Athena X Roundtable with Phil Hedayatnea (Airfoil)

“Design isn’t about making things pretty—it’s about making sure you build the right thing before spending money building the wrong one.”

Guest Bio

Phil Hedayatnea is the Co-founder of Airfoil, a top-tier crypto design agency based in San Francisco. Since 2019, Airfoil has worked with 400+ teams across tech, with fingerprints on over 80% of the Solana ecosystem, including Solana Labs, Jupiter, and Uniswap. Phil’s background spans cognitive science, startups, product management, and agency building—bringing a first-principles, research-driven approach to design in Web3.

Key Takeaways

• Design can be the cheapest and most effective growth channel for founders
• Early research prevents wasted engineering and marketing spend
• Value propositions matter more than funnel optimization
• Healthy critique culture is essential for scaling creative teams
• AI accelerates creativity but doesn’t replace human judgment

This is the Athena X Roundtable. Strictly educational. Not financial advice.

Introduction

Design in crypto is often misunderstood as “making things look nice.”

In reality, design—when done properly—can be the cheapest growth channel a founder has.

In this Athena X Roundtable, Phil Hedayatnea breaks down why research-led design prevents wasted engineering, reduces marketing burn, and creates organic adoption, how Airfoil scaled from 10 clients to 400+, and how AI is reshaping creative workflows without replacing human creativity.

Design Before Engineering (and Marketing)

Phil’s core belief is simple:

Design helps founders build the right thing before spending money building the wrong thing.

Instead of rushing into engineering or paid marketing, Phil emphasizes:

• Talking directly to customers
• Validating that the problem is a real pain point
• Testing whether the company mission actually resonates

This upfront work helps founders avoid expensive mistakes later.

Why Airfoil Is Different From Typical Crypto Design Agencies

Airfoil doesn’t operate like a traditional agency.

Phil explains that many agencies are spread too thin, prioritizing speed over understanding. Airfoil does the opposite:

• Works on very few projects at a time
• Builds day-to-day relationships with founders
• Treats design as a collaborative process, not a delivery pipeline

The result is deeper customer insight that feeds directly into copy, branding, product decisions, and positioning.

Common Design Mistake That Kills Conversions

One mistake shows up again and again:

Founders optimize funnels before validating why users care.

Early-stage teams often obsess over UX tweaks and conversion rates, but Phil points out that:

• If the value proposition doesn’t resonate, no funnel optimization will fix it
• Founders focus too much on what the product does instead of why users care

Users don’t want “a safer wallet.”

They want to feel safe online.

They don’t want “a remittance app.”

They want to support their family.

Q\&A Highlights

Q1: Why did you start a design agency instead of another startup?

Phil:

“I couldn’t build a product unless I had 100% conviction it should exist.”

Airfoil started as helping friends, then grew organically as demand exceeded capacity. Over time, the motivation shifted from projects to building a creative environment where people can build long-term careers.

Q2: When did you realize Airfoil had real traction?

Phil:

After the first 10 clients, referrals started coming in consistently.

Demand exceeded supply, even when the team was only four people.

Q3: What does a bad day look like as an agency founder?

Phil:

Early days were about finding clients at all costs.

Later, the hardest moments were toxic clients mistreating the team—including one case where an employee resigned due to a client’s behavior.

That experience led Airfoil to screen clients more aggressively and prioritize mutual respect.

Q4: How do you approach hiring in a global, remote team?

Phil:

Ability alone isn’t enough.

Airfoil learned that communication styles differ by culture, and without clear norms, misunderstandings happen.

They now define expectations explicitly:

• No “compliment sandwich”
• 80–90% critique in design reviews
• Feedback must be factual, never personal

Critique is framed as respect for the craft, not criticism of the person.

Q5: Why is design the “cheapest growth channel”?

Phil:

“It’s about building the right thing and telling the story properly.”

Good design:

• Prevents wasted engineering spend
• Reduces paid marketing dependency
• Turns early users into organic advocates

Phil points to Jupiter as an example—where narrative, branding, and community vibe outperformed any paid campaign.

AI in Design: Tool, Not Replacement

Phil sees AI as a force multiplier, not a threat.

Airfoil uses AI to:

• Generate low-fidelity illustration concepts quickly
• Accelerate research and sentiment analysis
• Surface insights that would take days manually

One example involved using AI to analyze social commentary across the internet—revealing that users trusted a protocol primarily because founders were highly responsive on Reddit, directly shaping the brand strategy.

AI helps teams think faster, not think for them.

One-Week Sprint: What Actually Moves the Needle?

If you only have one week:

• Fix your landing page
• Clarify why the product matters
• Explain how it improves users’ lives

If the top of the funnel is broken, no downstream optimization will save it.

Many crypto products skip landing pages entirely—forcing users straight into apps without context. That’s a mistake.

What’s Next for Airfoil

Looking ahead, Airfoil plans to:

• Expand into physical products and merchandise
• Collaborate with artists across Southeast Asia
• Build cultural artifacts—not just software
• Invest more deeply in design communities in Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, and beyond

For Phil, growth isn’t just revenue—it’s creating opportunities for creatives to do meaningful work.