
Rich Thornett
In a Nutshell
I build, grow, and invest in companies that evolve at human scale–where founders, not investors, drive company values, aspirations, and growth–focusing on bootstrapped and boost-strapped software startups. I’ve spent over twenty years designing and developing software at blue chips and startups, and led efforts in product design, direction, and positioning; software engineering and architecture; and hiring product teams. More recently, I've been focused on startup mentoring and investing.Currently
- Partner and Advisor at Earnest Capital
Previously
Co-founder of Dribbble, a social network where designers share work, build a following, find inspiration, and get hired. It’s arguably the design industry’s most influential community, featuring premier jobs, top teams, and global meetups. I bootstrapped Dribbble with my friend Dan and ran the company for eight years until we sold a majority stake in 2017. Dribbble is still growing with over 40 employees and is one of the top 1000 most trafficked and top 250 most important (just ahead of the The New Yorker?!) websites in the world .
I’ve also built software at IBM, Fidelity, PatientsLikeMe, Bitpipe (now TechTarget), and NLG (now World Travel Holdings).
Personal
I live on Boston’s North Shore in quirky and historic Salem, Massachusetts with my supastah wife, Susanna, and our two obstreperous delightfully irreverent children. I’m passionate about: puns, podcasts, local communities, jobs, investing, and opportunities, indie startups, basketball. Once upon a time, I dunked.
Interviews & Talks
- 2016.10.04 CodePen Radio Dribbble podcast
- 2015.06.23 InVision Inside Design: Dribbble article
- 2015.06.09 DNSimple Rich Thornett on Bootstrapping Dribbble article
- 2015.03.19 Refresh Boston 1 on 1 with Rich Thornett Watertown event
- 2014.12.10 General Assembly Fireside Chat with Dribbble Founders Boston event
- 2014.03.23 Thoughtbot: Giant Robots Not Ruining Design (Rich Thornett) podcast
- 2013.08.04 Bubble Conf Interview with Dan Cederholm & Rich Thornett Amsterdam event
- 2013.06.19 Fresh Tilled Soil Dribbble Founders Q&A Watertown event
- 2013.05.14 HUGE Evolving Design Communities Brooklyn event
- 2012.07.23 One Minute With Rich Thornett article
- 2012.06.08 ValioCon In the Pink: A Labor of Love San Diego event
- 2011.11.10 The Changelog: Founders Talk Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett–Dribbble podcast
- 2011.08.04 Creative Bloq Rich Thornett on Dribbble article
- 2011.06.07 DIBI Conf MongoDB: Using NoSQL with YoSQL Newcastle upon Tyne event
- 2010.10.09 Ruby on Rails Podcast Dribbble: Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett podcast