If you need a steady stream of small design tasks, get a subscription. If you need a big, slow, high-stakes brand overhaul and have the time and a team to manage it, hire an agency. If you need a senior team to ship a website or a product fast and make real decisions with you, that's an embedded partner. We're the third kind, so read the rest with that in mind.
The short version
Design subscriptions
A subscription is a design queue with a flat recurring fee. You add a request, a designer picks it up, you get it back in a day or two, and you can pause or cancel any month.
Honestly, for the right kind of work they're great. If your week is ten small things (a pitch deck refresh, three ad sizes, a new section on the pricing page), a subscription is the simplest and fastest way to get small, well-defined tasks done. No scoping calls, no proposal, no waiting for a slot.
Where it breaks is anything that needs one big thing to be right. A queue is built for tasks, not decisions. Nobody on the other side is asking whether the homepage should exist in its current form, or whether your positioning makes sense to a Series A investor. You get exactly what you asked for, which is a problem when what you asked for was wrong.
The other catch is that the person doing your work can change from request to request. That's fine for ad banners. It's painful for a product.
Traditional agencies
An agency sells a scoped project with a proper process: discovery workshops, research, strategy decks, a big reveal, a round of revisions, handoff.
That process is worth it in some situations. A full rebrand of a company with real customers, a big enterprise website with legal review and five stakeholders, a launch where the brand has to work across a hundred touchpoints. If you have a marketing team to run the relationship and a long runway, a good agency is a safe bet.
For most early-stage teams it's too slow and too heavy. Weeks of workshops before a single screen. An account manager between you and the people doing the work. And a fixed scope that was written before anyone knew what the hard part was going to be. By the time the reveal happens, your roadmap has moved twice.
Embedded design partners
This is what we are, so take this section with the right amount of salt.
An embedded partner is a small senior team that works like part of your company for a while. We sit in your Slack and talk to the founder directly. Nobody gets handed off to a junior after the sales call, and there's no account manager in between. It runs as a project (a website, a product redesign, a brand) or as a ongoing engagement when the work keeps coming.
The point isn't the Slack channel. It's that the same people who make the decisions do the work, so things move in days, not rounds. Drizz went from kickoff to a new website in 4 weeks and saw 3.6x more users after. Riveter, a YC company, went from kickoff to launch in 6.
When not to hire us, or anyone like us:
- You need lots of small, well-defined tasks. A subscription is a better fit.
- You want to hand over a brief and see the result in two months. That's an agency relationship.
- You don't have time to be involved. Embedded only works if someone on your side can make decisions quickly.
How to pick
Three questions. Answer them honestly and the choice usually makes itself.
- Is it one big thing or many small things? Many small things means a subscription. One big thing means an agency or a partner.
- How soon does it need to be live? Within two months rules out most agencies.
- Who's making the calls on your side? If a founder or product lead can give feedback the same day, embedded works. If decisions go through a committee, an agency's process will suit you better.
If you're still not sure, describe the project to two or three studios and see who asks better questions. The good ones push back on your brief before they quote it.
FAQ
Is a design subscription worth it for a startup?
Yes, if your work is a steady flow of small, well-defined tasks like ads, decks and page tweaks. No, if you need strategy, a new website or a product redesign, where one big thing has to be right.
What is an embedded design partner?
A small senior design team that works inside your company's tools and roadmap, talks to founders directly and owns decisions with you, instead of executing a fixed brief. It runs as a project or an ongoing engagement. Tell us what you’re building and we’ll shape it around that.
Can a studio outside the US work with a US startup?
Yes. Many of our clients are in the US. What matters is overlap in working hours and a direct line to the people doing the work, not where they sit. We're in Indore, India, and we're generally available until 1pm Pacific, so your whole US morning overlaps with our working day.
What's the difference between a subscription and a retainer?
A subscription gives you a queue of tasks you send in, one at a time, and you manage the priorities. A retainer gives you a dedicated team that plans the work with you against your roadmap.