Dribbble has forever banned dozens of designers from its platform, following new efforts to go to the market and chase monetization. This includes Gleb Kuznetsov, one of the platform’s most renowned designers, and is the founder of San Francisco-based design studio Milkinside.
Dribbble has deleted its account with over 210 million followers as it shared contact information with future clients through the platform in violation of new rules.
Kuznetsov in X’s post said, “We brought in over 100,000 users every month. 15 years of work. Over 12,000 shots. Everything was deleted instantly.
As products, UX, the web and other digital designers are tired of changes to the company that will help them showcase their portfolios and find new clients, Kuznetsov says he’s talking to investors about launching competitors.
Shortly after his social media post, Dribbble users expressed shock and anger at the decision, believing that Kuznetsov is one of their biggest inspirations and lamented the platform making such a false move.
Meanwhile, Dribbble says he has been warned over and over again that Kuznetsov is in fact violating the new rules, and multiple times that the email is the final notification.
Dribbble’s Pivot to the Market
This issue relates to recent policy changes, first announced on March 17, 2025.
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In an email shared with around 750,000 approved designers from Dribbble (people allowed to communicate with others on the platform), the company said it would not allow designers to share contact information with future clients until they send payments to clients through the platform.
The company positioned the change as intended to protect designers from unpaid and as enabling Dribbble to continue to maintain their business.
The announcement was also posted on social media and on company blogs.
However, Kuznetsov argues that non-payment is not a very common issue, and in fact, this update is about Dribble trying to cut the designer’s business significantly.
Dribbling doesn’t dispute it.
Before the policy was changed, Dribbble made money in one of two ways. Starting in September 2024, Dribbble began pivoting into a market that connects designers and clients. Designers can communicate freely on the platform and then pay to Pro subscription to share a 3.5% revenue reduction for converted clients or skip REV shares. In March, the company further tightened its rules and said that anyone who finds clients on Dribbble should provide revenue cuts to the platform.
“We had to use the transaction feature to find clients if non-addicted people were on dribbling,” explains Constantine Anastasakis, CEO of Dribbble CEO in an interview with TechCrunch. “If users use Dribbble to find inspiration, get feedback about their work, or to talk about the store with colleagues, this won’t affect them,” he added.
An executive who joined the company after working for Direct-Tusumer Lender Lower, Video Marketplace Pond5 (retired from Shutterstock), and Freelancer Marketplace Fiverr was hired by Pivot Dribble last April. The company is profitable under its parent company Tiny, but it is still a small team of 20 people and does not rely on venture backing to serve 75-10 million unique visitors.
“Dribbble was a really dramatic acceleration in our business at the time,” Kuznetsov told TechCrunch. Before the dribbling, there was no platform for designers to share their work with others, he says. It helped designers receive special feedback from their peers and allow new designers to learn from people at the top of the industry.
Kuznetsov is currently part of the latter group.
At Milkinside, Kuznetsov has worked with companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Scandinavian Airlines, United Airlines, Honda, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz and other large companies.
As a result, he probably didn’t feel there was a risk of banning him by not just keeping the new conditions.
Anastasakis has essentially confirmed that this is true.
He told TechCrunch that Kuznetsov received 83 work inquiries since the new terms were rolled out in March and responded to 61. Each message states a warning reminding users that the site should not share contact details before paying for the project. However, Kuznetsov shared his contact information in six messages.
The company then sent a warning email on July 22 about his repeated violations of services, informing him that he was at risk of a permanent suspension.
Kuznetsov said he didn’t see this email at first, but Dribbble says he tracked that the email was opened three times before his suspension.
“I believe in dribbling – I can spread it because it was their goal to hurt me [news] So they can give everyone who tries it out with a tough lesson [to break the rules]Kuznetsov says.
Anastasakis confirmed with TechCrunch as well.
“There’s really no way he could think of anything he was doing that he didn’t realize there was a risk of a permanent suspension of his account,” Anastasakis told us.
“In the end, I think he believed he would not take action against the designers of his caliber,” he continued. “As a side note, I think he actually gave us a great favor as long as he reveals his words about how seriously we take the terms.”
For Kuznetsov, or designers who are banned for similar reasons, the only option to return to Dribbble is to join as an advertiser who needs a minimum campaign budget of $1,500 per month for at least three months.
Has a new Dribbble competitor appeared?
Kuznetsov decided to build his own path, saying that he was hurt by the change in dribbling.
“It’s not going to be a copycat of dribbling,” he says of his pending startup. Instead, it will be a resource for designers who also use AI.
Kuznetsov has seen a lot of backlash about training creative work without compensation for AI models, but he believes there are technology use cases in terms of inspiration, creativity and design.
“It’s a big hole in the market right now… Everyone is doing AI startups, but no one actually does AI startups for designers,” Kuznetsov points out. “AI is something that really enhances your ability to create and can be made with a much higher level of quality. It helps you not only make more money and grow, but also create things that you don’t even think about what you couldn’t have created without a particular skill set.”
Kuznetsov says he expects to prepare an MVP (minimum viable product) in three or four months.
However, he points out that, despite the investors providing him with the money to do so, it is not about “killing” the dribble.
“That’s not the case. I’m a designer and I’m trying to do something good for the community. So I know how painful it is to be a designer in this world,” says Kuznetsov.
“We need to be really smart about how we invest our time. We do our best and bring other platforms to life. That diversification of investment should be something everyone should think about,” he adds.
