The skills are critical for any front-end designer, not just the ones in startups. Companies that embrace skilled designers as their culture compete much better than others.
One of the topics I cover the most there is the difference between startups and agencies/freelancing.
While startups tend to look at results (the ones that survive), agencies tend to look at the customer, at least most of them.
I actually believe that most designers coming from an agency would be eaten alive in a startup, along with their "photoshop skills". This people don't even know what UX means, never conducted a usability test (usability = I look at the website and say what I think), and definitely don't read HN.
Hi, there are no Amazon Associate links: the only one Amazon Associate link I can think about is with Flanagan's book, and Mr. Flanagan is the associate, not me. I just thought removing it wouldn't have been polite.
Should be critical, yes. But if you know the market, you know that things like usability or ux are used 90% of times as buzzwords from sellers. I'm afraid I can't disclose some of my experiences with top design agencies in both the US and Italy, but trust me, I've got a truckload of horror stories :)