Ideation
Every client engagement started from the raw idea, before anything visual.
launchingmax
LaunchingMax was both a startup studio and an investor in the samestartups — my design decisions fed straight into an investment call.
A startup's build, tracked the way a client actually followed it.
prj — 005
overview
At LaunchingMax, a UK startup with its development team based in Iran, I worked as a product designer across a wide range of client startups — from early-stage ideation to visual identity, pitch decks, websites and apps. LaunchingMax itself played a dual role: a startup studio, and an investor betting on the same startups it built for. Its core service was helping those startups secure a startup visa in different countries.
01
The problem
LaunchingMax had a dual role: a startup studio for different clients, and an investor putting money into those same startups. That meant the product I designed fed straight into an investment decision and into the odds of a visa process succeeding — not just a visual deliverable.
The bar for quality shifted from project to project, because every startup had different standards and a different visa destination. My job was never just designing a product; I had to follow each startup's build closely and design all of it to a standard that would hold up under immigration review.
02
What I found
I had to follow each startup's build closely — from early ideation, through visual identity, through the pitch deck, to the final website and app. Standards varied so much between projects that no fixed template worked across every client; each one carried its own bar for what counted as defensible in an immigration review.
03
What I designed
One of the main products I worked on was a platform where clients could track both their startup's build progress and the stages of the startup-visa process — a step that moved LaunchingMax from a design agency toward something closer to a full support centre for startups.
Visual identity
A brand that could also hold up under immigration review.
Pitch deck
A narrative built to convince an investor and a visa officer alike.
Website & app
The finished product, held to the standard of that specific visa destination.
Tracking platform
Build progress and the visa process, both trackable in one place.
04
Outcome
With this platform, LaunchingMax shifted from a design agency into something closer to a full support centre for startups; clients could now see both their product's build progress and where they stood in the visa process.
- studio + investor, one decisionLaunchingMax's dual structuremy design work fed directly into the company's own investment decisions, not just its visual output
- from agency to support centrethe core product decisiona platform tracking build progress plus the visa process replaced one-off, project-by-project delivery
- platform-to-visa-application conversionthe metric I trackthe only honest test of whether the tracking platform actually moved startups toward a submitted visa application
what i'd do differently
The tradeoff I'd revisit: I'd write one shared standard for what counts as "defensible under immigration review" on day one, instead of redefining it project by project based on each visa destination.
