Investors argue AI coding agents will spark a resurgence of designer-founders by lowering technical barriers

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao How could you forget @meetgranola 🤭

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao we've logged many of them here: http://designerfounders.com

Kinda surprising that we don’t see more designer-founders running the fastest-growing startups.

The last decade gave us @bchesky, @eshp, @karrisaarinen, @ivanhzhao, others showing the playbook. Today, coding agents are making it easier than ever to turn ideas into working software.

Maybe there’s a lag before the technology diffuses? If so, I hope we get to see a lot more designer-led companies emerge over the next 10 years.

I would like to live in that world!

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao @benhylak / @raindrop_ai

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao there’s @dbabbs!

few companies are growing as quickly as @tryprofound

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao would love your perspective on this

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao Fundamentally because investors invert signal here. They love the operator more than the craftsperson persona. Operators sound like they have their act together. It just isn’t as cool of an act.

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao @jornvandijk @koenbok @christinacaci @MelanieCanva @leifthunder to list a few more :)

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao That’s @Aquahugs

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao @vinitsarode_ @heywavelength big dwag

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao shoutout @benblumenrose !!

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao i think the lag is real. imo most designers still don't believe they can actually ship without a tech cofounder

once a few more break through and show it's possible, we'll see the floodgates open

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao @thisisrayouf @Libbiefrost :)

I dunno—seems to me like kind of a cambrian explosion of designer-founders in the past couple of years!

I mean, just think of all of the new angles being taken on design tooling *alone*. Just off the top of my head, there's @colin_dunn w/ @visualelectric, @stephenhaney w/ @paper, @skirano w/ @MagicPathAI, @eminimnim w/ dessn, @drewwilson w/ @OpacityHQ, @bnj w/ VariantUI, etc... I'm sure the number explodes once you leave that narrow vertical. (and I'm sure there are others I've missed even within design tooling)

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao @josephcohen with @infinitemachine !

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao @jasonyuan on it

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao Boils down to where you are starting from

- Already have a dev team: Listens too much to the devs around - Fresh Meat: Doesn't have anyone to take feedback from and prevents themself from shipping a buggy code base With Fable-like models handling the full stack, this will change

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao This year akshay

@akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao betting on @rahulbhadoriiya

@vinvan @akothari @bchesky @eshp @karrisaarinen @ivanhzhao @dbabbs @tryprofound Beat me to it.