How to Get Investors for a Startup Using Design

Investors receive many offers every day, so they may not be impressed with your idea right away. Worse, they might not even understand it at all!

How do you make your product attractive and valuable in the eyes of an investor?

1. Realize a simple truth

A startup is a product from day one, from the moment of its conception, long before it hits the market. Realizing this simple truth puts your startup on the right track, laying the foundation for the brand’s success.

At any given development stage, a startup must be marketable and attractive.

Being marketable means being visible, interesting, relevant, useful, and valuable to the buyer. A startup must showcase its capabilities at every point of contact with the buyer. In this case, the buyer is your potential investor. You are selling them your idea, albeit not literally.

That’s what design does: it introduces, shows, and sells.

It does this succinctly and quickly, like a savvy salesman. This saves time, which investors value.

2. Help the investor notice you

“Seeing is believing.” — Thomas Fuller

Many factors influence an investor’s willingness to invest in a startup. The key things that will tip the scales your way are a strong team, a unique idea, and proven traction.

However, these valuable qualities must be demonstrable and provable.

A great project with massive potential may go unnoticed, unappreciated, and misunderstood simply because it has not been communicated clearly and convincingly to investors.

This is where design comes into play.

First impressions are often conclusive. Visualization allows you to deliver the message efficiently, clearly, and effectively. That immediately makes a good impression on investors.

Visual design makes the idea realistic and credible.

The quality of the presentation often influences the investor’s decision. Clear visualization and user-friendly interface create a professional company image. The product becomes attractive and intuitive. All this tells the investor that you’re serious in your approach and have put in some real effort.

For startup founders, cooperating with designers can also be an epiphany. They begin to see both shortcomings and new opportunities for developing their product.

3. Help the investor understand you

Startup founders have their own vision and perspective of the project. They’re immersed in their idea, so to them everything seems obvious.

But this doesn’t mean that the investor will see the startup the same way!

Don’t forget: you are selling a product. An incomprehensible thing that requires figuring out and puzzling over will not sell.

So if you want to convince an investor that your idea is worthy, speak clearly, reasonably, and inspiringly. Graphic design does all this: it speaks the language of success for you.

Poor design can misrepresent the project idea to the investor.

Startups often develop innovative products or services that can be difficult to understand. Design helps simplify complex concepts and make them accessible to a wide range of people, including investors.

Good design turns chaos into order.

It structures and organizes information, commands attention, highlights priorities, and creates the impression of orderliness. Any data presented as an infographic becomes clear and convincing, visualizing the future success of the project.

User-centered design shows investors that a startup deeply understands its target audience and is able to create products that will be in demand. This increases the likelihood of a successful market entry.

Professional design is always inextricably fused with marketing. Involving designers from the earliest stages of the project allows a startup to enter its market segment faster and remain marketable and competitive at every step of its development.

4. Help the investor trust in you

Startups are still being created by humans, and the investor wants to be confident in them. That’s why a focus on the team is so important.

Professional design demonstrates the competence of the team and enhances its image. It makes the company appear reliable, willing to grow and develop.

Design turns your business into a brand that people want to work with.

Cooperating with designers delivers both internal and external benefits. As a team, you develop and improve the product, test it, assess its prospects and new ideas for upgrading it. At the same time, it brings qualitative changes to the company: work becomes more focused, structured, and efficient. Profitable projects are always the result of teamwork involving professionals.

Design as a marketing tool:

• attracts attention;
• reflects the company’s market positioning;
• improves understanding and comprehension;
• efficiently demonstrates the uniqueness of the offer;
• clearly shows benefits and advantages;
• convincingly visualizes data;
• makes information hierarchical and organized;
• builds trust in the team and the product;
• proves the professionalism of the team.

Good UX/UI and strong branding create a positive first impression, foster user loyalty, and make the startup more attractive to investors.

5. Help the investor evaluate you

The value of a startup is largely determined by its customer value (it has a unique solution to user problems), its market value (it has scalability), and the stage of its life cycle. The higher the stage of product development, the higher the quality of the product from an investor’s point of view.

Investors use a variety of valuation methods. In any case, the valuation of a startup without a finished product is always lower than that of a startup with a product. The startup founder is essentially showing investors his or her digitized strategy and approach to running the business.

The investor wants to see where their money will go and how it will aid the growth of the project. The more clearly and understandably you show it to them, the better your chances of raising your value and gaining investor appreciation (and more).

“A picture is worth a thousand words” describes the essence of infographics in a nutshell.

A well-designed product is always perceived as more valuable, which has a positive effect on the valuation of a startup. Investors tend to invest in companies whose products look finished and market-ready.

Involve design at every stage of the startup

Involving design from the earliest stages plays a key role in attracting investors. Design works for you at every stage.

1. Pre-seed

• Branding and visual identity

This is the stage where initial brand elements are designed, such as the name, logo, and corporate colors. This helps shape the identity of the startup and creates an early visual impression of the startup, its idea and concept.

• Pitch deck

You’ll need a visually attractive and well-structured pitch deck for the investors. It’s the first thing they will see, so it has to look professional. Another useful thing to have is a teaser (a brief summary of the pitch deck), which can be shared via a link.

2. Seed

• Product design

This stage prioritizes prototype development and website or app UI/UX design. The investors want to make sure that the startup has a working product or at least a professional-looking and test-ready prototype.

• User testing

This is the stage where the designers help adjust the product to the target audience’s needs. It also signals the investors that the startup is user-oriented.

3. Growth (Series A and later)

• UX/UI optimization

This is where you work on improving user experience to increase customer retention and grow the user base.

Professional design is based on analytics and data, and it prioritizes UX. It’s done by the best experts, who perform user testing and customization every step of the way. Investors today are more than interested in companies getting on this conveyor belt of creating their best product.

• Brand development

The brand development and enhancement stage requires new marketing, advertising, and social media presence. A strong brand stands out in the market and attracts the attention of increasingly major investors.

4. Scaling

• Optimizing design for scalability

Good design can significantly accelerate a startup’s growth. An intuitive interface and well-designed UX reduce errors and problems, boosting conversion rates and user engagement. This, in turn, helps the business scale quickly.

In preparation for scaling, the design must be adapted for a broader market. This includes localizing the product, adapting it for different markets, and creating a universally applicable design.

• Constant updates

It’s important to maintain a modern and relevant product and brand appearance. For investors, this is a sign that the company is responsive to market changes, that it is dynamic and competitive.

5. Market entry or IPO preparation

• Marketing support

In the final stages, the design must support all marketing initiatives, from promo campaigns to major investor pitches.

• Reports and infographics

Visualizing company data and achievements is useful for demonstrating potential to investors and partners.

• Brand cohesion

All design elements, from the website to financial reports, must be visually cohesive and appropriate for the brand. This demonstrates the company’s professionalism and willingness to strive for the next level.

Conclusion

From the moment of conception, a startup is a product and should therefore look attractive and marketable.

Implement design at all stages of a startup’s development, from the earliest one onward. This will help attract the attention and trust of investors, further support the growth and development of the company, and eventually become a recognizable brand. Investment in design is an investment in the future of the business, and it is returned a hundredfold.