The Great Designer Gold Rush (and Why We're Winning)

Hey, It’s Shane.

Welcome to a special edition of Design for Builders. Instead of tactical design advice, this week I'm pulling back the curtain on what's been happening at Turbo and why the entire startup ecosystem has gone absolutely crazy trying to hire great designers.

Quick takeaways before we dive in:

• There are literally 5 world-class designers that every funded startup in NYC is fighting over

• Smart founders are realizing there's a better way than the hiring bloodbath

• We've made our first angel investment in a client (huge milestone)

• AI is becoming our secret weapon for design feedback

Let's get into it.

Everyone Wants the Same 5 People

The market has lost its mind.

I've been watching this unfold for months, and it's wild. There's this small group of truly exceptional designers: people who have the logical, ergonomic sense of great software, the visual craftsmanship of an artist, AND the strategic product thinking of a seasoned CPO.

One of them is my friend Joonas Virtanen, currently a Staff Experience Designer at Airbnb. Everyone wants him, but I don’t think he is leaving anytime soon. The guy probably gets 3 inbound messages a day from founders trying to poach him.

But here's the thing: there are maybe 5 people like Joonas in all of New York. Maybe 20 in the entire country have that complete skillset at the level that venture-backed startups actually need.

Julie Zhuo nailed it in a recent tweet:

And Benji Taylor added:

The Desperation Is Real

The lengths founders will go to is honestly hilarious.

I've seen companies offer to pay people's rent for a year. I've heard of $30,000+ referral bonuses just for making an introduction.

But here's what I realized: this isn't a hiring problem. It's a timing problem.

You can either spend 3-6 months trying to hire that unicorn designer (competing against everyone else with deeper pockets), or you can start working with people who already have that expertise next week.

Guess which option smart founders are choosing?

Why We're Growing Like Crazy

The past six months have been a complete shift for Turbo. We've worked with a bunch of early-stage companies that have raised between $2M to $10M, and they keep telling us the same thing: our level of attention to craft, detail, and common sense is unlike what they've experienced elsewhere.

That's what's driving our growth.

Last month, we signed four new clients. This month, we'll sign another four. Our clients are sticking with us long-term (6 to 12 months and beyond), which means we're building real context around the products we're working on.

We've brought on a design director and new team members (we're about 10 people now, mostly designers). We're profitable and growing every month. It's not hockey stick growth, it's more linear, steady progress. But that's how great agencies are built: stick by stick, log by log, until you have a log cabin.

The New Secret Weapon: AI as Design Critic

One thing that's been working incredibly well is using AI tools as our design gut check.

When we design something, we'll feed it into ChatGPT with a custom prompt and ask: "What would a user be confused about? What would this specific demographic be interested in? How would they interact with this that we might not think of?"

If you read my newsletter about Midas, you'll remember how he uses AI not to replace his thinking, but to amplify it. We're doing something similar: using AI to get a perspective from every type of user demographic.

It's been a game-changer for catching blind spots we'd normally miss.

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

Here's something big: we just made our first angel investment in one of our clients.

The company is in the B2B2C space, which is fascinating because they can get hundreds of thousands of users with just a few enterprise contracts. I can't say much more about it, but this was a huge milestone for us.

Why? Because it puts us on the same side of the table as our clients. We believe in the work we do so much that we're reinvesting our profits into our own clients.

The strategy is simple: double down on clients we really like working with and have conviction in.

What's Next

2026 is going to be interesting. We're planning to start building our own products and having early conversations about launching a venture fund.

Here's what's becoming clear: we have access to some of the best top-tier startups in the country. We're working with them. We know what it takes to build an amazing startup because we've seen tons of them do really well.

We've got that muscle memory from constant iteration and feedback. We're seeing way more shots on goal, and that's giving us incredible pattern recognition for what works.

How to Take Advantage of the Gold Rush

This moment is massive for anyone paying attention. Here's how to capitalize on it:

If you're a designer:

• If you have any combination of visual craft + product thinking + technical understanding, you're worth 2x what you think you are

• Build in public. Share your process, not just final work. Founders want to see how you think, not just what you make

• Get specific about what you're great at. "I do design" isn't enough. "I help fintech startups turn complex workflows into simple experiences" gets you hired

If you're a founder:

• Stop trying to hire the unicorn. Start with someone who has 80% of what you need and can learn the rest

• Invest in design education for yourself. You can't give good feedback if you don't know what good looks like

• Consider working with agencies or consultants while you search for your full-time person. Like us at Turbo, getting momentum is more important than having everything in-house from day one

If you're neither:

• Learn design fundamentals. The market is screaming that design skills are valuable. Even basic visual and UX literacy will set you apart in any role

• Pay attention to companies that ship beautiful products. They're the ones that will win in the next few years

The companies that figure out great design early will have an unfair advantage. The ones that don't will be fighting over scraps.

The Real Lesson

Design is finally in the spotlight. Founders with money are realizing that great design isn't just nice to have, it's the difference between a product that gets used once and a product that becomes indispensable.

But instead of fighting over the same 5 people, smart founders are finding partners who can deliver that level of craft without the 6-month hiring process.

We're not just building websites and apps. We're building the most thoughtful, meaningful, and executionary design agency for venture-backed startups trying to build mobile apps and SaaS tools.

Shane