In order to succeed, it is pertinent that startups hire designers. This is because the aesthetics of any website or app is an equally important aspect. As an example, one can cite the financial inclusion firm Ellevest. The idea of this organization is to encourage women to invest in more formal channels. A large part of the potential customer base included the traditionally unbanked segment. Thus Melissa Cullens who had earlier designed the website for Vogue now embraced this challenge created a prototype using usertesting.com to enable the women web visitors to see how things will work out. Design is a long term projects, so it must be started right away at the conception stage. Also design must be included as part of corporate strategy so the designer must get the full freedom rather than constant feedback from the entrepreneurs. While lots of people consider themselves to have the aesthetics of design, a professional is needed in order to free up others to perform their specialized roles.

Source:https://www.fastcompany.com/3064850/lessons-learned/why-your-startups-founding-team-needs-a-designer