Founding UX/UI Designer Wanted – Equity Partner in Innovation SaaS (F&B Focus)
We’re building something that doesn’t exist yet: an Operating System for Innovation, starting with food & beverage. This isn’t another flat dashboard. It’s a platform that feels dynamic, intelligent, and alive — designed to guide teams through discovery, compliance, and creation.
Think Duolingo-style engagement → progress markers, clarity, interaction — but applied to the messy, high-stakes world of food and beverage R&D.
What we’re building:
• 🧩 Agents as modular guides (innovation as characters, not static charts)
• 🌍 Interfaces that feel intuitive and human, not overwhelming
• ⚡ A professional, disruptive experience that makes innovation easier, faster, and smarter
Where we are now:
• Bootstrapped, early, and moving fast
• Backend engineers are in place
• MVP launch at end of 2025 → full-scale launch March 2026
• Equity is on the table for the right design partner
Who we’re looking for:
• A UX/UI engineer or designer who wants to make their mark on the future of SaaS
• Someone driven more by vision and progress than just money
• A builder who believes work should feel inspiring and transformative, not just functional
This is a chance to shape the OS of innovation itself. If that excites you — let’s connect.
This is a bold vision. You should also share it on businesshunt.co to connect with the right partners and designers.
I just read the whole post - and didn’t see who this is for or what painful problem it actually solves.
Right now it feels like a backend-driven experiment, not a product. Who exactly is this for, and what problem are you solving that’s painful enough for them to pay? The post is full of tech and vision (agents, Duolingo vibes, backend done, UI partner needed), but not a word about users, workflows, or market validation.
If you’re serious about building an “OS for innovation,” the fastest way to save time and money is to pin down:
Otherwise you risk shipping a very elegant system that solves no one’s urgent problem.
Hi, I just joined IndieHacker based on Chat's recommendation. I need a backend dev to polish my current backend, ideally a technical co-founder. If I go on YC, they want 50/50 split which is unreasonable since I've already worked on this for almost 1 yr, put my own sweat equity in it including launching MVPs, SSO , trademark, etc... Any idea how to approach this problem. My ideal right now is a technical person to polish the back end and I keep on building front end, and then I can eventually transition to sales/marketing once the product is at the point that I trust to sell to people.
I'm wearing way too many hats and just wanna have someone better than me work on the 'harder' tech stuff so I can focus on the 'easier' tech stuff.
I'm building something in mental health.
Thanks!
Your current framing is off. What you need isn’t another backend co-founder to “polish” code — it’s clarity on what’s actually blocking progress.
If your backend works well enough for MVPs, then engineering isn’t the bottleneck — traction is. Right now you’d get far more leverage by:
Paying a senior contractor short-term to stabilize what’s critical
Doing focused validation and GTM work to prove there’s demand
If you bring in a technical partner, structuring vesting and milestones rather than flat equity splits
Recruiting a backend co-founder before real user pull usually leads to misalignment and dead weight. Get to real users first, then scale tech.
Thanks. How do I get over the hump it's not good enough to show case and move ahead with hard core sales? People will be putting their hard work/intimate thoughts into the app, I don't want things to break and they lose their work.
Everything is coded up. It's already in app stores, but I'm not a dev, I just taught myself enough to code everything up. I guess having an experienced dev give a nice stamp of approval would be nice too, especially with the architecting so I'm like ok maybe I can go ahead and scale.
There are already other apps with many downloads so I'm sure the demand is there, just have to convert those customers to my platform. I have plenty ideas on how to convert, but I don't want to convert people to a poorly built product.
I don't feel like I have to prove demand if the demand already exists for similar products. I just have to prove my ability to convert.
Love the focus on design first. Are you already working with any developer, or is this still open for a tech collaborator?
Quick update: We’re still looking for a Founding UX/UI Designer to join Innovation OS. Backend is in place, MVP is moving fast, and equity (3–4%) is on the table for the right design partner.
This isn’t a freelance gig — it’s a founding role with ownership, shaping how the entire platform looks/feels as we move toward MVP (late 2025) and launch (mid 2026).
If you’re a designer who wants real product ownership and equity upside, DM me — let’s talk.
message me and let talk about your project
Hey @designzine369! Feel free to email me at pauldon26[at]gmail[dot]com
Hey I'm a designer. Where can I contact you?
Instead of searching for a partner, you could also hire a dedicated UI/UX designer with the right experience to bring your vision to life. Having an expert on board ensures your platform reflects the engagement and innovation you’re aiming for.
👉 To explore how this could help, feel free to connect with us here: https://www.softwebsolutions.com/contactus.html
You know your market very well and when you said Innovation OS, i got super excited. Pls share your email would love to chat. You can find me on X @Mayankshahh
Hey @mynsa109610! My email address is is pauldon26[at]gmail[dot]com. Looking forward to connecting!
