This acts as a cheerleader for companies with designer co-founders. That's great, I really appreciate the effort.
The problem is that many of the companies you highlight are -inconsequential-. If you're going to make a claim about how much impact these companies have made, you can't turn around and name a bunch of duds[1].
You start the list with mega successes (Android and YouTube are ubiqutous products that have made a huge impact on millions of people) and then finish up with failures and unproven startups. To be clear, I'm not saying anything about design cofounders. It's just that there's this weird implication in what you've communicated. You're sort of saying that all these companies are in the same league due to the skill of one of the founders. Something about that just doesn't sit right.
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[1] -
Sold in a talent acquisition after product failed: Hunch, Gowalla
Sold before they ever did anything: About.me
Niche community product: Forrst, ColourLovers, Foodspotting
I hear you...this is only our first visualization (will probably do next one on a timeline etc, so you're point about league isn't really an issue)...this first piece is more about highlighting case studies we're examining (mega success and dud failures- I like all types of data)...hopefully this is also a challenge to the next generation of designers to step up and ship something of consequence in collaboration with other brilliant folks from different background like great engineers who have been doing it for decades in deep tech... design+tech entrepreneurship is still in it's infancy... I do know that we need to be proactively driving new ideas and not be so reactive. “They have checkins, and group coupons, and native apps, and just got a valuation of thirty billion; WE need to have checkins! We need group coupons! Bring on the native apps!” I hope future designer-entrepreneurs can be more proactive and present a state that doesn’t yet exist. Addressing latent needs ESPECIALLY in emerging markets and coming up re-framed business models for the other 99% of the population.
The problem is that many of the companies you highlight are -inconsequential-. If you're going to make a claim about how much impact these companies have made, you can't turn around and name a bunch of duds[1].
You start the list with mega successes (Android and YouTube are ubiqutous products that have made a huge impact on millions of people) and then finish up with failures and unproven startups. To be clear, I'm not saying anything about design cofounders. It's just that there's this weird implication in what you've communicated. You're sort of saying that all these companies are in the same league due to the skill of one of the founders. Something about that just doesn't sit right.
========================================
[1] -
Sold in a talent acquisition after product failed: Hunch, Gowalla
Sold before they ever did anything: About.me
Niche community product: Forrst, ColourLovers, Foodspotting
Unproven product: Path