Design for seed-stage startups

At seed, design is not about polished screens. It is about doing things in the right order: the story first, then the launch video, the landing page, onboarding, and only then the product polish.

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Glowtify, product design by Fackt Glowtify, AI marketing platform, now seed fundedView case study →
Trusted by teams atAlgrowFireCutCommuniViewmaxClickUp
7 weeksfrom discovery to developer handoff for CommuniCommuni case study →68 / 100FireCut cancellation reasons traced to design, then redesignedFireCut case study →4.96/5average rating from clients on ContraContra reviews →
The path

The seed-stage launch path

Six moves, in this order. Each one makes the next one cheaper. Most founders do them backwards.

  1. 01 · Week 0 to 1

    Story

    If you cannot say who it is for in one sentence, no screen will fix it.

    We decide

    Who the first users are, the one promise, and what proves it.

    We ship

    The headline, the pitch narrative and the words every later page reuses.

  2. 02 · Week 1 to 3CaseWize →

    Launch video

    People believe what they see working. A 60 to 90 second video sells before anyone signs up.

    We decide

    The three flows that show the product best, and the order to show them in.

    We ship

    A product video with animated flows, cut for your site, X and LinkedIn.

  3. 03 · Week 2 to 4Viewmax →

    Landing page

    One promise, one proof, one action. Everything else waits until people ask for it.

    We decide

    Waitlist, demo or self serve signup, and the proof above the fold.

    We ship

    A Framer or Webflow page your team can edit, with the video built in.

  4. 04 · Week 4 to 6Ritual →

    Onboarding

    Signups are not users. The first minutes decide who stays.

    We decide

    What the first win is, and the shortest way to reach it.

    We ship

    First run, empty states, nudges and the events to track every step.

  5. 05 · Week 6 to 10Floxy →

    Core product

    Now polish pays off, because you know what people actually use.

    We decide

    The one screen people come back for, and what it must answer.

    We ship

    Core screens, states and a small design system your engineers build from.

  6. 06 · Week 8 to 12Dozy →

    Paywall and growth

    Pricing is a guess until you test it. Make testing cheap from day one.

    We decide

    Free versus paid, the paywall moment and the loops that bring people back.

    We ship

    Paywall layouts you can switch remotely, share moments and recap emails.

Approach

The order matters more than the pixels

What we see most often at seed, and what we do instead.

What most seed teams doWhat we do instead

Polish the dashboard before anyone uses it

Write the story first, then design what proves it

Launch with a feature list

Launch with a 60 second video of the product working

Ask for 14 fields before anything happens

Get people to their first win, then ask

Guess one price and hard code it

Ship paywalls you can switch without an update

Add analytics after users start leaving

Track every onboarding step from the first build

Save your runway

What to skip at seed

Things that feel productive and are not, yet.

A 60 page brand book

A logo, two colors, one typeface and a voice is enough until people know your name.

A full design system

Build the 12 components you use. The rest can wait until a second designer joins.

A 20 page website

One landing page that converts beats a site map nobody reads. Add pages when people ask.

Client spotlight CaseWizeAI litigation intelligence, San Francisco

A launch video that shows the product working

CaseWize helps plaintiff-side law firms make sense of their cases. We made a launch video with three animated product flows, so firms see what it does before they ever log in.

Work

Early-stage products we designed

Glowtify, product design by Fackt
GlowtifyAn AI marketing platform, before its seed roundView case study →
Communi, product design by Fackt
CommuniA creator platform, from discovery to handoff in 7 weeksView case study →
Shredder, brand and mobile app design by Fackt
ShredderA ski and snowboard app, from a logo sketch to a relaunchView case study →
Launch projects from $5,000Start with one move, or run the whole path on a retainer at $6,900 a month, pause any time.
Book a 30 minute call
Questions

Design at seed stage, answered

We are pre-launch. Where do we start?

With the story and the launch video. They are the cheapest to change and they shape everything after them: the landing page, the onboarding and the pitch.

Do we need a designer before product market fit?

You need design decisions, not a full time designer. A studio covers the whole path in a few months, and many founders hire in house later.

How much does it cost?

Single moves are fixed projects from $5,000. The whole path runs best on a retainer at $6,900 a month, which you can pause any time.

Can you work with our engineers?

Yes. We hand off Figma files, states and specs your team builds from, and stay on for questions while they build.

Can you start with an audit?

Yes. Send your product or prototype and within 2 days you get a video walkthrough and a written list of fixes, ordered by impact.

Note
Design agency vs freelancer vs in-houseHow to choose at seed, and what each one costs you in time.
Read the note

Where are you on the path?

30 minutes with Dom. You leave with clear next steps, whether we work together or not.

Book a 30 minute call or get a free audit first