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Every autumn, without training or direction, juvenile birds migrate thousands of miles to places they’ve never been.
They do this using something humans don’t have: magnetoreception — the ability to detect Earth’s magnetic field. It's a kind of internal compass, hardwired into their biology, that guides them even when skies are cloudy and landmarks are missing.
Humans aren’t built that way.
We look for signs. We ask for directions. We wait for clarity. And in the absence of a clear map, we often freeze — even when we’re more than capable of moving forward.
That’s the dynamic I’ve seen again and again among senior designers.
You’re sitting on a deep understanding of how people think and feel. You’ve worked at the intersection of product, engineering, marketing, and growth. You know how to spot friction. You’ve built onboarding flows, shaped value propositions, rescued flailing features.
You’re already thinking like a founder — but no one’s ever handed you the compass.
So you hesitate. You wait for someone to give you permission. You second-guess the skills you’ve already been using for years.
That’s why I loved hearing Will Taylor’s story at SXSW London last week.
Will began his career in design. He led product, design, and marketing teams. Eventually, he co-founded a startup that was acquired. But like many designers, even after success, he kept running into the same operational headache: teams spending hours rebuilding basic internal processes from scratch — in Slack, Notion, Google Docs — every time they grew.
So he decided to fix it.
What started as a side project turned into Workflow — a no-code tool for automating internal ops. Now it’s used by companies like Notion, Vanta, and Ramp.
And just a few months ago, Workflow raised a €2.8M pre-seed round to scale further.
Will didn’t wait for someone to give him permission. He saw a pattern, trusted his experience, and started building.
That’s what I want more designers to feel permission to do.
Not because it’s easy. Not because everyone should launch a startup. But because too many smart, capable people spend years waiting for a sign — when in reality, the work they’ve been doing all along is the sign.
You don’t need a perfect map. You need a reason to move.
And maybe that starts with allowing yourself to explore a different kind of career. Not just as a contributor or leader — but as a creator. As the one who gets to define what the product is in the first place.
- Andy Budd
The Design Coach & The Design VC
If you know a designer who is dreaming of becoming a founder, but doesn’t know where to start, I may have something for them — a six-evening course this summer called the Design Founder Summer School.
It’s designed for experienced designers who are curious about becoming founders but don’t know where to start. We’ll cover how to identify a real problem, test ideas quickly, and build the confidence to pitch — without needing to quit your job or have a co-founder in place.
No jargon. No pressure. Just a thoughtful, supportive group figuring it out together.
