Design and a brand new startup

The most surprising thing when becoming a founder? Watching her company’s culture develop.

“The best part of trying to become an entrepreneur is really understanding that you have to have the passion to get up every day and try to move forward,” said a local, newly-minted entrepreneur.

Adriana Avakian is founder and CEO of TheIncLab, a research and development firm assisting the national security industry.

TheIncLab focuses on interaction design, the innovation of human-machine interfaces and interaction.

“[We] put people at the center of design. So, reframing problems into human problems,” Avakian told What’s Working in Washington.

“Business used to think about business problems as ‘Oh, I need to raise my top line 10 percent,’ as opposed to ‘I need to satisfy my customers’. That’s a good way to reframe problems in design thinking terms,” she said.

The most surprising thing when becoming a founder? Watching her company’s culture develop.

“The founder is going to cultivate that culture. It’s going to be in the image of who you are,” she said. If a founder projects hard work, drive and innovation, the company will reflect that.

Also important was learning how to fund a startup. “The best way to fund your company is bootstrapping. Put your heart, put your savings into it, don’t rush to raise capital,” she said.

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