Jérémie Knops | Design Partner for SaaS

Project work with @rainboow last months

Most startups don't have a design problem. They have an organization problem. New features shipping constantly. Figma files no one maintains. A design system that exists only on paper. A CEO still approving every screen. That's not a talent issue. That's a structure issue.

Most designers wait to feel ready. Ready to charge more. Ready to hire. Ready to call themselves an agency. Readiness doesn't come first. The decision does.

I was almost out of money. No clients. No pipeline. No idea what to do next. I spent my last euros on a coach. Everyone thought it was stupid. Burn your last cash on someone talking to you? It was the best investment I ever made. Not because he gave me a magic system. Because he showed me I was solving the wrong problem. I was obsessed with getting better at design. The real problem was nobody knew I existed. Visibility first. Skills second. I had it completely backwards.

Need a high-converting website? We're open for projects 👇 rainboow.fr

A Rainboow project For Qualintra, the enterprise data analysis site we all know.

My bro and cofounder will become our mascot 😂 @Valaexx

Started with a landing page. Then a full site. Then a full rebrand as the company grew. One good project leads to the next. Deliver work worth coming back for. The rest takes care of itself.

I don't have it all figured out. 14 years in design. Agency still finding its footing. But I'm writing it all down here the mistakes, the shifts, the things that actually work. Follow if you're building something too.

Comparison almost broke me. Months of outreach. Minimal results. Someone else launches and grows in weeks. You know it's irrational. You do it anyway. The only thing that helped: I stopped measuring my chapter 3 against someone else's chapter 10. You don't know their runway. Their connections. Their failures before this win. Run your race.

Everyone says sacrifice everything to build. Nobody mentions that your marriage is also something you're building.

Most design business stay small because they present themselves small. Same work. Same quality. Same results. Different positioning = different clients = different price. Perception isn't vanity. It's strategy.

@CelianFrey1600 Already!? Damn, time flies. Congrats on how far you’ve come.

Today, I’m celebrating the 5 year anniversary of 1600.agency. For me, it represents : - Hundreds of sleepless nights. - 120 hour work weeks. - Stress. Doubts. Constant questioning. But today, I’m incredibly proud of what it has become : - More than 15 team members across France, the US and Israel. - Millions of euros in videos sold. - Clients like Slack, Airtable, Submagic… Crazy to think I started this at my parents’ house at 16 years old with €0 in my bank account. Today, I’m really proud of how far we’ve come. And trust me, this is only the beginning❤️🙌

€200k/year as a freelancer. Working 9am to 2am every day. That's not a business. That's a job you can't quit.

I've burned out multiple times building this. The worst part isn't the exhaustion. It's posting for months with no results, watching someone else launch and blow up in 6 weeks, then having to keep building anyway like it didn't affect you. But it does. Nobody talks about the emotional cost of building a business in public while pretending you're fine.

Visibility is the only thing that can't be delegated at the beginning. Not the design. Not the delivery. Not the admin. Your face. Your story. Your presence. That part has to be you.

I tried to launch an agency the wrong way. Here's what nobody tells you about going from freelancer to agency owner: 🧵 1/ The work is the same. The game is completely different. As a freelancer, your job is to execute. As an agency owner, your job is to build a machine that executes without you. 2/ I kept doing the work. For too long. Every hour I spent designing was an hour I didn't spend selling, hiring, or building systems. That's why we stayed small. 3/ The real shift isn't operational. It's identity. You can't manage a team while still thinking like a solo operator. The decisions are different. The priorities are different. The mindset is completely different. 4/ Americans understand this instinctively. They change who they are before they change what they do. Most Europeans (myself included) do it backwards. 5/ The day it clicked for me: I started asking "what would a €2M agency do here?" Not because I was at €2M. Because that question forced better decisions. The identity comes first. The revenue follows.

@RaphaelAuriac Quel bonheur ça doit être de passer par l'IA au lieu de se taper l'inté des tableaux 😅 Je me souviens que c'était les stagiaires qui se l'a tapait, car aucun inté voulait la faire ahah

Tranquillement en train de vibecode ma newsletter, je commence à capter

The most dangerous lie in the design industry: "Get good enough and clients will find you." I was technically excellent for years. Won projects. Lost projects. Barely grew. Then I learned to sell. Revenue doubled in 12 months. Not because I got better at design. Because I stopped hiding behind it.

Freelance designer for 14 years. Now building an agency. Turns out they have almost nothing in common. Writing about what nobody tells you when you make that jump.