13 ms·

Why Aren't More Designers Starting Companies?

50 points by aalter 13y ago

thurn 13y ago
Interesting, although a couple of these factors (wanting to just spend all day working on your passion instead of wearing many hats) don't seem inherently limited to designers. Programmers can have an appreciation for their craft as well!
- alterj 13y ago
  Totally agree and in fact I say - I'd tell engineers or sales people who just want to do their craft not to start a co. as well.
mhurron 13y ago
Maybe they want to design instead of run a business.
- colmvp 13y ago
  I actually think it's largely because designers haven't learned how to execute their own working prototypes for the last little while due to the segmentation of roles in corporations/agencies. But it's not like they are short of great ideas. I think given another decade with more young people learning both design and code, and companies demanding people know both, we'll see more designers (with rudimentary coding knowledge) starting businesses. Though, I've always been curious as to why Rasmus Andersson (Spotify, Facebook, Dropbox) never started his own company. I consider him one of the rare people in tech industry who has advanced knowledge of design and code.
  - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
    Designers that spend time learning both to design and code well aren't great designers. Programming isn't the only core activity in a company, design is intense and none of the designers I know would have time to code even if they knew how; they just have so many things on their plate. This applies to a small company of < 10 people. Do you really want your only designer writing crappy code while they have a huge backlog of design work to get done? HN seems to be obsessed the designers are somehow broken because they can't code, that programming is to be worshiped and other essential activities devalued. Maybe this is a problem with the industry as a whole, but lately I have noticed that hiring good designers has become harder than hiring good coders.
- jaredstenquist 13y ago
  I couldn't have said it better myself.
mjolk 13y ago
Because it's really hard to pitch a company based on a PSD that you can't implement. But sure, whatever cutesy anecdote or impression of reality you want to sell me will also suffice.
- colmvp 13y ago
  And the derisive contempt against designers on HN continues.
  - krmmalik 13y ago
    Maybe the tone was a little off-the-cuff, but mjolk has a valid point. You can't implement the idea without some sort of coding. Design alone doesn't cut it, and I say that as someone that has a lot of respect for designers.
    - talmand 13y ago
      I have a design background, I agree with mjolk's point as well.
  - mjolk 13y ago
    Designers are fine, but don't tell me that a render is nearly as useful as a prototype. Please though, if you disagree with me, open a dialogue. As an technology investor, who would you rather fund?
- beachstartup 13y ago
  i don't think those are the kind of designers they're talking about, for the most part.
- alterj 13y ago
  Just because you're a designer doesn't mean you shouldn't have cofounders that can code and do some of the hustling. That's why the hacker/hustler/designer paradigm exists...
pteredactyl 13y ago
Ok. I'm a right-brain problem solver. Who wants to make something? I live in SF.
- JacksonGariety 13y ago
  I'm moving down there within the month. I'd love to.
  - pteredactyl 13y ago
    Alright, mp@michaelepierce.com
rwhitman 13y ago
This was a good attempt, but I don't think this really nailed why designers don't move into founder roles. It has a lot more to do with the psychology of the type of person that goes into being a designer in the first place. It has a lot to do with the nature of art and the fear of failure. The best designers are often frustrated artists that found comfort in design, where (perhaps subconsciously) they could use their talent without having the success or failure of their work fall 100% on them. Being a collaborative process, design is kind of a shield from artistic criticism to some degree. If it fails, well it was the client's fault. But when you are known as a designer, and known as the founder, all the creative control comes down on you, which is akin to creating a work of art - with product primarily, but also the entire business as well. Everything you do subconsciously reflects on you as an artist instead of as a designer. Its scary. It can drive a creative person to madness, all of the things that go into a company, all the details that are completely fucking wrong all the time and you can't get control of any of them. Its like a painting with paint that never dries, and keeps dripping down the canvas. You constantly need to be painting or it looks like total crap, and it is hanging in the gallery, right now and everybody can see it. It makes me freaked out just thinking about it. So while there are few designers who have made the leap to full-time founding entrepreneur I'm fairly certain that every designer has attempted to dip their toes into becoming the founding entrepreneur at least once, hit on this nightmarish reality, and then stepped back into the designer comfort zone with a sigh of relief...
- rwhitman 13y ago
  Edit: Downvotes? Really? I write a thoughtful introspective comment based on my personal experience of being a design-trained single founder and you give me downvotes? Ugh
  - fleitz 13y ago
    Fear not, truth is severely undervalued. If you want points tell feel good lies.
    - ulisesrmzroche 13y ago
krmmalik 13y ago
I'm not really a designer or a coder, so my words need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but if i was to ever improve a skill it would be on the design side so I say this with my designer hat on. The thing is, if you're creating software and launching a business, you've got to be able to solve problems for your customer. While the mind of a designer might be that of problem solving and loving their craft, you invariably can't solve the problem for the client without some coding. It's far easier to be a developer and code the solution then it is to be a designer and purely design it aesthetically. It doesnt serve much purpose as design alone. With an MVP you can get away with poor design and some minimal code, but you cant get away with great design and NO functionality - Well you can but pulling it off is harder. So as a designer, you always need a co-founder that can code, and we all know about bringing on CTO's for just an equity stake. It's not really going to happen.
