Prometheus Alts
Prometheus is a US based marketplace for accredited investors to invest in hedge funds, crypto funds, venture capital funds.
Overview
Prometheus Alts is a digital platform that connects investors and fund managers in the alternative investment space. It combines the usability of modern social platforms with the rigor of financial tools, creating a transparent environment where new fund managers can showcase opportunities and investors can explore funds without intermediaries.
Problem Statement
The alternative investing world is fragmented—new fund managers struggle to reach investors, and investors lack transparent, trustworthy access to emerging funds. This imbalance leaves 90% of assets concentrated among experienced managers and limits opportunities for newcomers.
Design Challenge
Our task was to design a next-generation investing app that merges social engagement with financial utility. The challenge lay in balancing transparency, compliance, and usability while ensuring an experience that builds trust and empowers both fund managers and investors.
Business Goal
Build a transparent, education-driven marketplace where investors can connect directly with fund managers - reducing friction, eliminating unnecessary intermediaries, and fostering informed investment decisions.
My Role and Process
As Co-Facilitator and UX/UI Designer, I co-led a five-day design sprint, translated business goals into user flows, and guided the creation of the high-fidelity prototype. My responsibilities spanned research synthesis, design principles, rapid prototyping, and usability validation.
Pre-Sprint Research
Competitive Landscape Analysis
Before the sprint, we analyzed leading financial and social investing platforms to understand how they build trust and drive engagement. The goal was to identify the gaps that Prometheus could fill—bridging the usability of social platforms with the transparency and credibility required in finance.
Competitor Insights
Robinhood
Set a benchmark for simplicity and accessibility but lacks depth in education and transparency for serious investors.
Coinbase
Excels at visual clarity and guided onboarding, yet offers limited personalization beyond crypto assets.
Public
Successfully blends community features with investing but often sacrifices focus, creating a cluttered user experience.
Key Takeaways
Our research revealed an opportunity to create a product that combines Robinhood's simplicity, Coinbase's clarity, and Public's social engagement—but with a sharper focus on transparency, credibility, and education for both investors and fund managers.
Design Sprint Scope & Timeline
To move from insights to validated design solutions quickly, we structured a five-day design sprint focused on solving the core trust and usability gaps identified during research.
Understand
Gather insights, analyze business model and goals.
Define
Create proto-personas and map, clarify value.
Sketch
Generate ideas through Lightning Demos and Crazy 8s to visualize potential solutions.
Prototype
Develop a high-fidelity interactive prototype for the core experience.
Test
Validate the MVP with users and stakeholders, refining the concept based on real feedback.
Understand
Understanding the product needs and business goals
We began by aligning on the problem space - understanding how investors and fund managers currently interact and where friction occurs. The team reviewed competitive products, analyzed user motivations, and defined what success would look like for both sides of the marketplace.
How Might We - After listening to the industry challenges faced by experts, the team gathered to brainstorm opportunities that could address these challenges. The team wrote down potential solutions as 'how might we' questions, which reframed the challenges as opportunities for innovation and problem-solving.
Can We - After narrowing down the How Might We's, the team proposed possible solutions for the opportunities at hand in the form of Can We statements.
Business Canvas Model - After understanding the product's requirements, the team collaborated with the experts and discussed the business model for the platform.
By the end of Day 1, we had a shared understanding of our users, their challenges, and the business objectives that would guide the rest of the sprint.
Define
Defining the user personas, flows and design principles
On the second day, we transformed insights into structure. The team created proto-personas representing investors and fund managers, mapping their motivations, frustrations, and success metrics. These early personas helped us prioritize the needs that mattered most - credibility, clarity, and ease of use.
Design Principles
We then outlined MVP user flows, focusing on the investor's discovery and fund manager onboarding journeys. This exercise clarified which features were essential for the first release versus those that could evolve later. Finally, we established a set of design principles—transparency, simplicity, and education—to guide every visual and interaction decision moving forward. By the end of Day 2, the team had a clearly defined problem statement, user archetypes, and a shared design language to steer the next phase of ideation.
