Most tech disruptors emerge from slick Silicon Valley pitches or dorm room coding sessions fueled by ramen.
Penpot's story starts somewhere different: inside Kaleidos, a tech cooperative based in Spain.
This wasn't about chasing venture capital from day one.
It began with a team of developers and designers who used existing tools, felt the constraints of closed ecosystems, and asked a powerful question: "Couldn't design software be built with its community, open to everyone, and free from corporate lock-in?"
That fundamental belief in openness and user ownership became the seed for Penpot, aiming to create not just another design tool, but a fundamentally different kind of design tool.
