[dasil003]

That's a superficial and overly narrow view of design. Design is more than graphic design or interior design. Fundamentally it's the creation of human experiences. Everything that humans build is designed. A designer is someone who specializes in considering how such a creation will interact with the users and world in the task for which it is designed.

In this regard a great designer is more qualified than a developer to create the vision for a startup. The developer's advantage is execution. Why programmers start companies is because they can create a product and launch it even if it looks like shit, and the problem it solves is pointless, and the marketing repels people, they can at least ship a product. A designer by contrast needs to have a technical co-founder or be well-funded.