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Breaking Into Startups: A Designer’s Guide to Finding Hidden Opportunities 🕵️♀️
A step-by-step guide to identifying promising startups, impressing founders, and landing your next design role through proactive outreach.
Florian Bölter
February 19, 2025
In partnership with
Hey and welcome back to a new week! 👋
In this issue:
Unlocking The Startup World: Learn how you can find hidden opportunities with startups that never make it to job boards.
Peijia’s Portfolio: An absolute master class in interaction design, using motion and telling stories visually.
Today’s Question: Which portfolio tool is right for me?
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Breaking Into Startups: A Designer’s Guide to Finding Hidden Opportunities 🕵️♀️
My own design journey started in startups and in fact has never ended anywhere else—I’ve always worked in startups although in various stages.
The very first opportunity I had, a kind of part-time volunteer role, I found in a Slack channel where the previous designer on their team looked for her successor. I was able to work for free at the time and just wanted to get real world experience so I reached out. Fast forward roughly four months: I had a blast working with the company, worked on a proper project inside of business constraints, interviews picked up and I eventually signed my offer for my first proper full-time role with another company of whom the founder knew one of the founders of the startup I was volunteering with.
The startup world is full of opportunities for junior designers, many of which never make it to traditional job boards. While the fast-paced environment and potential for growth are attractive, the most promising roles are often hidden, requiring a proactive approach to uncover. I've seen mentees land internships, freelance gigs, and even full-time roles by being strategic and bold in their outreach. One of the best examples aside from my own story is Jack Bernstein, who secured opportunities through well-researched, tailored outreach to startups. His story still amazes me as he was so incredibly relentless and proactive and it paid out big time for him.
In this article, we’ll explore how you can identify promising startups, impress founders, and create your own opportunities, even when no job postings exist.
Why Startups Are a Great Fit for Junior Designers
Many junior designers start their careers in startups due to the fast-paced environment, meaningful work, and the opportunity to take on responsibilities early. Having worked exclusively in startups throughout my design career, I’ve experienced firsthand the rapid growth and learning that comes with it. Startups often value initiative and versatility, making them ideal for juniors eager to prove themselves.
However, the best opportunities often remain hidden. Founders are busy, and hiring the wrong person can be a costly mistake. This is where a proactive approach shines.
The Power of a Proactive Approach
I’ve seen multiple mentees land roles by proactively reaching out to startups, even when no positions were advertised. The key? Showcasing value, initiative, and innovation through mini case studies.
What is a Mini Case Study?
A mini case study is a quick project focusing on a single aspect of a startup's product, highlighting your design skills and thought process. In 2-3 hours, you can create an impactful presentation that grabs attention.
No Perfectionism: Focus on the idea and clarity, not pixel-perfect designs.
Data-Driven Ideas: Base your suggestions on the startup’s product and target market.
Quick Execution: Balance your time—even if you don’t land the gig, it’s valuable portfolio material.
The great thing about these mini case studies are that they have no strings attached and you can repurpose them in many ways. For example you could always expand it into a proper case study if the startup ghosts you but you found the product / topic particularly interesting and your work on it was good. This can go straight into your portfolio and although it’s still not real-world experience, it at least shows how you can pick up business problems of early-stage ventures which in return will be beneficial if other startups look at your portfolio.
The most obvious but nonetheless super valuable point is that your skills stay sharp and you keep practicing doing this kind of work.
Finding the Right Startups
Targeting the right startups is crucial. Use platforms like Wellfound, Crunchbase, and LinkedIn to identify promising companies.
Key Indicators to Look For:
Funding Stage: Seed and Series A startups often need design help but may not have hired a designer yet.
Industry Fit: Look for industries where your background or interests align.
No Existing Design Team: Startups without designers are more likely to need your skills.
First-Time Founders: They might be more open to new connections and fresh talent.
Steps to Land a Startup Role Proactively
In summary here is a six step guide on how to research, approach and convince startups to take a bet on you:
Research the Startup: Understand their product, mission, and challenges.
Identify a Problem or Opportunity: Analyze their product and find a design-related area for improvement.
Create a Mini Case Study: Draft wireframes, a couple of high-fidelity screens, and a summary of your solution.
Reach Out to Founders: Send a personalized LinkedIn message expressing your interest and hinting at your idea.
