When GV Design Partners Kate Aronowitz and Vanessa Cho hosted the first GV DesignxStartup Leadership Summit, they brought together designers across our portfolio to discuss their common challenges and knowledge share. The connections and insights (below from Vanessa Cho) were invaluable.
Kate and I just wrapped our two-day GV DesignxStartup Leadership Summit! Leading design at a startup is hard. Being the first designer in the door is harder. There’s no playbook for success in these roles, and? there are few places for these pioneers to share best practices with one another. Our first-of-its-kind summit brought together an incredible group of design leaders from our portfolio to explore the dynamic intersection of design and startups. We dove deep into the unique challenges of leading design at early-stage companies, including topics like partnering with founders, scaling design teams amidst rapid growth, and navigating the inevitable pivots. Topics we tackled: Design at the Startup Table: Less Talk, More Impact. It's not about getting a seat at the table - in a startup, we're all at the table. The challenge is maximizing design's impact with limited resources and constant change. We explored how design survives, scales, and thrives in this dynamic environment. Holding the line on Design Quality while scaling rapidly: We explored the tension between speed and quality. How do you scale design while maintaining high standards? Leaders shared insights on "holding the line", advocating for big design bets, and learning to let many smaller fires go. Keeping up with bleeding-edge tech: How does Design keep up when you’re part of developing technology that is so new there's no playbook? We shared strategies for collaborating effectively with engineers in highly technical environments. Adapting Design's Purpose: Leaders shared insights on how design's purpose shifts alongside a startup's growth — from early product validation to scaling for market share — and how to effectively adapt its definition to meet the unique needs of each stage. Huge thanks to the incredible designers who participated - David Plakon (Warp), Erica Remmele (dope.security), Eve Weinberg (Modular), Josh Principe (Daydream), Josh Williams (Veza), Joy Busse (Cribl), Marissa Henri (Censys), Matthew Rudas (Checkmate), Robert Renteria (FlutterFlow), Stacey Rae B. (Mimic), and Thuy T. (Atticus). And a special thanks to the exceptional founders and design leaders who shared their real-world experiences about accelerating Design to reach its full potential: Shreya M. (Partiful), Raphael Tehranian (Altana), Danny Lohrfink (Wealth.com), Catherine Courage (Google), and Alastair Simpson (Dropbox). The summit sparked an incredible exchange of tools and tactics that continues in our active WhatsApp group. We look forward to sharing GV DesignxStartup trends, shortcuts and best practices in 2025. #DesignxStartup #GVDesign #designleadership #startups #designcommunity #collaboration