Designers excel in the same roles that make for successful entrepreneurs—to build and to make, to solve problems iteratively and strategically, to bring the user into focus, and to create business value. It’s no surprise that 36% of top venture-backed startups had a designer as a cofounder this year, or that many of the world’s most innovative companies were founded by designtrepreneurs (Airbnb, Vimeo, Pinterest, Slack, and Warby Parker just to name a few).
As young designers enter the workforce, many wonder, “Why not me? Why aren’t I behind the businesses I help grow?” This collision of creativity to capitalism has inspired designers of all types to start their own companies—working as freelancers, founding technologies or products, and building their own agencies from the ground up. Our panel of Columbus designtrepreneurs talk through what this means for our industry, how design is evolving and changing, and how this affects the startup landscape.