Startups and design

Today I attended a lecture about startups by Steve Blank. Very inspiring and thought provoking.

Steve's talk was about the kind of startups that need invested capital and either go Google or broke. Freelancing.. well, we are what Steve calls "lifestyle entrepreneurs" and he said there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Yet, there are many similarities between the mindsets of startuppers and freelancers. Certain resilience is certainly needed, as well as passion and the ability to adapt.

There was also something energizing about the way Steve talked about the startup business model, or lack thereof. Everything is under constant change and the product evolves with every iteration. The initial business idea can change fundamentally in the process - which is why it's important to keep busy at it, bouncing ideas and asking customers questions. So in fact, the evolution of a startup is much like the evolution of a good design.

Startups are all about evolution, just like design. Designers should be, too.