Hi timothy,
I am writing to express my interest in the UX/UI Visionary role to shape the future of your Innovation OS, as detailed in your post.
The prospect of architecting a user experience for a platform that is "dynamic, intelligent, and alive" is a compelling challenge. My design philosophy is deeply aligned with your goals: to reduce overwhelm through intuitive interfaces and to guide users through complex processes with clarity and engagement. Your comparison to Duolingo's model is particularly apt, and I have experience in designing for progressive disclosure and user motivation.
My background in build engaging user flows, has equipped me with the skills necessary to contribute from the earliest MVP stages through to a full-scale launch. I am seeking a visionary partnership where I can have a significant impact, and the equity-based model you describe is precisely what I am looking for.
I am confident that I possess the vision, skills, and drive to be your design partner. I have attached my portfolio for your review and would welcome the opportunity for a discussion at your earliest convenience.
Best regards,
David....
Hey @davidmine! I would love to connect and share more! Please email me at pauldon26[at]gmail[dot]com.
@Moshael Appreciate the feedback. Here’s the high-level clarity:
•Who it’s for: early-stage food & beverage founders who’ve got a kitchen-counter recipe and want to scale into $5M+ in revenue.
•The pain today:
• ~30,000 new CPG products launch each year, but ~70% fail in the first 2 years
• In food specifically, ~90% of new products fail on shelf
• Only ~20% of new U.S. businesses make it past year one; ~50% don’t make it to year five
• I work as a fractional R&D/innovation lead with these founders right now — and I see the same chaos: spreadsheets, consultants, regulatory uncertainty, and slow, expensive trial-and-error.
Why InnovationOS is 100× better:
• Integration: instead of 5–6 disconnected tools, everything from formulation → compliance → suppliers → trends lives in one flow.
• Proactivity: the system doesn’t wait for you to ask — it suggests your next 3 moves toward revenue milestones.
• Decision-ready intelligence: founders see, in real time, how their SKUs are performing, where competitors are moving, and what needs to change to stay on track to $5M+.
• Accessibility: what used to cost $50K+ in consultants and months of trial/error is reduced to a guided, intuitive experience.
This isn’t another elegant dashboard. It’s a co-pilot for scaling CPG brands.
Hey, leaving a thought here, I feel like you know the market yes. The hustle and bustle of it but i dont think just because AI can do many things it can include the R&D for a consumer good for you. That alone is a huge thing to tackle. To help CPG brands to develop products. Like what are you planning? wrapping CGPT in your app and brands are going to ask for a new innovative product and CGPT wrapper is going to respond? Whats on your mind about the technical side of things.
Here are some questions, that i hope would be thought provoking for your analysis.
2.Have you presented your idea to your target users if so whats their reaction?
3Do you have good grasp of whats around the market not just someone who worked at a specific area?
4.Who are your competitors and what do they do and offer?
For me try to focus more on the formulation before you can move on and extend the range of your product. Validate if people needs/wants it for their business. Youre trying to solve everything that goes to thinking,experimenting and launching. And if your solutions would revolve AI wrappers i dont think it would make the cut for this.
@reminiscedfuture Appreciate the questions.
To be clear: this is not a chatbot or wrapper experiment. It’s a larger modular agentic workflow OS for innovation, starting with food & beverage. It’s built from real commercialization cycles, not theory.
Target Users: I work directly with 3–5 small CPG companies at a time as a fractional head of innovation/commercialization. I’m inside their day-to-day, solving the exact problems this system automates — formulation bottlenecks, sourcing, timing, compliance, delivery. In practice, I am the target user at every company I serve. That’s the advantage: this is for innovation, by innovation.
Validation: My current clients have already seen the conceptualized MVP and are lined up as the first test group. Investors are engaged around the longer-arching vision of a modular agentic workflow OS. The horizontal architecture (connecting trends, compliance, formulation, and sourcing ) is exactly what competitors have failed to build.
Market Knowledge: I’ve architected commercialization and innovation pipelines multiple times over 14+ years in CPG. That includes sourcing, regulatory navigation, timing, and scaling. I know where the bottlenecks are because I’ve solved them repeatedly in the field.
Competitors: I’ve reviewed key players in detail. They’ve often pitched systems to me to which I find them to be essentially useless for a founding CPG company. Most were engineered top-down without Innovation and company DNA so they just are another dashboard. We have clear differentiation and a roadmap to building more. They are following on socials.
My back end team came in skeptical too; once they saw the wireframes, flow stacks, and architecture, they committed fully.
This isn’t speculative, it’s already in build with real operators in the wings and investors aligned to the broader vision. We just need to get the UX right which is why I’m looking for just the right creative.
Thats nice to know. It seem you know your market well so i feel confident that you know what your target users need. Well im not in the same space so i may not be the one youre looking for but i hope you find success on this one and goodluck to you brother.
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