Most designers make this mistake. They try to become the person who charges less instead of the person who provides more value. But there's a difference between being cheap and being valuable. When startups look for a designer, they want to know two things: Do you understand our problem? Can you help us solve it? For example, imagine you're designing a meeting management platform. You could say: “We're a meeting management platform.” Or you could say: “Schedule meetings and get reminders so you never miss one.” The first tells people what the product is. The second tells them what it does and the outcome users get from it. That's the difference between describing a product and communicating its value. As designers, we shouldn't focus only on how a website looks.

We should also think about how clearly it communicates the product's value to the right audience. Don't just show startups what you can design. Show them how you think.