In 2009, Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett beta-launched Dribbble as an invite-only site where designers shared what they were working on: “The name Dribbble came about from the dual metaphors of bouncing ideas and leaking your work.” The first “Shot” (a small screenshot of a designer’s work in progress) was posted by the user “Cederholm” on July 9, 2009. In March 2010, Dribbble was made publicly available with new members requiring invitations.

Over the years, features were added such as API integration, Attachments, Player Stats, and Pro (an elevated, paid profile). It launched the following:

• A designer job board,^[7]
• Team accounts
• A design podcast called “Overtime”
• A customizable portfolio product called “Playbook”.

Dribbble expanded its global reach for in-person designer meetings (“Meetups”), resulting in 142 Dribbble Meetups worldwide. By the end of 2016, its community grew to 486,771 members.

In January 2017, Dribbble was acquired by Tiny (holding company), a family of internet startup companies, and Zack Onisko was appointed CEO. 2017 saw its first in-person designer conference: Hang Time,since hosted in Boston (2017), Seattle (2018), Los Angeles (2018), and New York.^{[citation needed]}

In April 2017, Dribbble acquired the freelancer platform Crew.

In 2018, the site added a video feature. The site also continued to expand its reach with 144 meet-ups in 43 countries, with more than 8,000 designers in attendance. As of 2019, the firm’s remote team is composed of 40 or more employees. The site is used in 195 countries worldwide and the website has greater than 4 million visitors each month.(2017)