Why Does StartUp Culture View Creative as an Afterthought?

This is something I have often wondered.  I’m going into my 10th year as a mentor at Stanford University, and 8th as a mentor at their accelerator StartX, which has given me a glimpse into hundreds of startup concepts. Without exaggeration, I would say that 99% of these businesses don’t consider creative until the question, “we built it, but how do we market it?”

Why is creative the afterthought, when it should be a part of the company DNA?

A few observations I have had over the years:

Startups prioritize speed, creativity is widely viewed as slower.

The old cliché of the “I’ll work when inspiration strikes” creative still lingers in startup culture, which is surprising- because the solution is simple: hire professional creatives, and you get professional accountability.

If a startup ends up with an eccentric, unreliable creative, that’s not a problem with creativity, it’s a hiring issue. It’s HR, not creative.

If it can’t be A/B tested, it isn’t real. 

Startups often fall into the trap of believing that if it can’t be A/B tested, it isn’t real. Software engineering is the reigning king of the startup ecosystem, built on a binary logic of “works or doesn’t.” In that environment, creative instinct gets reduced to a “hunch,” while analytics get framed as “truth.”

But here’s the irony: some of the most iconic, high-impact creative decisions in history were made long before analytics dashboards existed. Need proof? Look at the Nike Swoosh. A $35 logo that became a global symbol without a single data report guiding it.

Non “Creative” founders have an over-simplified view of what creative is.

Most founders come from business or engineering. They view creative as:

Design = Pretty pictures, can easily do in Canva or ChatGPT

Branding = A Logo (which is also so easy in ChatGPT, or cheap on Fiverr)

Story = Who needs this?

Etc…

I have talked to several founders behind multi-million dollar ideas that don’t understand how to identify a target customer. 

Creative is a cost, not an asset.

StartUps tend to over-hire engineering and under-hire (or ignore) creative. Why? Because in startup terms, engineers are building valuable assets, while creatives are costing money. Creative is considered a commodity, not a differentiator. 

StartUps need to “run lean.”

See above. 

How does a lack of early creative hurt companies?

Several ways:

Generic Branding = No Loyalty

Bad UX = confusion 

Lack of Identity = Slow adoption. 

Apple in the late 1990’s was dying. It was losing market share, and felt outdated. When Steve Jobs returned in 1997, he changed the focus of the company to smart, attractive design, storytelling and a clear identity. 

“Think Different.”

The result, Apple became the first trillion dollar company in 2018.

The lesson is simple: creativity isn’t optional, and it isn’t a cost - it’s a strategic asset that can define a company’s trajectory. Startups that treat creative as an afterthought may ship faster, but they risk building products and brands that nobody remembers. The companies that succeed: Apple, LEGO, Warby Parker, and others understand that creative thinking must be baked into the DNA of the business from day one. If you want to build something people love, don’t wait until launch to think about creative; make it part of every decision, every hire, and every strategy. After all, speed matters, but impact lasts.