Innovation Endeavors

Helping an early stage venture firm improve their online presence.

Opportunity

Innovation Endeavors (IE) tasked us with creating a website that truly represents their firm. They granted us full creative freedom in bringing their site to life.

IE is a well-known player in Silicon Valley. Although smaller compared to other VC firms, they possess nimbleness, strategic thinking, and a holistic approach. The impact they make through their investments and partnerships is immense. Many VC firms talk about investing in companies that aim to change the world. IE is actively achieving that mission.

Approach

The initial step in advancing our project was to gain a comprehensive understanding of Innovation Endeavors. This involved engaging with all stakeholders and conducting a discovery sprint.

Our discovery sprints serve to align us and our clients in establishing project goals and understanding the client's business, values, and challenges. At the conclusion of the sprint with Innovation Endeavors, we had a clear consensus on our objectives for the website in terms of aesthetics, target audience, messaging, and workflow.

Once we felt confident in comprehending the goals and, most importantly, the values of Innovation Endeavors, we hit the ground running.

Design

For this project, our goal was to create a website design that exudes a light and dynamic feel, breaking away from the typical grids and rigid structures often seen on many other VC firm websites. These design trends can make them appear static, rigid, and impersonal. We aimed to introduce motion, compositions that added depth, and infuse the site with personality.

IE's brand embodies ambition, a forward-looking perspective, and a commitment to partnering with brilliant founders and companies dedicated to changing the world for the better. This approach sets IE apart from other VC firms. Our intention was to introduce our client to the public and, most importantly, help visitors understand the meaning of the "The Super Evolution" philosophy. This provided a unique opportunity to make 'The Super Evolution' the central focus of the website.

For the visual styling of the website, our aim was to feature imagery that is striking, abstract, and captivating. Given Innovation Endeavors' extensive portfolio of invested companies, it was crucial to provide IE with the ability to source their own photography independently. Many of the companies they invest in are early-stage startups, meaning they often lack an established brand and high-quality assets.

We also sought to infuse some personality into IE's website. IE is well-known for its event, Curiosity Camp, which has garnered significant attention. Many people express interest in attending this event. Since Curiosity Camp is an integral part of IE's identity, we decided to incorporate an "easter egg" for the most curious visitors to the site. The event's mascot, a piñata, served as the hiding place for this easter egg.

Newsletter Design

After updating Innovation Endeavors' website, they requested that we also overhaul their newsletter. Their current newsletter is developed and hosted in Mailchimp. Our objective for the newsletter was to make it feel similar to the website. However, Mailchimp inherently has a rigid structure, as it employs modular components that stack on top of each other to create a newsletter.

To introduce more flexibility and diversity, we created a Figma file to serve as a template for IE. By educating them on how to use Figma, we were able to provide them with increased flexibility in using different assets in the newsletter.

Results

By gaining a clear understanding of the goals for the Innovation Endeavors website from all stakeholders, Underbelly was able to swiftly translate their needs and objectives into a concise and well-defined roadmap for the required content and design direction.

At the conclusion of the project, Innovation Endeavors was so impressed with the work we delivered and our professional approach that they entrusted us with designing and producing their welcome kit for new companies joining their portfolio. We will soon add a case study to showcase the final product images of the Innovation Endeavors Welcome Kit. Make sure to check back soon.

Underbelly did a fabulous job with our new website and was the most organized, prompt, and efficient creative team I’ve ever worked with. We had a stunning completed product in record time. What more can you ask for?
Innovation Endeavors
Head of Marketing

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