How to Hire a Great Web Designer, With Y Combinator's Garry Tan

If you've noticed that most designers are either not good, or flaky, chances are the problem is you and not the designers.

Topics to avoid: How engineers contribute to the valuation of a company but everyone else detracts, how great 99 designs is, how HTML/CSS is "for people who can't program," and my favorite: How easy design is, and how you're only hiring because you don't personally have time for it.

When you say stuff like this, it's not really professional for us to get loud and try to correct you. It's also not really professional for us to slowly back away, and then run full speed as soon as you turn your head. But that's what we end up doing.

I think that shows that not everybody practices what they preach, and a lot of startups still consider design like a secondary expense, and not like a major differentiator that needs sufficient funding.

> Mashable: When you come across a web designer with a trendy-looking portfolio and a slew of social media profiles, does that send certain signals to you? If so, are those signals mostly positive, negative or neutral?

> Tan: I focus on the portfolio and the work they’ve done. Most everything else related to how much they use social media is not really an indicator.

I find this ironic I guess, they're completely disproving the entire premise of their blog.