nickpinkston 13y ago
I think the fundamental difference is that designers are good at optimizing a problem, whereas founders need to be good at picking problems.
rndmize 13y ago
I think this is mostly bull, frankly. No matter how easy things get, most startups are meant to solve some kind of problem and they employ technical means to do so. You're never going to get rid of the need for a technical guy, no matter how things change. The second most useful person is probably going to be a hustler/salesman/guy who knows people, who can get the product attention, or investment, or customers, or all three. The designer comes in a pretty far third. Good design just isn't critical at early stages for most. And if you really want it, it can probably be contracted, in a way the first two roles never can. Finally, if talking to investors, guy #1 can show you a product or demo; guy #2 can show traction or social proof; what can the designer show?
- dictum 13y ago
  >And if you really want it, it can probably be contracted, in a way the first two roles never can. HN (rightly) bashes "idea guys", but there is really only one thing in a startup that cannot be contracted: what the startup is trying to do or achieve. Design for a startup can be contracted in the same way software engineering can be contracted. That is to say: you will get reasonably good results if you find a good contractor who is a good fit for the project, but it will not be the same as having an employee fully dedicated to create a great product, analyze the market's reaction to the product as it is developed and marketed and adjust the design/the technology to the market's needs and expectations. If you can contract a designer (and not hire one), you can contract a developer too. Results will be mixed.
  - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
    This is right: outsourcing design is just like outsourcing development; do it if its not at the core contempancy of your startup. Game startups almost always have design talent in founder roles for this reason. A lot of novel app companies have at the very least design-gineers in founding roles, if not full time designers.
munaf 13y ago
Designer and ex-founder weighing in. One thing I felt was that we had conflicting advice and incentives. On one hand, incubator advisors, investors, and startup writers would say: (1) "You should read pg's essays. You have to spend more time finding a market fit. Study your users. Make that your priority." Frequently, from the same crowd, we'd also something along the lines of: (2) "Make decisions faster. Ship it. Execution." My design training was well-suited to (1), and completely undermined in (2). The problem was that we heard (2) a lot more because the main people we were talking to were investors and incubator staff, and their overriding priority was having a functional product with paying customers. Of course design processes can move faster and balance planning with execution at a startup pace. But that doesn't happen much. The more common scenario is for a designer to be shown a working prototype and then make it prettier / more usable. And maybe that's the most reliable way for startups to get off the ground? I have no idea.
paulsutter 13y ago
Why don't more designers have founder skills? Or why don't more founders have design skills? Good designers are rare, and good founders are rare. Individuals who are both good designers _and_ good founders should be extremely rare.
- raviparikh 13y ago
  That doesn't tell the whole story though. Good engineers are rare too but there still happen to be lots of good founders who are good engineers.
dm2 13y ago
I was always under the impression that developers are also problem solvers, hence their ease of also coming up with an awesome enough idea to start a company. Designers are artists. Once a designer does more than drawing and photoshop, they become a front-end developer. Using their primary craft of drawing, where is there to really go after that? Developers have the advantage of being able to throw together a prototype of their web application and see if it's viable. Developers can also tackle the very difficult coding problems that can give a startup a competitive advantage.
- dasil003 13y ago
  That's a superficial and overly narrow view of design. Design is more than graphic design or interior design. Fundamentally it's the creation of human experiences. Everything that humans build is designed. A designer is someone who specializes in considering how such a creation will interact with the users and world in the task for which it is designed. In this regard a great designer is more qualified than a developer to create the vision for a startup. The developer's advantage is execution. Why programmers start companies is because they can create a product and launch it even if it looks like shit, and the problem it solves is pointless, and the marketing repels people, they can at least ship a product. A designer by contrast needs to have a technical co-founder or be well-funded.
stevewillows 13y ago
As a designer I find the major hurdle of starting a business is the cost of development. Also, if we are just starting out on our own, there's a chance that we aren't coming from a job that was paying the kind of money for a good base. The assumption that I'm some sort of failed artist who 'fell back' to design is bullshit. I'm a creative and design is just one of a dozen outlets I have. I've had a soap company, a candle company, a line of various bath products, sold t-shirts, thrown parties, planned weddings, pressed 1" buttons, provided consultation and various marketing services for bands, wedding photography, product photography and more. My story is not unique for my people. :)
schuylerlarson 13y ago
The biggest problem is having a genius designer that happens to match perfectly with an engineer that can agree with the initial ideas. This also requires the engineer to be smart enough to realize the importance of the designer and allow her to be the CEO.

