Design at AI Startups Series: Lessons from Founding Designer at Hyperbound

​What does a founding designer actually do at an early-stage startup?

​In this session, we’re joined by the founding designer, Eugene Reuka from Hyperbound, an AI-native sales coaching platform helping sales teams practice real customer conversations through realistic roleplay.

​We’ll break down what the role really looks like in practice. How founding designer roles come together, what founders expect, how design decisions get made early on, and what designers should know before saying yes.

​This is a candid, practical conversation for designers exploring early-stage startups or aiming for their first founding designer role.

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​What we’ll cover

• ​How designers land founding roles in practice

• ​What portfolios actually convert

• ​What was the interview process

• ​What the day-to-day actually looks like

• ​Where design meets product, engineering, and sales

• ​Designing with ambiguity and speed

• ​Working directly with founders

• ​Skills that matter most early on

• ​Career tradeoffs and growth paths

• ​What to ask before taking a founding designer role