I explore this question in my short, partly visual emails, crafted through my lens as a pitch designer in deep-tech. Join me for insights on effective communication, marketing, design, psychology, and the philosophy of value.
Is your product beautiful?
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"This picture is beautiful." These things seem unrelated, yet they all share the descriptor 'beautiful.' Why? "Pretty" is surface-level—something that looks good but lacks substance. When we call something beautiful, we recognize excellence in context. Philosopher Denis Dutton, drawing on Darwin, says that beauty signals something done well, even if we can't always articulate why. Why am I telling you this? We create things of massive complexity. Whether it’s a new technology, a software product or even an investor pitch, we are limited in our capacity to make all the decisions rationally and objectively. When you aim for beauty, you're really aiming to make the thing the best it can be. Beauty isn’t just an outcome—it’s a guide. A compass that helps us create solutions that not only function but resonate. Yours, |
What makes people see value in a thing?
I explore this question in my short, partly visual emails, crafted through my lens as a pitch designer in deep-tech. Join me for insights on effective communication, marketing, design, psychology, and the philosophy of value.
I start every new funding round project by asking, 'Who is our target persona?' The first answer is always vague: 'A VC.'Push a little, and I’ll get: 'A US-based VC specializing in healthcare.'"No, no," I insist. "I need a specific name and position." Once I get it, I pull their profile photo and attach it to everything we create—a constant reminder to evaluate things 'through their eyes.' Founders are usually slightly apprehensive about that. I get it. The funding round is an extreme form of...
A few good questions came up this week in my practice and in response to a previous newsletter: Q: Should I pitch the same way to a top tier VC as to a 'friendly' investor? A: Trying to pitch differently to different audiences stretches you thin. 'Managing versions' in your head makes you self-conscious and less present in the moment. A good rule of thumb: aim to be the same person outside and inside any meeting room. The real question is: WHO IS that person? What do they want? What is their...
This is what you think you see This is what you actually see Our high-resolution vision is limited to a small central area of our visual field (~26 degrees), yet we don’t notice it. Why? Because our eyes are constantly moving, making whatever we focus on seem sharp. It tricks us into believing our entire field of vision is high-res, even though most of it is blurry. That bias occurs in our thinking as well Because we are able to think rationally in the areas we chose to focus lots of our...