for similar reasons, the only option to return to Dribbble is the participation as an advertiser, who requires a minimum curriculum budget of $ 1,500 per month for at least three months.
A new Dribbble competitor appears?
Kuznetsov decided to forge his own path, saying he was hit by the change of dribbble.
“It’s not going to be a Dribbble copycat,” he says of his start. Instead, it will be a resource for designers who will also take advantage of AI.
While there has been a lot of reaction to AI models training for creative work without compensation, Kuznetsov believes that there is a case of use for technology in inspiration, creation and design.
“It’s a big hole right now on the market … Everyone is doing new businesses, but no one really makes new businesses for designers,” Kuznetsov notes. “AI is something that can really lift our ability to create and do it at a much higher quality level. It will help us not only make more money and grow, but also to create something we never thought it was possible to create without a specific set of skills.”
Kuznetsov says he expects to have a MVP (minimum viable product) ready in three or four months.
However, he notes that the goal is not to “kill” dribbble, even though investors offered money to do so.
“It’s not like that, I’m trying to do something good for the community because I’m a designer, so I know how painful it is to be a designer in this world,” says Kuznetsov.
“We have to be really smart about how we invest our time – how we give our best and give our lives to other platforms. Differentialization of this investment must be something that everyone has to think about,” he adds.
