Our VP Marketing EMEA, Marion Gamel, attended a great event this week “An audience with the hottest tech startups on the planet”, organised by Silicon Milkroundabout in collaboration with Central St Martin.

The topic was the pros of working for a startup as a designer. 

Below, she shares her thoughts and key-takeaways from other great startups…

It’s clear that jobs in startups across the UK are booming, galvanised by the rapid growth and success of the technology sector in general, where London is known as a global startup hub and Cambridge, Bristol and Manchester are following closely behind (to name a few other startup hotspots).

Thanks to this growth in startups, great designers are in more demand than ever!  This is because every progressive company understands the central importance of great design on building a winning product, creating a better user experience, standout marketing and unique brand positioning.

That’s why several startups, including Eventbrite, were lined up to answer design students’ questions about working for a startup, such as:

  • Are there any essential differences between working in a tech company vs a non-tech company?
  • How would you describe the creative practices in your startup?
  • What are the primary capacities you’re looking for in a recruit?

Here’s a few of the responses from our fellow technology startups:

Cristiana Camisotti, Silicon Milkroundabout (@CristianaCamiso)

“Working for a startup means a high job satisfaction and you get the chance to make your voice heard, a slice of the pie (equity) and to be part of an innovative and forward-thinking team.”

Alex Klein, Kano (@alexnklein)

“In a startup, designers not only design but also structure the product and the learning journey”.

Katherine Norman, Visual DNA (@tweet_katherine)

“In our startup, we expect design to solve real problems, and to connect two audiences and bring more understanding between them.”

“Large companies can move slowly. When working for a large company, designers often don’t see the end product of the prototype they created.”

“ Working in a startup means you can try things out, fail and learn, and try again and grow alongside people who are entrepreneurial like yourself. “

“Working for a startup is like being part of a family and something that’s very special.”

Tristian and Simon, King.com, creators of “Farm heroes” and “Candy Crush” (@King_Games)

“Startups are small and agile teams with flat structures, where everyone has a say.”

“ Successful startups put the user at the heart of everything they do, continuously innovating, and working in small teams to foster creativity.”

Natalie Rooke, Editd (@natalierooke)

“Designing in a startup entails that you work with all departments in a very collaborative way.”

“When you join a startup and you are one of the first designers, you can set the agenda. You can create and test new things everyday, get users feedback fast, and refine your work on a daily basis.”

Martin Warner, Mind Candy and Moshi Monsters (@mwarn73)

“In a startup, everybody has the company vision in mind and collaborates around it, and is passionate about it.”

Christopher Lewis, Senior Product Manager – Core Engineering at BBC and (@abeotech)

“My advise to designers who want to work for a startup:

  1. If you are a designer and you can’t code, learn how to code ASAP!
  2. Believe in what the company does, passion is indispensable! “

James from GoSquared (@jamesjgill)

“It’s empowering to know that what you are doing is going to be in front of users within minutes. You may delight them or annoy them, you’ll get the feedback immediately!”

Matt Isherwood, UX and Product Designer, onefinestay (@ishmatt)

“Working in a startup means you can permanently challenge the way things are done!”

Gideon Bullock , Songkick Head of Design (@gideonb)

“The creative process in a startup is very agile, you build minimal prototypes, you put them in front of customers for beta testing (face to face via focus groups or online via analytics to mix qualitative and quantitative data) and your refine the prototype that gets the best feedback until you create a ‘WOW’ moment for the user.”

Marion Gamel, VP Marketing EMEA, Eventbrite (@EventbriteUK)

“In a startup, you need to be agile, and you need to like collaborating with all other departments as teams are small. Your job description and responsibilities will be wider than in a large company. Don’t expect to hide all day long behind your screen! You will own a lot more than in a normal job, so you need to be ready to make decisions, take risks, test things, fail, learn from your failures and grow fast, and that’s empowering!”

Have we convinced you that being a designer at a startup is an exciting career choice? Interested in working for an established, fast-growing startup? Great! Here’s what to do next…

  1. Eventbrite is hiring our International Design Lead, the founding member of our design team outside of our San Francisco head quarters, based in London.  Check out the job specs and apply here.
  2. You should also check out the UK’s largest job fair for tech startups, with over 200 companies who are hiring and about 6000 people attending. It runs in London on May 10th and 11th. Visit http://www.siliconmilkroundabout.com/ for more details.

If you’d like to learn more about the open Design Lead role, or know someone who might be interested, feel free to leave a comment below too and we’ll get back to you asap!