Aspire360
A web application for venture capitalists to discover new talent in unfamiliar industries.
Overview
Aspire360 began as a community network for early-stage startup founders and venture capitalists to connect. First-time company founders receive professional coaching and support as they scale towards fundraising, and venture capitalists assess the readiness of these startups through assessment scores processed by Aspire360.
Aspire360 joined the Spring 2021 cohort of the Columbia Build Lab, a network of project managers, designers, and developers spanning across Columbia University’s MBA and undergraduate programs. I joined the cohort as a product designer and worked with their team to help visualize interfaces for a web application that would centralize their various networks and resources.
Project Goals
Help boost the discoverability of the various startups in Aspire360’s network
Ease early communication lines between startup founders and venture capitalists
Design simple and intuitive interfaces for users to navigate
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
February 2021 - May 2021
Team
Syeda A. (Product Designer)
Grace L. (Product Designer)
Carlos R. (Product Manager)
Liang H. (Product Manager)
Eleanor H. (CEO)
Tools
Figma
Results
Focusing on the VC’s backend, I led the design for a Startup Search Database, Messaging Module, Data Sharing Module, as well as Dashboard and Settings interfaces.
Startup Search Database
Messaging Module
Data Sharing Module
The Process
Research & Discovery
Drawing insights from community feedback, generating user personas
Wireframing Options
Exploring different solutions and layout options to access information effortlessly
Final Product
Designing and prototyping interfaces on Figma
Research & Discovery
Community Insights
The venture capitalist (VC) needs a way to easily acquire information about the founder’s background and company, especially at its early stages.
Making investments into early-stage startups can be especially difficult, so VCs require unbiased, objective, and trustworthy data.
VCs have a good understanding of their general criteria for investments, especially in an industry they are well-versed in. However, they would like simpler filters to help explore unfamiliar industries, especially to ensure the best return on their investments.
User Personas
Amanda Thomas
Age: 32
Occupation: Founder of CookNow
Location: New York, NY
Amanda is the CEO and founder of CookNow, a tech startup that connects small local restaurants in NYC. She has experience running a restaurant from a young age and knows the ins and outs of the industry. However, this is her first time creating a startup and most of her knowledge in this area comes from independent research online. She is looking to get real feedback on her progress, as well as regular coaching to guide her in the process of running a successful startup.
Jack Stern
Age: 64
Occupation: CEO of TechBlossom
Location: New York, NY
Jack is the CEO of TechBlossom, as well as a venture capitalist with a past history of making investments in fintech companies. Now, he’s interested in funding startups from different industries, such as real estate and transportation. However, he isn’t very familiar with these industries and is struggling to find the right companies to invest in. He’s keen on finding an easily accessible tool that allows him to narrow down his specific criteria for a pool of worthy candidates.
Mapping Information
Wireframing Options
The Startup Search Portal should have clear and effective filters to parse startups of interest.
VCs should be inspired to learn more about the startup founder’s readiness to scale and fundraise.
The Messaging Module should be an informal but structured space for VCs and startup founders of the shared network to communicate and learn from one another.
Messages can only be initiated by VCs only, so as to avoid circumstances involving spam.
Data sharing should build transparency regarding the terms that VCs and startup founders agree to. Both parties should feel empowered to take this step after communicating on the messaging module.
Startup founders share results from their readiness to scale and fundraise assessments.
VCs share specific industries they’ve invested in, as well as industries they’re interested in expanding. VC users specify these preferences in their settings.
Final Product
Dashboard and Settings
The first thing VCs encounter on their dashboard is a list of saved startups, so they are prompted to follow up with companies and/or founders of interest.
Reuse elements from the startup search database.
Avoid endless pagination so VCs can mindfully focus on a smaller group of startups at a time when assessing interest.
Pull information they input in the “My Interests” section of their settings as information they would submit during a data sharing protocol.
Startup Search Portal
We prioritized the following filters: industry type, most recent funding stage, company status, headquarters location, and company size; because these were the most common data assessed by VCs within Aspire360’s existing network. ‘
The UI card for each company contains bite sized information that directly translates from the search filters and are reusable in the VC’s dashboard of saved startups.
VCs want information about the founder and their startup to be contextualized on multiple avenues, from descriptions to external resources like their company website or portfolio. The popup modal is designed to convey this range of information in a streamlined way.
The next step is for VCs to reach out to startup founders. We highlight this CTA with the large “Start Messaging” button at the end of the popup modal summarizing their info.
Messaging Module
Ensure VCs can easily verify they are sending the right message to the right founder by including the founder’s profile image, name, and company byline in the search item.
Allow file attachments and image uploads to aid in informal communication, allowing founders to share additional materials to aid the VC that isn’t necessarily publicly available.
Data Sharing
While designing these interfaces, our team encountered key concerns:
How can we ensure that data sharing conditions are adhered to between the founder and venture capitalist? What happens if one of the party's conditions change midway through this user flow?
Cancel out of the data sharing flow if one of the parties disagrees with the general terms sent. Prompt new discussions to restart data sharing under agreed terms.
Aspire360 holds specific data (founders’ assessment scores and VC’s interests) until both parties agree to terms.
Reflections
This process was a major learning experience in my design journey. I had the opportunity to implement many types of user flows, from messaging systems to search boards. It also challenged me to create a unified design that's visually appealing to users from all occupational backgrounds, while simplifying user flows that carry sensitive information, such as data sharing.
This experience has also been instrumental in the way I've carried myself as a designer in a team dynamic. I found myself advocating for user flows that ensure safety and simplicity for the user, even if it complicated the original flows proposed by project managers. In all, I'm glad to have been able to lead this in collaboration with other students who are aiming to make the startup space more accessible to new entrepreneurs.