NEW YORK, March 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) today announced the launch of NEA Studio, a new program for designers founding mobile and web startups in New York. During the course of a 12-week program, designer-founders will work alongside NEA investors and a diverse team of experts from the design, startup and NEA portfolio communities including Liz Danzico, Designer, Chair & Co-Founder of the MFA in Interaction Design program at New York's School of Visual Arts; IDEO founder David Kelley and New York Location Director Albert Lee; and Adi Tartarko, Founder and CEO of Houzz.

"Creating an amazing user experience is both art and science, and design plays a more important role than ever in developing a product—especially mobile and Internet applications," said Dayna Grayson, Partner at NEA. "More and more designers are founding companies—it's no longer the exclusive purview of technologists and business entrepreneurs. This is something we'd like to see more of in the market, and founding NEA Studio allows us to actively and directly support designer founders as they move to the next stage."

Designers best suited for the program will take a side project to a full company within the three-month period. They will have access to shared workspace at the NEA Studio in Union Square,  conduct weekly office hours and sessions with NEA investors and advisors, and receive a stipend to help fund their work during the program. NEA Studio will also hold weekly networking events including program participants, investors, advisors, and other members of the New York startup and design communities. Applications for the 12-week program are being accepted through March 31, 2013. The program kicks off April 30, 2013.

In addition to Danzico, Lee, Kelley and Tatarko, program advisors include Josh Berman, Co-Founder & CEO, BeachMint; Cameron Koczon, Partner, Fictive Kin; Akshay Kothari, Co-Founder & CEO, Pulse; Stew Langille, CEO, Visual.ly; Michael Lebowitz, Founder and CEO, Big Spaceship; Barbara Messing, CMO, TripAdvisor; Jill Nussbaum, Executive Director of Product and Interaction Design at the Barbarian Group; Hugo Van Vuuren, Partner, The Experiment Fund; and Rus Yusupov, Co-Founder, Vine.

"We hope this program will offer designer founders a jump start in building their product, and a network of key relationships to help fuel those efforts as they move forward," said Tony Florence, General Partner at NEA. "As NEA has grown more deeply involved in the New York tech ecosystem, we've learned that it's not only a thriving startup community, but one that is teeming with design talent. We're excited to support and learn from the designer founders who come through the NEA Studio."

The NEA Studio shared workspace will be at work—bench, an enterprise software cooperative located in New York's Union Square. Committed to furthering technology with a purpose, work-bench provides members with a platform to scale their ventures, including a purposefully designed 32,000 square foot space, a growing catalog of member resources, and a powerful network of partners.

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With more than $13 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record includes more than 175 portfolio company IPOs and more than 290 acquisitions. In the U.S., NEA has offices in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; Menlo Park, California; and New York City. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com. 

SOURCE New Enterprise Associates