Discoveries #1 | Designer Founders

Welcome to Edition 01 of Discoveries.  Each week, I share inspiration on design, product building, and what's next.

Top of Mind

Five years ago, I co-founded BoomPop with Healey Cypher. Over the last few years, I’ve thought a lot about what skills are critical for building and scaling a successful company and specifically why more designers haven’t made the leap into entrepreneurship.

Here are a few barriers I’ve noticed that often hold designers back:

Perfection paralysis. Startups run on speed. Progress depends on fast decisions, scrappy experiments, and ruthless iteration. But designers, by nature, care deeply about craft. That attention to detail—while valuable—can sometimes slow things down when speed is what matters most.
Avoidance of non-design work. Many designers shy away from disciplines like fundraising, operations, or sales. But embracing these areas can actually sharpen your design instincts—tying your work directly to business outcomes like conversion, retention, and revenue.
Fear of the unknown. Great product designers are often in stable, rewarding jobs. Leaving that comfort for the chaos of startup life is scary—and the odds of failure are high. But that leap is also where growth lives.

That said, designers also bring some unique superpowers to the founder’s seat:

Prototyping. Designers can bring ideas to life quickly—without needing to hire a team. Getting realistic prototypes in front of customers fast can dramatically accelerate the feedback loop and launch timeline.
Pattern recognition. Designers are often early to spot shifts in behavior, taste, and technology. Airbnb, Pinterest, and Dyson were all started by designers—none of which were obvious bets in the beginning.
Simplifying complexity. One of a designer’s greatest strengths is making the complex feel simple. That’s incredibly valuable when pitching investors, aligning a team, or building a product that actually resonates with users.

I was thrilled to see Designer Fund launch a new platform spotlighting designer-founders. Big shoutout to my friends Robert Yuen and Mo Amaya at Monograph for making the list!

Inspiration

What I'm Reading

Taste is eating Silicon Valley

Some takeaways:

Founders must be tastemakers: great founders must excel in design, branding, storytelling, and community-building to create products that resonate culturally and emotionally.
Investors are betting on taste-driven companies: VCs are shifting focus, investing in startups that capture the cultural zeitgeist and deliver emotionally resonant products, not just technically sound ones.
Products are emotional touchpoints: Products aren’t just tools anymore—they’re ways people express who they are. If something doesn’t connect emotionally, it’s easy to ignore.

Product Inspiration

Figure AI is building humanoid robots—and doing it with an extraordinary blend of craft and speed I’ve rarely seen in a hardware company. Their weekly progress videos are a masterclass in transparency and momentum.

Founder Brett Adcock claims they’ll be the first trillion-dollar robotics company. Given the size of the opportunity and the pace they’re moving, I think he might be right.

(Full disclosure: I’m an investor.)

Space I Love

The spaces we live in deeply shape our health, happiness, and ability to focus. What I love about this house is how seamlessly it’s woven into the natural landscape.

Architects often talk about blurring the line between indoors and out—but this project truly delivers.

Check out architectural photographer, Joe Fletcher.

Thanks for reading, 

Blake

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