--- title: Tingyu Su on why AI startups should treat the founding... description: Tingyu Su, founding designer at healthcare AI startup Youlify, argues that as AI lowers the barrier to building software, design becomes the primary... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/tingyu-su-on-why-ai-startups-should-treat-the-founding-designer-as-a-strategic-hire-from-the-start-o-5ut0aj4uy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Tingyu Su on why AI startups should treat the founding designer as a strategic hire from the start of company building | daily.dev og:description: Tingyu Su, founding designer at healthcare AI startup Youlify, argues that as AI lowers the barrier to building software, design becomes the primary... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/tingyu-su-on-why-ai-startups-should-treat-the-founding-designer-as-a-strategic-hire-from-the-start-o-5ut0aj4uy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/5ut0Aj4Uy.png og:image:alt: Tingyu Su on why AI startups should treat the founding designer as a strategic hire from the start of company building og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Tingyu Su on why AI startups should treat the founding designer as a strategic hire from the start of company building **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 5 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Tingyu Su, founding designer at healthcare AI startup Youlify, argues that as AI lowers the barrier to building software, design becomes the primary differentiator for early-stage companies. She makes the case that a founding designer should be a strategic hire from day one — someone who connects product development, branding, and customer experience into a cohesive whole. Su advocates for the concept of a 'Minimum Lovable Product' over a bare MVP, emphasizing that trust is built through consistent, intentional experiences across every customer touchpoint before the technology even proves itself. She also predicts that AI tools will expand the designer's role into branding, product strategy, customer research, and closer engineering collaboration. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What founders told us about working with AI tools for startups](https://daily.dev/posts/what-founders-told-us-about-working-with-ai-tools-for-startups-1inrvlqzu) · thoughbot · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [7 Ways To Close The Gap Between AI‑Generated Apps and Great Product Design](https://daily.dev/posts/7-ways-to-close-the-gap-between-ai-generated-apps-and-great-product-design-pjkdqvwwq) · Dribbble · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI is Great at Designing Screens but Terrible at This One Thing](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-great-at-designing-screens-but-terrible-at-this-one-thing-bzs2ilijr) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Steve Blank Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival](https://daily.dev/posts/steve-blank-your-startup-is-probably-dead-on-arrival-ert4emezn) · Hacker News · 6 upvotes · 3 comments - [How to Lead Design Teams Through the AI Era](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-lead-design-teams-through-the-ai-era-edxnh0wbo) · Figma · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ux](https://daily.dev/tags/ux), [#product-management](https://daily.dev/tags/product-management) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/tingyu-su-on-why-ai-startups-should-treat-the-founding-designer-as-a-strategic-hire-from-the-start-o-5ut0aj4uy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Tingyu Su on why AI startups should treat the founding designer as a strategic hire from the start of company building","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/tingyu-su-on-why-ai-startups-should-treat-the-founding-designer-as-a-strategic-hire-from-the-start-o-5ut0aj4uy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/tingyu-su-on-why-ai-startups-should-treat-the-founding-designer-as-a-strategic-hire-from-the-start-o-5ut0aj4uy"},"datePublished":"2026-07-10T16:01:32.987Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:25:09.210Z","description":"Tingyu Su, founding designer at healthcare AI startup Youlify, argues that as AI lowers the barrier to building software, design becomes the primary...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/4d7e3b7d73a31d087f1124f2ae63475b?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/4d7e3b7d73a31d087f1124f2ae63475b?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/tingyu-su-on-why-ai-startups-should-treat-the-founding-designer-as-a-strategic-hire-from-the-start-o-5ut0aj4uy","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ux,product-management","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Tingyu Su on why AI startups should treat the founding designer as a strategic hire from the start of company building"}]} ```