THOUGHTS

Design in VC
250420

Topics
Venture Capital

I did not plan to end up in venture capital. In fact, no one can plan for it, not unless you are rich enough to start your own fund. Breaking into VC isn’t something you can simply walk into. It’s largely relationship-driven. You get there by knowing someone. Someone who are the right people with significant access and capital. Statistically speaking, design focused partner roles are one among the rarest roles in VC. There are fewer than 100 people out of this world that had the role of Design Partner, the role that sits at the intersection of design and investing.

Prior to joining, I was Head of Design at a successful unicorn startup that nobody had heard of, because the work lived in unsexy domains. Biotech government, defense, materials, all the boring things, you name it. If I am doing it right, the work should not make a sound (and only quitely mint money).

The company got acquired for billions of dollars. The founders moved on to start VC funds. They pulled me in as a founding partner. It was all luck, but it was also earned. It wouldn't happen if I suck at what I do.

A Design Partner in VC is not a designer per se. In fact, it's not a design role at all. It is a hybrid of investor, analyst, recruiter, consultant, and only occasionally designer. The occasional part is arguably the most important. You can make all the great products that people want. But design helps make products people desire.

Design should be equal to technology. Design equals technology. It turns possibilities into something real. Something people can use, something people can believe in.

A great thing about this design VC job is the power and authority that comes with it. When you hold the cash, people listen. I can pick only the fun problems to work on. I could say no to the boring stuff. I could shape the design vision and founders would treat it like truth from above.

So what do I actually do day to day? I work on the design at the uppermost upstream. I perform due diligence on thousands of potential investments a year, focusing on the design aspects of the business. I'd help portfolio companies build the first prototypes. I made a ton of logos and I made an absurd amount more of pitch decks. Just like a design consultant, I'd help founders with their storytelling, clarify what they are building. I shape narrative and positioning so teams can move faster. A good story buys you time when you're still searching for that holy product-market fit. Then I'd help translate it into product reality. The first user. The first workflow. The first proof of concept. The first bit of culture. The first t-shirt. You know, the usual startup things.

I also got to incubate several startups myself, then go find the founders to run them. In a way, I was the founder of a lot of companies before we tap someone to be the official founders. I got my hands on projects I would never have otherwise. A nuclear power plant, a hotel in space, a floating city for the Waterworld timeline. It's been like a dream to run a venture design studio, except I could cherry pick to work on only the most shiny projects while never have to worry about chasing customers or cashflow. I only need 1 or 2 companies to be wildly successful and it'd take care of returning on all the investments.

Sometimes there are also curveball requests from investors like a logo design for their daughter's coffee shop. Oh well.