The Story Behind CoCreate

During the pandemic, two very different visions quietly started reshaping the design world.

Grace was still an engineering student—doodling bunnies and exploring UX. Most design communities felt cold and corporate, so she made something different: a playful Messenger group called Design Buddies, filled with casual Zoom meetups, late-night Figma collabs, and zero judgment. No monetization plan. No growth hack. Just kindness and curiosity. Within weeks, 1,000 members joined. Today? Over 150,000 on Discord + newsletter.

Leon, meanwhile, was one of the youngest big tech design leads in the industry. After posting a Medium story about working full-time while studying part-time and landing interviews at companies like Google and Apple, his inbox exploded. He realized what early designers needed wasn’t more advice or random coffee chats—it was real work experience. So he built UXGO: a pay-as-you-go mentorship platform that felt more like Netflix than a bootcamp. Start for $30. Upgrade only if you need more. No fluff. Just outcomes.

For years, they built in parallel, admiring each other from a distance.

Design Buddies became the most wholesome, fun, and inclusive design community on the internet.

UXGO became the anti-bootcamp—selective, sharp, and results-driven.

Different vibes. Same purpose. Both were huge viral successes, relying only on organic growth. 

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Then, bad actors tried to turn the internet against them.

Grace was nearly canceled for refusing to politicize her space.

Her “offense”? Wanting Design Buddies to remain inclusive, apolitical, and welcoming. That made her a target. Some teammates who had contributed little tried to hijack the community—attacking her leadership, questioning her ability, and using her age and gender to diminish her.

Leon became the target of anonymous attacks from a jealous Chinese bootcamp owner.

His crime? Helping too many people, too effectively. They couldn’t believe someone so young, so consistent, and so low-cost could be real. So they tried to discredit his resume, insult his character, and undermine his success. All while UXGO quietly delivered career breakthroughs to 100+ big tech offers a year for students around the world.

Both founders endured months of personal attacks. At times, it felt like too much.

They could’ve walked away.

They almost did.

But instead—they doubled down.

They built and grew their communities with even more integrity and success than before.

Then started building together.

They realized what most founders & those that attacked them never do:

They weren’t competitors.

In fact, they don’t believe in that idea at all.

Grace had built a community that made people feel safe enough to show up.

Leon had built a system that pushed people hard enough to level up.

They were two halves of the same idea.

And together, they saw the chance to build something even bigger, something tons of design leaders , mentors, and founders got behind of.

From that moment on, the two founders went all in—working day and night to build something entirely new.

They brought in a new leadership team.

Top-tier advisors.

Engineers from companies like ByteDance.

A crew of Big Tech product design experts.

And most importantly—passionate alumni like myself, along with student leaders who had grown through the programs and returned to help shape the next chapter.

That chapter became CoCreate.

So what Is CoCreate and why do I believe in it?

CoCreate is a creative ecosystem for the AI-native generation—where design, community, real-world learning, and tooling all live under one roof.

• Design Buddies is still the heart: 150K+ members, IRL events, global meetups, and kawaii-coded magic.
  
  
• UXGO drives the engine: 10-week cohorts, startup partnerships, real-world design experience, and Big Tech mentors.
  
  
• Fluffle is our upcoming free AI-powered career system: a personal CRM and knowledge base to help creatives move faster, smarter.
  
  
• CoCreate is the umbrella—where founders and designers build the future together.
  
  

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I joined Cocreate in 2024, as a cohort student I have saw how we:

• Helped 1,000+ designers gain real experience
  
  
• Hosted the largest community-led design conference to date
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• Invited current students like myself who landed offers then become alumni to help others.
  
  

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As an alum, I’ve seen it up close.

This isn’t a VC-fueled edtech machine.

It’s a mission, hand-built from the ground up.

This is a team that chose to keep building when it would’ve been easier to walk away. That is how the 30+ alumni coaches and team members like myself joined to build together.

The care, we care, the consistency, the mentorship—it’s real.

As a cohort alumni - I’ve grown more in these 10 weeks than in years of coursework and content. And the founders? They don’t just talk. They show up. As coaches. As community leaders. As builders. Every single day.
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Now on the team, I’ve seen their internal AI product, codenamed Fluffle, built over the past year and soon launching free for design and creative students worldwide.

So if you’re a founder who wants real creative firepower—

If you’re a designer who’s done with fluff—

If you believe ambition should matter more than pedigree—

You belong here.

Welcome to CoCreate.

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