Design as a lens for investing
All vibe-code marketing aside, it has never been easier to build a product. A few prompts, some auto-generated code pasted together, a no-code landing page build overnight. Ending up in a sea of products with identical features, battling for subscriptions and fleeting attention.
When everything looks and feels the same, what makes something succeed?
Design is often dismissed as the surface layer, a coat of polish after the real work is done. But design, at least the way I see it, is pattern-spotting. Future-imagining. Turning fuzzy ideas into something abstract into something real. It’s not decoration. It’s survival.
The design lens
A good design practice trains certain habits that translate very well to investing. The ability to spot weak signals before they’re obvious. To sense needs people can’t yet articulate. To connect a bunch of messy fragments into something bigger.
It also makes you comfortable with the unknown. Designers move fast without all the information present, trust intuition, then iterate once the feedback roles in. Ambiguity isn’t a problem. It’s the job.
And of course, iteration. Sketch a hundred things, throw ninety away, refine the rest. That rhythm isn’t far from how investors place early bets, gather evidence, and double down.
These skills can shape how companies are built. And how they should be evaluated.
How this can sharpen investing
Seen through a design lens, it’s not just: does the financial model work? It’s also: does this product move people? Does the story hold together outside a pitch deck? Can this founder imagine a future others can’t see yet?
This is also why designers make underrated founders. They’re trained to zoom out, connect dots, act under ambiguity, and keep adjusting. I think we’re going to see a lot more of them starting companies.
Enter AI
AI speeds all this up. It accelerates iteration, but also flattens the technical playing field. The moat isn’t can you build it. It’s should you build it.
And here’s the catch: if anyone can ship, most people will ship… junk. Saas slob. In that mess, design — vision, narrative, taste — becomes the separator. It’s what makes something memorable after the magic wears off.
This isn’t about engineers or MBAs losing relevance. It’s about their traditional edge being commodified. The differentiator is shifting to those who can imagine.
It’s not new
Airbnb didn’t win because they had the best backend. They made crashing at a stranger’s place feel aspirational and fun. Notion turned note-taking into a cult by mixing product craft with brand. Figma made collaboration delightful instead of tolerable. Even A24 shows that taste itself can be an asset class.
Meanwhile, the graveyard is full of apps that were built correctly but never mattered. Execution without a story, or a story that nobody resonated with. Solid execution, zero pull.
Looking ahead
The next decade belongs to the people who can imagine what doesn’t exist yet and make it real. Investors who develop design literacy won’t just avoid missing these, they’ll be the first to back them.
Design isn’t the layer on top. It’s the lens. And if I’m right, some of the most interesting founders of the next era won’t come from finance or engineering. They’ll come from design.