As soon as I finished our original interview, I knew I had to have Soleio on as the first repeat guest. He led early design efforts at Facebook and Dropbox. Now he invests in design-driven startups like Figma, Framer, Vercel, etc.

So this week’s episode is all about how designers and startups can succeed in a world where everything is changing. We go deep into:

• Ideal traits for a founding designer
• How startups can strategically attack incumbents
• Why the future belongs to designers who can ship
• The backstory behind Soleio’s investment in Perplexity
• A potential future where one designer can service 5+ startups
• What you can do to invest in your future founder journey today
• How Soleio approaches the design tooling space as an investor
• Why we won’t use smartphones the same way 5 years from now
• a lot more

• Soleio’s first episode
• Meng To’s video editing product (episode coming soon)
• Granola (Sam and Chris are the founders)
• Interview with Perplexity’s head of design (Henry Modisett)
• Pattern Breakers by Mike Maples, Jr

Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:32 Designers who can ship 11:18 Dealing with the velocity of tech as an investor 13:27 The importance of brand for startups 18:00 Why Soleio beleives we won't be using smartphones the same way in 5 years 34:23 Qualities that Soleio looks for in first-time founders 36:58 How to succeed as a founding designer 44:53 Founders living in the future 55:05 How to invest in your future founder journey today