"They said AI would replace design. Instead it proved how much design matters."
That's @felixleezd's line, and he'd know. A VC told him at 20 that Singaporeans can't build companies. No design degree, rejected from the jobs he wanted.
Then he built @ADPList into the biggest free mentorship platform in the world instead. A million users, 40,000 mentors, 140 countries.
We got into:
•Why judgment, not pixels, is the real moat in design now
•Why "originality is dead," and why similar-looking apps can both win
•Why super-app clutter vs. Western minimalism is cultural, not a quality gap
•Splitting with a co-founder the right way
•The hiring mistakes he'd take back
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Oakland Ice Center Intro
(00:47) From Singapore's National Skating Team
(02:22) AI vs. Human Design
(04:53) Is Originality Dead?
(06:42) Designers vs. Engineers
(08:23) Minimalism and Culture
(10:55) Ethics and AI Trust
(12:57) What ADPList Is
(13:37) Closed Doors and Why He Built It
(17:42) Quitting to Go All In
(20:31) The Founder Outreach Playbook
(26:04) Don Norman Lessons
(28:56) Scaling Free Mentorship to a Million
(31:57) Designing With Claude
(33:59) Fable Workflows
(41:51) Audience vs. Community
(43:16) The PR Crisis
(52:31) What Sports Taught Him About Failure
(54:42) Splitting With a Co-Founder the Right Way
(59:33) Hiring Mistakes
(01:04:21) San Francisco Culture Shock
(01:11:25) Long-Term Games
