OBSS Ventures

Role and ownership

I led design on this account and built it: information architecture, UX and UI, interaction design, page implementation and visual content editing.

It went from the first structure to a live, published site in one pair of hands, and kept being revised as the positioning, requirements and content changed.

Decisions, and what we set aside

Building in Framer was a deliberate choice: it removed the developer dependency, so publishing and iteration stayed with design rather than waiting on a release.

The site went through two substantial design-and-build cycles: effectively two major versions of the same product.

What was delivered

• Information architecture
• UX & UI design
• Framer build
• Publishing and iteration

Production delivery

Live Framer site

Design & build cycles

2 major versions

Engineering dependency

None

Counts describe the scope of the work, not its results.

Where it stands

The site is live, and I kept iterating it as the positioning and the content evolved.

The work 8 views

1. 01
   Home page

   What this fund is, before what it owns

   Putting the fund ahead of the portfolio was a deliberate call, not the order a portfolio site usually takes: what does this one back, and how does it decide, before a single company is named.

2. 02
   Portfolio grid

   A portfolio designed for exploration

   A list was on the table and the grid won: loose enough to scan, firm enough to remember, the ecosystem first, then the company, then its story.

3. 03
   Investment criteria

   The criteria, in the open

   Publishing the criteria drew an objection, and openness was chosen over it. The evaluation is written down rather than described: the principles first, then what each is measured against. A founder can tell before applying whether they fit.

4. 04
   Venture pages

   The newest one leads

   The order is a decision, not a date field: the most recent venture takes the front. Each one then gets a page that argues for itself: the narrative first, the images in support of it, and one clear thing to do at the end.

5. 05
   Venture detail

   Where the grid opens up

   This is the reference point OBSS works from itself: where an investment is found and kept track of, not only shown to a visitor. The grid carries a name and a promise; the page carries the rest: what the company does, why it was backed, where it sits among the others.

6. 06
   Investment thesis

   A thesis that can be argued with

   Stating it plainly enough to be argued with was the fund owner's own call: how technology is judged, how an opportunity is tested, how risk is taken. A thesis nobody can dispute is not one.

7. 07
   On a phone

   The grid, one column deep

   Holding the order on a narrow screen took work, and it was worth the work: the claim, then the portfolio, then the company. Only the columns go.

8. 08
   Reading on a phone

   Long reading, on a small screen

   The criteria and the venture stories are the longest things here, and the likeliest to be read on a phone between meetings. Both levers were pulled: the text was shortened, and the order it arrives in was re-cut.