Mind The Gap

Building the wrong thing.

For the product owner — wasted sprints, missed market, team credibility gone. For the investor — burned runway, no traction, no exit.

Same fear. Different seats. Same bill.

And here’s what most investors don’t realise they’re funding when design is an afterthought — they’re funding assumptions. Unvalidated. Unchallenged. Baked into code before a single real user ever saw the thing.

That’s not a product risk. That’s a portfolio risk.

The best design process does one thing investors should care deeply about — it makes assumptions visible and killable before they become expensive.

A prototype costs days. A pivot costs months. A wrong product costs the round.

When you’re doing due diligence, don’t just look at the roadmap. Look at how they validate. Look at when design enters the process. Look at whether anyone has actually watched a real user try to use this thing.

Because a team that designs before it builds isn’t just more creative.

They’re less likely to burn your money.

Design isn’t the pretty layer on top. It’s the risk management your term sheet forgot to ask about.

Mind that gap.