Wait for Interest Before Executing Fully: Don’t invest too much time without initial interest.
Present Your Idea: If they respond, share your mini case study and discuss it.
Understanding Startup Dynamics
Familiarity with startup terminology can give you an edge. Here's a quick overview:
VC-Backed: Funded by venture capital, ensuring resources for proper pay and growth.
Angel Investors: Early individual investors indicating potential but also early-stage challenges.
Funding Rounds: Aim for Seed to Series B for balance between stability and growth.
Product Market Fit (PMF): Understand their journey towards PMF, especially in early-stage startups.
Equity: Be cautious about offers with equity but no salary.
Final Thoughts
The startup world is not for everyone, but for those who thrive in fast-paced environments, it offers unparalleled growth. By proactively reaching out, showcasing your value, and understanding startup dynamics, you can uncover hidden opportunities and kickstart your design career.
If you embrace this approach, the rewards can be significant—from rapid learning to the potential for meaningful impact and even financial gain through equity. The key is to start today, research, reach out, and let your work speak for itself.
⁉️ Q&A
Today’s Question
Which portfolio tool is right for me?
💼 More Jobs
👀 Portfolio Showcase
Today: Peijia Ding
I found Peijia’s portfolio by accident—and I’m so glad I did because now I can show it to you. Peijia is technically not so early in her career anymore but I still think there is so much to learn from her portfolio even if you are early in your career. It should be noted that this portfolio landed Peijia a job at Google as an Interaction Designer after working exclusively in startups the years prior.
In my opinion this is a masterclass so pay attention and let’s go.
The Good:
Quality Over Quantity With Visuals: Peijia’s case studies are heavy on visuals but still every single one counts. They all either show of a critical flow, function or comparison that feeds into her story. The best example in my opinion is her Dream case study where she leads with a prototype (or actual?) recording of the key flow of the app she worked on. No big fuzz, a proper mockup and a clean recording of that flow. The rest speaks for itself. Micro interactions and the overall good quality of her work do the rest. Underneath you find a short description of the flow and how it’s so central to the app. The rest of the case study is similarly structured and so much of the story is told through the visuals alone. Peijia also found an amazing yet simple way to deal with an abundance of features she was involved with. She presents key elements from each in a grid. When I say you shouldn’t dump 12 screens onto the page this is NOT what I’m talking about because this is solved well. Each visual is easily distinguished and it’s clear how it’s relevant to the app.
Motion & Interactions Doing All The Work: When you visit Peijia’s portfolio you will quickly notice how simple and minimal it is. Her homepage consists of 5 visuals, two paragraphs, one headline and one link. Yet it feels very high quality, engaging and inviting. How did she achieve that? Leveraging motion & interactions. Everything feels organic here. Some of the preview images are short looped videos and on top of that all of the images move subtly as if they are floating. This alone is so well executed and makes it feel high quality. Now hover over one of them and you’ll notice that multiple things happen. The image subtly moves or rotates into focus whilst gaining a blurred thick border that is barely noticeable. While inside of her case studies Peijia didn’t use any interactions, she used motion a lot showing off her work in action which is arguably the best way to do it.
Finding something worth picking up as potential was very hard for Peijia’s portfolio. After all she is not a junior anymore and her portfolio not only is more than validated by the fact she scored a job at Google with it but also her work just speaks for itself so well. Despite there is one thing, coming from looking at a lot of early-career portfolios, I would have loved to see a bit more of.
The Potential:
A Tiny Bit More Process: Senior portfolios show way less process than juniors do. That’s normal and if the work speaks for itself there is no point in talking too much about how it came together. Those rules don’t apply to juniors though and even for a more senior designer like Peijia is one, I would have loved to learn a tiny bit more about the circumstances of her work coming together. An interesting aspect I learned very little about for example is collaboration with bother other designers (if applicable) and engineering. Especially for interaction designers I always find that highly interesting since conveying complex interaction patterns to developers can feel like walking a tightrope.
I could obsess a bit longer about some details of Peijia’s portfolio but I think if you reverse engineer any of the things I pointed out and try to apply them to your own portfolio, you will already enhance your portfolio visually by 10x on average. Definitely make sure to check it and pay close attention.
That’s it for this week—thanks so much for the support! ♥️
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If you need more tailored help on your journey into design here is how I can help you further:
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Keep kicking doors open and see you next week!
- Florian