Startups and design or: How I stopped worrying and love startups

blog.stylej.am

18 points·stylejam··4 comments

There is another way to think about this. Instead of working for one startups, work for several.

I have probably done work for around 100 different startups since I started my company in 2005.

What really helped me though was that I started the company with Morten Lund (Early investor in Skype) who had several companies in his portfolio and a good connection in the venture capital world. That helped send work our way.

Instead of going for design conferences go to conferences with a lot of VC guys. Show your portfolio around and you will most likely get some work if it's good.

You will need to be a little more flexible with regards to pricing but that can be solved once you realize how most startups get their funding.

In the angel round, companies are normally pretty cost sensitive.

One way to solve that is to charge less than your normal would but with with an option to cash in if they get their series A funding.

This is a great motivator and that is only one of the many many advantages of working for startups.

I believe that focusing on a single product is an unbelievable learning experience honestly, and is the real gain for designers, but your point is still valid.

There are many ways to gain understanding of how to design for startups and if anything. By working on so many startups, some briefly, some all the way to series C funding, some to exit, I have learned that there are no one way that is the right way.

Also mind you I still have had to build my own company (from 2 people to 60 people back to 30 people and from 2 partners up to 8 partners and back to 4 partners) so you can say that I have stayed focused on that.

Sure, I wasn't commenting on you obviously, just talking about me :) Sorry if I wasn't clear.

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