50 points by aalter 13y ago

thurn 13y ago

Interesting, although a couple of these factors (wanting to just spend all day working on your passion instead of wearing many hats) don't seem inherently limited to designers. Programmers can have an appreciation for their craft as well!

alterj 13y ago
Totally agree and in fact I say - I'd tell engineers or sales people who just want to do their craft not to start a co. as well.

mhurron 13y ago

Maybe they want to design instead of run a business.

colmvp 13y ago
I actually think it's largely because designers haven't learned how to execute their own working prototypes for the last little while due to the segmentation of roles in corporations/agencies. But it's not like they are short of great ideas. I think given another decade with more young people learning both design and code, and companies demanding people know both, we'll see more designers (with rudimentary coding knowledge) starting businesses. Though, I've always been curious as to why Rasmus Andersson (Spotify, Facebook, Dropbox) never started his own company. I consider him one of the rare people in tech industry who has advanced knowledge of design and code.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  Designers that spend time learning both to design and code well aren't great designers. Programming isn't the only core activity in a company, design is intense and none of the designers I know would have time to code even if they knew how; they just have so many things on their plate. This applies to a small company of < 10 people. Do you really want your only designer writing crappy code while they have a huge backlog of design work to get done? HN seems to be obsessed the designers are somehow broken because they can't code, that programming is to be worshiped and other essential activities devalued. Maybe this is a problem with the industry as a whole, but lately I have noticed that hiring good designers has become harder than hiring good coders.
jaredstenquist 13y ago
I couldn't have said it better myself.

mjolk 13y ago

Because it's really hard to pitch a company based on a PSD that you can't implement. But sure, whatever cutesy anecdote or impression of reality you want to sell me will also suffice.

