One evening in Pune. Forty seats. The business half of design that nobody ever taught you.
The most expensive thing in your business is the rate you were too scared to quote.
Cheap clients do not
just pay less.
They train you. Rushed timelines, fuzzy briefs, unlimited iterations, disrespect dressed up as feedback. Slowly you start believing this is what the market is. It is not. It is the market you accidentally positioned yourself in.
The longer you stay, the harder it is to leave. Your portfolio starts reflecting low ticket work. Your confidence starts reflecting low ticket treatment. Then a serious client finally shows up and you underquote, overpromise, or freeze on the call.
So the month becomes a gamble. Gamble months create panic. Panic creates discounting. Discounting attracts cheaper clients. That is the loop, and it is not a talent problem.
Nobody around you
has ever run a
design business.
Your parents think design is a hobby with a laptop
Your teachers taught you to make the work, never to sell it
Your CA does not know what a retainer is
Your clients think a logo takes an afternoon
Your designer friends are stuck in the same bracket, so their advice keeps you there
You are not underpaid because you are bad. You are underpaid because you have been figuring out a business alone, with nobody qualified to correct you.
Everyone who made it
had someone.
You are the only one trying to do this alone. This is not motivation, it is measured.
Mentored businesses grew revenue by 83 percent. Businesses without a mentor grew 16 percent. The single skill owners said improved most was setting a competitive price for their service, which is session one of this evening.
MicroMentor Impact Report, Mercy CorpsAcross eleven thousand small and mid sized businesses in seventeen countries, 93 percent said a mentor would help them succeed. Only 28 percent actually had one. That gap is where most design practices plateau.
Sage, global SMB studySalespeople with a mentor generated 19 percent more revenue per day than those without. Same person, same offer, different guidance on how to sell it.
Harvard Business ReviewChief executives credit mentors with helping them avoid costly mistakes and get good at the job faster. The people running the largest companies on earth all paid for guidance. You are researching your pricing on Reddit.
Harvard Business ReviewWhere you are.
Where you walk out.
Tonight, before
- Quotes sent on WhatsApp, no proposal
- You drop the price to close, then resent the project
- One client is sixty percent of your revenue
- You cannot say in one sentence what you are for
- No idea what next month looks like
- You want to hire but you do not know who first
Tonight, after
- A rate you can say out loud without flinching
- A proposal structure that kills scope creep
- A positioning line that makes you the obvious pick
- A first hire plan with a sequence, not a guess
- Referral triggers built into your first circle
- Thirty nine people who know what you charge
There are business coaches.
There are design teachers.
Almost nobody is both.
That gap is the reason your pricing has not moved in three years. Every coach you have found sells to real estate agents and insurance sellers, then hands you the same script. Every design mentor you have found stops at the portfolio.
India has thousands of business coaches. Not one of them runs a design agency, a design recruitment firm and a designer coaching practice at the same time. There is exactly one, and he is in Pune for one evening.
Two more people who
hire designers every day.
Akshat Raghava
RISD alumnus, seventeen years across design practice, education and studio leadership in the US and India. Industrial design, lighting, creative direction, and a clear read on how design gets evaluated, priced and sustained inside a business.
Parth Parikh
Domus Academy Milan postgraduate, twelve years mentoring designers, taught at premier design institutes. Business first view of execution, and a direct answer to why some designers get chosen and others do not.
80+ designers in Delhi.
99% said it was worth it.
The biggest learning was positioning. Position yourself as an expert, be perceived as an expert, then price whatever you want to. I am carrying that into every client I interact with.
Anshul · Interior DesignerI learned how to price my project, how to expand the work I am doing, and how to actually negotiate with clients. Wonderful to hear everybody's stories and connect as a freelancer.
Ritika Dhaka · FreelancerA very close, intimate meeting, which gave us a lot of insight and also the space to ask our questions. Would love to come again.
Sidak · Industrial DesignerThis is not the
first time.
300+ students.
MIT Pune, School of Design.
We ran a two day career intensive on campus for over three hundred students across every design discipline, delivered entirely by the HireDesigners team. Portfolio teardowns, discipline by discipline market reality, AI, and the parts of a design career no college teaches.
We have already stood in a Pune room and held it for two days. This time it is not for students. It is for the people paying their own bills.
Six sessions.
One mixer. No filler.
Doors at 06:00PM Hard finish, so you can plan the rest of your evening.
Forty seats.
Not four hundred.
Most design events sell as many tickets as the hall allows. This one does not.
Forty people, three mentors. Roughly thirteen people per mentor, so your question gets answered in the room, not in a queue afterwards.
At forty, you say your actual rate out loud. At four hundred, you sit at the back and nod, and nothing about your pricing changes because nobody ever hears your number.
At forty, we open your proposal on screen. At four hundred, we show you a template.
At forty, you leave knowing eight people by name and what they charge. In India work still moves on referral, and referral runs on recall.
A small room is not a smaller version of a big event. It is a different thing, and it is the only format where pricing, positioning and proposals can be worked on rather than described.
We do not sell tickets to this one. We approve seats.
One project.
That is the whole payback.
And that is only the pricing session. It ignores the client you win because your positioning finally makes sense, and the hire you make a year earlier than you would have.
The price goes up
while you think.
What you walk out with
- A rate you can defend in a live client call
- A proposal structure you can send the same week
- A positioning line for your own practice
- A first hire plan with a sequence
- Thirty nine people who know what you charge
- A certificate signed by the mentors
Yes, there is a certificate. No, it will not get you clients. What is actually in your hands when you walk out is the rate, the proposal and the room.
Do not book a seat if
- You are salaried and looking for a job. Go to fwd: nine to five instead
- You want a software tutorial or a portfolio review
- You want motivation. This is a system, not a pep talk
- You will not say your real numbers out loud in a room
Get out
of the loop.
Forty seats. Twenty at ₹1,999, then ₹2,469. Applications are reviewed, and registration closes the moment the room is full.
08-09-2026 06:00PM Innishari Studio, Pune
Is this in person or online
In person only. The room is the product. Forty people, three mentors, and work opened on screen.
Who is actually in the room
Freelancers, studio owners and agency founders. If you are salaried, fwd: nine to five is the track built for you.
What should I bring
One live proposal or quote you have sent recently, and one piece of work you are proud of. Both get used.
Refunds
Seats are capped and non transferable once approved. If you cannot make it, tell us before 08-09-2026 and we will move you to the next edition.
Is there a certificate
Yes, signed by the mentors. It certifies the work you completed in the room, not attendance.
