What makes creative founders different?

We often hear about developers starting companies in their garages, but what about designers? In this article, our Co-Founder, Ekaterina Solomeina, highlights creative thinkers who built some of the most visionary companies to inspire more designers to start something that will potentially change the world.

Silicon Valley investors love engineer-founders, as this is who we usually see in the news. Designer-founders, on the other hand, don’t seem as visible, though if you look closer, you will be surprised to find out how many companies you know and love were built by designers, architects or creatives. And looking at how fast technology is getting commoditised, having a creative CEO might be your best business strategy.

Below are some of my favourite examples of inspiring creatives who started and scaled innovative businesses we all admire:

► Brian Chesky, worked in product design before starting Airbnb.

► Lynda Weinman, worked as an animator and motion graphics director in the special effects film industry before starting Lynda.com that was acquired by Linkedin for $1.5 billion in 2015.

► Chad Hurley, was a designer before co-founding YouTube and becoming the CEO.

► Emily Weiss, studied art and worked in fashion before starting Glossier, Inc.

► Ruth Rogers, originally trained in printing design and then as a chef, started the iconic Michelin-starred restaurant The River Cafe Limited.

► Charles Adler, co-founder of Kickstarter was a trained graphic designer.

► Melanie Perkins, studied arts, communications, psychology & marketing before becoming a co-founder & CEO at Canva valued at around $49 billion at the moment.

► Andre Romell Young, known professionally as Dr. Dre, had a brilliant career in music before channelling his creativity into starting Aftermath Entertainment, Beats by Dre and Death Row Records.

► Evan Spiegel, proudly talks about how being a product designer helped him build Snap Inc. to be different from other tech companies.

► Kelly Hoppen, started in interior design and now runs an entire creative empire that includes her studio, product line, books and collaborations with other brands.

► Maria Giudice, was a designer by trade before starting Hot Studio in 1997 which was acquired by Facebook 15 years later.

► Karen Millen, studied fashion before starting her fashion label Karen Millen.

► Evan Sharp, worked as a product designer before co-founding Pinterest.

► Virgil Abloh, was trained as an architect before founding his own line of luxury streetwear clothing, which later transformed into Off-White.

► Zaha Hadid, was an architect, artist and designer before disrupting the world of architecture with her own practice Zaha Hadid Architects.

And there are many more examples like this.

What’s also quite interesting about these companies, that they are not just better versions of something that already existed before; they all were very different from the start – whether it’s believing that someone will stay in a stranger’s flat instead of a hotel or creating a completely new approach in architecture. Some might call it visionary, I would say, they didn’t want to accept the world like it is and were ready to change it for the better.