colmvp 13y ago
And the derisive contempt against designers on HN continues.
- krmmalik 13y ago
  Maybe the tone was a little off-the-cuff, but mjolk has a valid point. You can't implement the idea without some sort of coding. Design alone doesn't cut it, and I say that as someone that has a lot of respect for designers.
  - talmand 13y ago
    I have a design background, I agree with mjolk's point as well.
- mjolk 13y ago
  Designers are fine, but don't tell me that a render is nearly as useful as a prototype. Please though, if you disagree with me, open a dialogue. As an technology investor, who would you rather fund?
beachstartup 13y ago
i don't think those are the kind of designers they're talking about, for the most part.
alterj 13y ago
Just because you're a designer doesn't mean you shouldn't have cofounders that can code and do some of the hustling. That's why the hacker/hustler/designer paradigm exists...

pteredactyl 13y ago

Ok. I'm a right-brain problem solver. Who wants to make something? I live in SF.

JacksonGariety 13y ago
I'm moving down there within the month. I'd love to.
- pteredactyl 13y ago
  Alright, mp@michaelepierce.com

rwhitman 13y ago

This was a good attempt, but I don't think this really nailed why designers don't move into founder roles. It has a lot more to do with the psychology of the type of person that goes into being a designer in the first place. It has a lot to do with the nature of art and the fear of failure. The best designers are often frustrated artists that found comfort in design, where (perhaps subconsciously) they could use their talent without having the success or failure of their work fall 100% on them. Being a collaborative process, design is kind of a shield from artistic criticism to some degree. If it fails, well it was the client's fault. But when you are known as a designer, and known as the founder, all the creative control comes down on you, which is akin to creating a work of art - with product primarily, but also the entire business as well. Everything you do subconsciously reflects on you as an artist instead of as a designer. Its scary. It can drive a creative person to madness, all of the things that go into a company, all the details that are completely fucking wrong all the time and you can't get control of any of them. Its like a painting with paint that never dries, and keeps dripping down the canvas. You constantly need to be painting or it looks like total crap, and it is hanging in the gallery, right now and everybody can see it. It makes me freaked out just thinking about it. So while there are few designers who have made the leap to full-time founding entrepreneur I'm fairly certain that every designer has attempted to dip their toes into becoming the founding entrepreneur at least once, hit on this nightmarish reality, and then stepped back into the designer comfort zone with a sigh of relief...

rwhitman 13y ago
Edit: Downvotes? Really? I write a thoughtful introspective comment based on my personal experience of being a design-trained single founder and you give me downvotes? Ugh
- fleitz 13y ago
  Fear not, truth is severely undervalued. If you want points tell feel good lies.
  - ulisesrmzroche 13y ago

krmmalik 13y ago

I'm not really a designer or a coder, so my words need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but if i was to ever improve a skill it would be on the design side so I say this with my designer hat on. The thing is, if you're creating software and launching a business, you've got to be able to solve problems for your customer. While the mind of a designer might be that of problem solving and loving their craft, you invariably can't solve the problem for the client without some coding. It's far easier to be a developer and code the solution then it is to be a designer and purely design it aesthetically. It doesnt serve much purpose as design alone. With an MVP you can get away with poor design and some minimal code, but you cant get away with great design and NO functionality - Well you can but pulling it off is harder. So as a designer, you always need a co-founder that can code, and we all know about bringing on CTO's for just an equity stake. It's not really going to happen.

nickpinkston 13y ago

I think the fundamental difference is that designers are good at optimizing a problem, whereas founders need to be good at picking problems.

rndmize 13y ago

I think this is mostly bull, frankly. No matter how easy things get, most startups are meant to solve some kind of problem and they employ technical means to do so. You're never going to get rid of the need for a technical guy, no matter how things change. The second most useful person is probably going to be a hustler/salesman/guy who knows people, who can get the product attention, or investment, or customers, or all three. The designer comes in a pretty far third. Good design just isn't critical at early stages for most. And if you really want it, it can probably be contracted, in a way the first two roles never can. Finally, if talking to investors, guy #1 can show you a product or demo; guy #2 can show traction or social proof; what can the designer show?

