The Guy That Makes New Startups Look Like World Class Brands

John Lam helps startups look real on day one. After years in industrial design and agency work, he spun up FormfactorForm Factor, a design studio that gives early stage founders investor ready decks, sites, and product visuals that feel like world class brands at seed stage prices. 

I sat down with John to talk about starting his design studio, landing his dream client from a weird Twitter redesign, and why designers need to think like operators, not just artists.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

I am John Lam, founder of Formfactor DesignForm Factor. We are a design studio that helps founders and startups look real on day one.

The way I explain it is simple. If you wear a good suit into an important meeting because it opens doors, we make that suit for your company and product.

2. What is your backstory? How did you get here?

I was trained as an industrial designer. I used to design chairs and tabletop objects. At that time, you really had two paths. Join an industrial design consultancyin house brand team or become in-house and try to manufacture products, which felt impossible then.

Along the way I fell in love with branding. I would scroll Instagram, save brand case studies, and think ‘this is what I want to do’. So I started doing branding on the side for friends and family.

Very quickly I realized they did not need business cards. They needed websites. That pushed me into web design, then into SaaS.

Then I hit the classic problem. You have a service you believe in, but nobody knows you exist. That forced me into content and marketing. I still feel early in that part of the journey, which is why I joke I am the dumbest guy in Tribe. But just listening inside the group has helped a lot.

3. How did you get your first paying customers?

The very first one was simple. A friend’s dad needed design help. That turned into a first small project.

A more interesting story came from Twitter. I grew up in Hong Kong and Twitter was not big there. There was this 16 year old Hong Kong kid building and coding. I noticed him because he was one of the only locals on the platform.

I redesigned one of his landing pages and posted it. His dad happened to own a blockchain company and he watched his son’s activity on Twitter, saw my redesign, and then their CMO reached out.

That relationship turned into multiple projects and gave me confidence that posting my work online could bring in serious clients.

4. What has worked for attracting and retaining customers?

Posting work online has been the first spark many times. 

The best example is Hypefury, which was my dream client. Their tool helped me a lot with content and growing my audience, but their site looked very dated. I did a redesign and posted it. Then other designers started doing the same. Most of us had similar layouts and styles.

I got bored and made a version that was very strange. Very flashy, but not really usable in a classic sense. That was the one Yannick from Hypefury commented on. I messaged him immediately, we started talking, and he asked about pricing.

That turned into a full website redesign. If you go to Hypefury today, you are looking at our work. 

On the retention side, the biggest thing has been going deep with existing clients instead of chasing pure volume. Serving them really well, sending Looms, making their raise easier, and then letting their network carry the referrals. That has beaten any content formula I have tried so far.

5. How is the business doing today and where do you want to see it go?

We are entering our third year. For the first two years, we were almost entirely project based. That is where we were strongest.

Then the design world started pushing subscription models.

Subscription design favors raw speed and acting as a direct employee replacement. That can be useful, and I still want some of that inside DesignPodDesign Pod, but I realized our real edge is taste. Especially now that AI can generate layouts and code, taste and brand feel more important, not less.

So I see the future as a mix. Stay very true to taste and branding, then package that in a productized pod that rides with the founder through their fundraising and early growth.

6. Was there ever a time you thought this wasn’t not going to work?

Yes. Right around when I joined Tribe, I went through a tough season.

I brought in a partner for 5 months and tried to turn FormfactorForm Factor into a cofounders settingshared company. Our visions were different. I was inexperienced. I made all the classic mistakes. We went 50/50 even though I had built the studio for two years. We did not define roles clearly. Our skills overlapped.

At the same time, we were pushing a subscription model that did not fit our strengths. We had some bad luck with accounts getting banned, which hurt marketing. Revenue was thin and now had to support two people.

There was a point where we both agreed that if this version did not work, it might be better to shut it down. That felt close.

We ended up splitting, which was for the best. 

7. What is something most people do not understand about your work?

People think a great design studio just makes beautiful visuals. That is only part of it.

The real value comes when the designer understands business and GTM. If we are designing a fundraising deck, it is not enough to make pretty slides. We need to know the story, the flow, and how that deck fits into the founder’s process.

Designers need to wear more hats than people think. They have to think like operators, marketers, and founders, not only artists.

8. Favorite tools?

We use the usual stack: email, Slack, Figma, Webflow.

One tool that has been huge for us is Workflow.Design. I was an early alpha tester. The way they onboarded me was a lesson in itself. 

The tool works like a mix of Notion and Figma comments. Clients don’t need Figma and we can share sites, images, or videos and they can leave comments at exact points.

It keeps feedback clear and makes collaboration much easier for clients who are not designers.

9. Favorite books, podcasts, or content?

One person who has been very influential is Daniel Priestley. He wrote Oversubscribed and is behind Score App. His mental model is to have clients self diagnose their own problems, like a doctor ordering tests and then prescribing treatment.

He also talks a lot about creating demand and urgency.

I am still learning how to apply it in full, but his ideas sit in the back of my mind when I think about how to package FormfactorForm Factor and our new offerings.

10. If you had to start another business, what would it be?

It would probably be in education or teaching.

I used to teach Webflow, and I would help kids build sites and show staff how to create pages for their programs. I really enjoyed breaking down ideas into simple pieces and watching people get it.

Any business where I can unpack complex topics into clear steps and help people learn feels very interesting. It lets you step slightly away from the hustleconstant growth mindset and reconnect with the joy of being a beginnerlearning.

11. Best advice for other entrepreneurs?

I don’t feel like I have “made it,” so this is more a lesson I am trying to live.

Whatever your craft is, at some point you need to stop thinking only like a specialist and start thinking like a business owner. For me, that means less focus on doing design and more focus on building a design business.

The skills that got you good at the craft are not the same skills that will grow the company. Business is a different language. You have to choose to learn it.

Final Takeaways

1. Your craft is the starting point, not the finish line. At some point, you have to learn the business side on purpose.

2. Consistently posting content can unlock your dream client. Hypefury became a client because John put his work out into the world.  

3. Serving current clients deeply and leaning on their networks can beat any content or outbound formula.

4. The best designers do more than make things “look nice.” They think like partners in GTM, fundraising, and growth.