ADPList: How a Promising Design Mentorship Platform Lost Its Way

Written By Khrys Oros

In the past few months, numerous designers, mentors, and former employees have spoken out about their experiences with ADPList. What was once hailed as an innovative solution for connecting designers during the pandemic has become a source of controversy. Here's what happened.

The Beginning: A Pandemic Solution

When COVID-19 forced the world into isolation in 2020, ADPList emerged as a beacon for designers seeking connection and guidance. The platform's premise was simple yet powerful: connect aspiring designers with experienced mentors willing to volunteer their time. Many embraced this opportunity, both as mentors eager to give back and as mentees grateful for access to expertise during uncertain times.

"When covid hit, I was excited to be a part of ADPList.org and I had many good interactions," shared one early mentor who joined during the platform's initial growth phase.

The platform quickly gained traction, hosting "super conferences" and establishing local chapters worldwide, with ambassadors championing its mission in design communities globally.

The Unraveling: Content Theft Allegations

Behind the scenes, troubling patterns began to emerge. Multiple designers and content creators started noticing their work appearing on ADPList's marketing channels without attribution or permission.

"For years, the CEO, Felix Lee has stolen endlessly from other design creators to build and market his business," one designer stated, providing links to examples that showed striking similarities between original content and what appeared on ADPList's channels.

What made these allegations particularly concerning was the reported response—or lack thereof—when creators confronted the company: "Design creators have repeatedly brought it up to him and he's never responded, acknowledged or even slowed down the theft."

These weren't isolated incidents. Community members have documented at least half a dozen examples of alleged content appropriation, creating a disturbing pattern that contradicts the values of creativity and originality central to the design profession.

The Corporate Reality: .org Domain, For-Profit Operations

While many mentors joined believing they were contributing to a community-focused non-profit (an impression reinforced by the company's ".org" domain), the reality was quite different. ADPList operates as a venture capital-backed for-profit business with investment from major firms like Sequoia Capital.

"Despite its .org URL, ADPList is a for-profit business owned by VC firms... Its altruistic branding and marketing is fundamentally misaligned with its exploitative actions," explained one former platform participant who felt misled by this disconnect.

This revelation left many volunteers feeling that their goodwill had been leveraged for commercial gain without transparency about the company's true nature. The company reportedly "pay[s] their workers peanuts under the guise of doing good and volunteering," furthering the perception of exploitation.

The Devaluation of Mentorship

Perhaps the most significant impact on the design community has been ADPList's effect on mentorship itself. By making mentor connections available at the click of a button, the platform inadvertently transformed something once valued and sought-after into a commodity.

One mentor articulated this problem powerfully: "Finding a mentor used to be a pretty big deal when I started out. Now it's a button click away, and that's not always a great solution."

The consequences of this approach quickly became apparent. Mentors reported increasing numbers of no-shows, unprepared mentees, and transactional interactions that lacked depth or follow-through:

"I've had so many no-shows or low quality conversations that I stopped volunteering my time. I also never heard back from the people I helped. When anything is free, the value associated with it is also zero."

Another mentor described the entitled attitude this system fostered: "'Why isn't this free, now, and how dare you not have time to review my portfolio?'" This commodification transformed what should be meaningful professional relationships into brief, often one-sided transactions.

Technical Failings from a Design Platform

For a platform catering to designers and founded by someone identifying as a design leader, ADPList's technical performance presented a striking contradiction. Mentors consistently reported frustrating bugs and user experience issues that hampered their ability to effectively connect with mentees.

"The bugs in the platform just keep cropping up. Nothing too serious, just frustrating issues with timezones and messaging that makes it feel the platform isn't really being maintained," shared one mentor who had been active since the platform's early days.

Another was more direct: "Ironically, the platform that is all about design is poorly designed. The UX of the platform is terrible and full of bugs."

These technical shortcomings became increasingly difficult to ignore, especially as mentor engagement began to wane and the platform's initial momentum slowed.

Mentors Distance Themselves

As these issues accumulated, a growing number of designers began publicly announcing their departure from the platform. What started as individual decisions soon became a noticeable trend, with mentors, ambassadors, and community members disassociating themselves from ADPList.

One former ambassador described this difficult decision: "With a heavy heart, today marks the end of my two-year journey on the adplist.org platform... I can no longer associate myself with an organisation that has not provided clarity, accountability, or a meaningful action plan."

Another was more abrupt: "Sooo… in an abrupt decision, I closed all my ADPList accounts yesterday after seeing the troubling allegations from past employees, volunteers, and event speakers + comparing notes with the treatment I experienced myself."

These departures often came with reflection on what mentorship should truly represent: "For all mentors out there who are serious about what they do: You don't need 'Top Rated Mentor' or '1000 Minutes Mentored' certificates to tell you your contributions to the community are valuable."

The Future of Design Mentorship

As designers distance themselves from ADPList, many are reconsidering what meaningful mentorship looks like in the digital age. There's growing consensus that while technology can facilitate connections, true mentorship requires investment, commitment, and mutual respect that can't be reduced to gamified metrics or casual transactions.

Some former ADPList mentors have begun exploring alternative approaches: "Since lockdown lifted I've stuck to Meetups and mentored locally, for the most part." Others are creating their own mentorship opportunities that prioritize quality over quantity: "I'm considering opening my own 'mentoring' sessions as a protest against [the platform's issues]."

What emerges from these experiences is a collective recommendation for friction—not as an obstacle, but as a necessary component that ensures both mentors and mentees value the relationship: "We should all continue doing our part, mentoring and helping others, but I do believe for that to be of quality and meaning it should have some sort of friction."

Lessons for Design Communities

The ADPList situation offers important lessons for the broader design community about the balance between accessibility and value, profit and purpose, and technology and human connection.

For companies building platforms for creative communities, transparency about business models and ethical operation appears non-negotiable. For designers seeking or offering mentorship, the quality of connection matters more than convenience or metrics.

As one designer eloquently summarized: "Your mentees remember you for the times you listened to their same problems over and over again; the extra hours you sat with them on call to finish conversations; and the uncomfortable truths about the industry you share to motivate us to level up and be better. None of that sh*t about a mentoring platform matters."

In Conclusion

The story of ADPList serves as a cautionary tale about how quickly mission can become misaligned with methods in the startup world. What began as a solution to professional isolation during a global crisis evolved into what many now view as an ethically compromised business prioritizing growth over the community it claimed to serve.

As designers continue to vote with their feet, the future remains uncertain for ADPList. But one thing remains clear: the design community's commitment to mentorship itself remains unwavering, even as the platforms facilitating it continue to evolve.

What has your experience been with design mentorship platforms? Have you found alternatives that better preserve the value of mentorship while making it accessible? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

Khrys Oros
Previous

UX Designer Layoff Survival Guide: Seeing the Signs & Taking Action
Next

How to pivot into UX from 5 different professions