dictum 13y ago
>And if you really want it, it can probably be contracted, in a way the first two roles never can. HN (rightly) bashes "idea guys", but there is really only one thing in a startup that cannot be contracted: what the startup is trying to do or achieve. Design for a startup can be contracted in the same way software engineering can be contracted. That is to say: you will get reasonably good results if you find a good contractor who is a good fit for the project, but it will not be the same as having an employee fully dedicated to create a great product, analyze the market's reaction to the product as it is developed and marketed and adjust the design/the technology to the market's needs and expectations. If you can contract a designer (and not hire one), you can contract a developer too. Results will be mixed.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  This is right: outsourcing design is just like outsourcing development; do it if its not at the core contempancy of your startup. Game startups almost always have design talent in founder roles for this reason. A lot of novel app companies have at the very least design-gineers in founding roles, if not full time designers.

munaf 13y ago

Designer and ex-founder weighing in. One thing I felt was that we had conflicting advice and incentives. On one hand, incubator advisors, investors, and startup writers would say: (1) "You should read pg's essays. You have to spend more time finding a market fit. Study your users. Make that your priority." Frequently, from the same crowd, we'd also something along the lines of: (2) "Make decisions faster. Ship it. Execution." My design training was well-suited to (1), and completely undermined in (2). The problem was that we heard (2) a lot more because the main people we were talking to were investors and incubator staff, and their overriding priority was having a functional product with paying customers. Of course design processes can move faster and balance planning with execution at a startup pace. But that doesn't happen much. The more common scenario is for a designer to be shown a working prototype and then make it prettier / more usable. And maybe that's the most reliable way for startups to get off the ground? I have no idea.

paulsutter 13y ago

Why don't more designers have founder skills? Or why don't more founders have design skills? Good designers are rare, and good founders are rare. Individuals who are both good designers _and_ good founders should be extremely rare.

raviparikh 13y ago
That doesn't tell the whole story though. Good engineers are rare too but there still happen to be lots of good founders who are good engineers.

dm2 13y ago

I was always under the impression that developers are also problem solvers, hence their ease of also coming up with an awesome enough idea to start a company. Designers are artists. Once a designer does more than drawing and photoshop, they become a front-end developer. Using their primary craft of drawing, where is there to really go after that? Developers have the advantage of being able to throw together a prototype of their web application and see if it's viable. Developers can also tackle the very difficult coding problems that can give a startup a competitive advantage.

dasil003 13y ago
That's a superficial and overly narrow view of design. Design is more than graphic design or interior design. Fundamentally it's the creation of human experiences. Everything that humans build is designed. A designer is someone who specializes in considering how such a creation will interact with the users and world in the task for which it is designed. In this regard a great designer is more qualified than a developer to create the vision for a startup. The developer's advantage is execution. Why programmers start companies is because they can create a product and launch it even if it looks like shit, and the problem it solves is pointless, and the marketing repels people, they can at least ship a product. A designer by contrast needs to have a technical co-founder or be well-funded.

stevewillows 13y ago

As a designer I find the major hurdle of starting a business is the cost of development. Also, if we are just starting out on our own, there's a chance that we aren't coming from a job that was paying the kind of money for a good base. The assumption that I'm some sort of failed artist who 'fell back' to design is bullshit. I'm a creative and design is just one of a dozen outlets I have. I've had a soap company, a candle company, a line of various bath products, sold t-shirts, thrown parties, planned weddings, pressed 1" buttons, provided consultation and various marketing services for bands, wedding photography, product photography and more. My story is not unique for my people. :)

schuylerlarson 13y ago

The biggest problem is having a genius designer that happens to match perfectly with an engineer that can agree with the initial ideas. This also requires the engineer to be smart enough to realize the importance of the designer and allow her to be the CEO.