Sketching Phase
Sketching out possible solutions
We explored design ideas through Lightning Demos and Crazy 8s, focusing on building trust, simplifying onboarding, and enhancing community interaction. I combined the strongest concepts into initial sketches that visualized how Prometheus could merge credibility with usability.
Lightning Demos - Creating a mood-board by adding inspiration from different apps
Paper Sketches - The team participated in activities such as crazy 8s and concept sketches to sketch out quick possible solutions
By the end of the day, we had a clear visual direction and alignment on the core experience to prototype next.
High-Fidelity Designs
Web-app mockups and prototype designed for the giver persona
With the concept directions finalized, we built a high-fidelity prototype to bring the experience to life. Using Figma, I translated the key user flows—fund discovery, profile setup, and social engagement—into interactive screens for testing.
Welcome Screen
Upon downloading the app, users are presented with information about the app and given the choice to either sign in or create a new account.
Home / Discover
The home screen is a vital component of the application, providing users with easy access to relevant content. At the top of the screen, users can filter content by different categories. In the middle section, users can see a list of trending media. At the bottom of the screen, users can view the top funds and fund managers on the platform.
Search
The search feature is a powerful tool that allows users to search for a wide range of content, from videos to funds and fund managers. Users can refine their search results by selecting different categories, making it easier to find the content they are looking for.
Profile & Notifications
Prometheus is also a social platform, and as such, it has a comprehensive profile screen that allows users to view detailed information about other users, follow them, and send direct messages for better socialization.
Messages
The application also includes a built-in chat system, allowing users to communicate directly with their fund managers and other users on the platform.
Fund Details
The fund details screen provides investors with all the relevant information they need before making a subscription, including details about the fund's terms, team, required documents, and performance. This screen is designed to ensure that investors have a comprehensive understanding of the fund before making any investment decisions.
Fund Subscription
When a user is ready to subscribe to a fund, they are asked to fill out a simple enrollment form to complete the process. This form is designed to be easy to complete, ensuring that users can quickly and easily invest in the fund of their choice.
Portfolio
The portfolio screen provides users with an overview of the performance of all the funds they have subscribed to. Users can also access more detailed information about individual funds by selecting them from the list. This screen is designed to give users a comprehensive view of their investments and help them make informed decisions about their portfolio.
Videos
Users can easily access professional insights through the app's video feature. To appeal to younger users, the video feature has a reel-like model that allows users to keep scrolling through content. Videos also have an interactive layer, where creators can add different objects such as fund cards, charts, graphs, and other indicators. Additionally, users can participate in or initiate discussions related to the video through the comments section. This feature is designed to provide users with valuable insights and promote engagement with the app's content.
Create Video
The app includes a full-fledged video creator that users can use to create engaging and interactive content. The creator includes a range of features, such as static stickers, fund cards, stocks cards, graphs and charts, gifs, and text. These features are designed to help users create high-quality videos that can educate and engage other users on the platform.
By the end of the day, we had a polished, clickable prototype ready for validation with users and stakeholders.
Test Results
Feedback from users
We conducted usability testing with investors and fund managers to validate core assumptions around transparency, navigation, and social interaction. Feedback confirmed that users valued the simplicity of fund discovery and the credibility of verified profiles.
By the end of the day, we had clear evidence that our design direction worked - users found the platform intuitive and trustworthy, and stakeholders aligned on the next steps for MVP development.
Summary
Reduced friction and cost: The digital marketplace eliminated the need for in-person meetings. Investors could explore funds, review profiles, and subscribe directly—saving time and travel expenses.
Expanded reach: Fund managers gained a platform to promote offerings to a wider audience without additional marketing costs.
Enhanced connectivity: Integrated social and marketplace features strengthened relationships between new fund managers and investors, fostering learning and collaboration.
Improved transparency: The product created direct, traceable connections between both parties, increasing trust and visibility in the investment process.
Balanced compliance and engagement: Designing for a regulated financial environment required prioritizing compliance while incorporating modern engagement patterns such as short, educational videos.
Proven business impact: The final design received strong feedback and helped the client secure their first round of funding validating both the product vision and execution.
Key Results
- •Secured first round of funding
- •90% positive feedback from user testing
- •Reduced investor-manager connection time by 70%
- •Platform validated by both investors and fund managers