At Perplexity, the design system lives in the codebase, not Figma. Designers contribute directly to the frontend, creating a single source of truth that eliminates drift between design files and production code, forcing a highly practical and collaborative process.

AI-powered "vibe coding" is reversing the design workflow. Instead of starting in Figma, designers now build functional prototypes directly with code-generating tools. Figma has shifted from being the first step (exploration) to the last step (fine-tuning the final 20% of pixel-perfect details).

The ideal founder archetype starts with deep technical expertise and product sense. They then develop exceptional business and commercial acumen over time, a rarer and more powerful combination than a non-technical founder learning the product.

Startups often fail by making a slightly better version of an incumbent's product. This is a losing strategy because the incumbent can easily adapt. The key is to build something so fundamentally different in structure that competitors have a very hard time copying it, ensuring a durable advantage.

As AI makes software creation faster and cheaper, the market will flood with products. In this environment of abundance, a strong brand, point of view, taste, and high-quality design become the most critical factors for a product to stand out and win customers.

Contrary to conventional startup advice, Figma's founders began with a fascination for a technology (WebGL) and then searched for a problem to solve. This technology-first approach, a hammer looking for a nail, led them to explore various failed ideas like face-swapping before eventually landing on collaborative design tools.

The co-founder, a designer, learned React to bypass the classic frustration of developers misinterpreting high-fidelity mockups. By designing directly in code, he maintains full control over the final UI, eliminates the handoff process, and saves significant time and back-and-forth.

CNX discovered that its target users—backend RPG programmers—struggled with or were uninterested in modern UI/UX design. This realization led them to build a low-code tool to provide guardrails and ensure consistent, modern front-ends without requiring front-end expertise.