Went to go play soccer with engineers, designers and business folks as a team and come back to this...alas I guess you put out positive energy into the universe and it's natural to get negative too...why would you even say 'design is horseshit,' that's totally unproductive, polarizes people, and disrespects a LOT of people... who would post something saying 'engineering is horseshit'? Just doesn't make sense, and I'm an engineer too...why not collaborate and work together? Our disciplines and skills regardless of general titles are just means to hopefully create meaningful impact, drop the ego...of course I agree with you that a product/service that's useful is better than something that just looks like art, duh, so stop firing up an age-old tired conflict, I think we've evolved past bickering and being bullies by now...instead of welcoming peers who can create value with you... you're comments are what keep designers out of working with startups...

Also, we specifically use the word co-founder in the title and say: "Nearly every designer founder has a technical co-founder and some have technical backgrounds which furthers the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration" and we're encouraging more hyper productive designer-hacker dyads...I think the reality is that most of brilliant people here in Silicon Valley are scared to get out of their comfort zone and work on really hard unglamorous problems, especially those of the other %99, because the feedback loops we've created promote the beautiful novelties and vanity consumerism versus sustainable businesses with positive social impact, so again I agree with you...

"Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works." Did you read previous comment citing Jesse Schell? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3359218 and specific skills we modern designers in tech need http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3358880

Have you read the software design manifesto by Mitch Kapor http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/bds/1-kapor.html

Highly recommend exploring design ethnography and user research methods that focus on value discovery and value creation eg that's why places like IDEO thrive...

Also do you know we're related through Cookpad? I'm disappointed and surprised by our statements which seem at odds with your company values...