A Historic Moment for Designer Founders
When we started Designer Fund in 2014, it was a special moment for designer founders. The world was filled with many antiquated, multi-billion dollar companies nearly everywhere you looked. This led to an incredible opportunity for companies with better software products to come in and take market share from incumbents. Companies like Airbnb, Pinterest, Instagram, and Gusto emerged during this historic period, attracting users with products that were dramatically better than existing solutions.
What made that era special was that building online products and services had become cheaper and accessible enough that many more people could participate. Historically, when a fundamental technology reaches a certain maturity, value creation moves “up the stack” towards the product and design layer and it creates a massive opportunity for folks to differentiate there. We saw it happen with mobile. We saw it happen with SaaS. And now, that moment has come to AI.
The Design Opportunity in AI
The last few years have seen an incredible maturity in AI. What went from science fiction is now a very real and extremely powerful technology that can be accessed by any product builder.
However, while we continue to see improvements every day, the difference between the underlying tech in top AI companies is decreasing. And, as the gap between competing AI innovations narrows, the product experience will become more of a deciding factor for what products people use.
For example, in a world where dozens of different AI models can create high quality images, designers won’t choose their image creator based on the model, but rather on the rest of the product offering. They’ll choose a creative tool that will let them make precise refinements, integrate into other tools, or effectively collaborate with their team.
This new environment where product experience exceedingly matters more plays beautifully to the strength of designer founders. Not only that, these new development tools make it easier than ever for designer founders to build products faster and with smaller teams, making it one of the most compelling times ever for designers to start technology companies.
Why Aren't More Designers Becoming Founders?
But despite this historic opportunity, despite all the available tools and resources, designers are not rising to the occasion.
So we’re left wondering: why? Why aren’t we seeing hundreds of designer founded companies every month?
- Perceived lack of skills + knowledge. Design is a specialized vocation. The best designers spent thousands of hours mastering their craft around interaction design, prototyping, and product building. This means unless a designer has specifically sought out to develop their knowledge around how to build and run a company, they believe they’re ill-equipped to do so effectively.
- Lack of confidence. When designers begin to contemplate becoming founders, they not only believe they lack fundamental knowledge but also fear they don’t have the ability to gain those key skills in the future. The belief is that what makes them great designers - craft, product building skills, etc. doesn’t translate to learning how to build an effective sales org or how to come up with a well-devised product strategy. This myth leads many would-be designer founders to opt out of even considering the founder path.
- Lack of visible role models. Despite an increasing number of successful designer founders, design as a vocation still does not celebrate founder success the same way engineers celebrate Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page. If you need proof simply go to a room of design students and ask them to name five successful designer founders of tech companies. My bet is you’ll get a roomful of blank stares. We simply don’t do a good enough job of celebrating exceptional designer founders and helping designers understand what it took for those folks to succeed as founders.
Announcing Designer Founders
The good news is that all three areas can be effectively addressed, and starting today, we’ll be ramping up our efforts to transform this landscape.
Today we’re announcing two new initiatives towards that goal:
- The release of designerfounders.com. We’ll be celebrating successful designer founders, capturing their insights, and making them easily accessible to anyone.
- The launch of our Designer Founders Newsletter. The newsletter will go deeper with original founder interviews, startup tactics, and opportunities specifically for designers starting companies.
By sharing the stories and insights across these two formats we hope to inspire the next generation of ambitious designer founders to take the leap of entrepreneurship and equip them with the tools they need to succeed.
Take It to the Bank
Designer Fund is ready to support the ambitious designers who are prepared to embark on this entrepreneurial journey. We plan on investing millions of dollars over the coming years in companies with designer founders and bringing along a like-minded network of funds and angels who will invest many millions more. Our time has come once again. If you or a designer founder you know is ready to build something extraordinary please reach out to us.
The coming years will be historic for technology companies and society. Designer founders will play a pivotal role in creating companies that better serve humanity and help people live their best lives. This moment calls us to rise up and build that future together.
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Hero illustration designed by Adam Dixon