Mark Vassilevskiy
Mark Vassilevskiy, Founder of Skale

Startups often struggle to translate their ideas into brands that attract users. Without strong design, even promising products can fade into the background of a crowded market, limiting their ability to gain greater funding and user traction.

At nineteen, Mark Vassilevskiy set out to change that. From his home in Kazakhstan, he launched Skale, a design agency dedicated to helping startups transform ideas into successful brands. The company has been widely adopted across Silicon Valley startups, giving companies the visual presence they need to stand out, connect with users, and gain the attention of investors.

The Co-Founder's Early Realisation and Launching of Skale

Mark's entry into design came when he discovered Figma at fourteen years old. Developing a knack for this field, he freelanced for years, gradually shifting from programming to full-time design work as demand for his skills grew.

Mark Vassilevskiy

What started as individual projects soon revealed a bigger opportunity: startups everywhere, early-stage ones in particular, struggled to present their products to the market. Many have big ideas but don't have the in-house design talent to turn those ideas into brand strategies that draw the attention of users or investors. And since poor design can make a company look unprofessional, many startups would have a hard time securing large funding or standing out among more formal-looking companies already established in the market.

In November 2024, Mark co-founded Skale to change that. The agency was built to give startups the kind of design support that could better shape and influence their presence.

Skale produces everything from websites and branding to launch videos and pitch decks, providing founders with the visual tools they need to attract users and secure funding. Each project begins with understanding a startup's story and then translating it into a coherent brand presence. By handling website design, motion graphics, and marketing assets all in one place, Skale ensures that startups present themselves consistently and with confidence across every platform.

Reaching An $80K Valuation

From the start, Mark approached Skale with the speed and focus of a startup founder. With his co-founder, Abu, managing production, he dedicated his time to building the agency's reputation. That focus paid off quickly. Within eight months, Skale had reached $80,000 (approximately £59,146) in monthly recurring revenue and assembled a team of designers serving startups across Silicon Valley and beyond.

High-profile projects followed in rapid succession. The agency designed Times Square billboards for AI code platform Bolt's record-breaking hackathon, created launch assets for companies backed by accelerators like Y Combinator, and delivered branding for clients like Contra, ClickUp, and Whop. Each project expanded Skale's footprint and strengthened its position as a reliable partner for early-stage startups.

The team's growth was as deliberate as its client work. By hiring top design talent and keeping operations tightly run, Mark was able to focus even more on building deeper and more consistent relationships with other companies in the space to continue growing the business' reputation.

'We had clients who closed funding rounds just with the website and pitch deck we designed for them,' he recalls, underscoring just how fast Skale turned a solo freelancing career into a full-fledged agency.

How Mark Promoted Skale

Mark's path to building a global audience for Skale came out of his ability to take personal challenges and turn them into public opportunities. After being rejected by companies he admired, he started redesigning their websites and sharing the results on X, using humour and transparency to spark conversations. Those posts went viral and brought even greater visibility to the startups featured, some of which later became Skale clients.

He expanded the approach with launch videos and motion graphics that helped startups secure funding rounds and attract new batches of users, proving that design could be a growth driver rather than just a finishing touch. At the same time, he published design guides and thought-leadership threads that drew thousands of founders and designers to his profile, eventually reaching more than 25 million views and earning a spot among the top twenty designers on X.

His influence went well beyond client work. Through his work, Mark inspired designers to start agencies or pursue freelancing opportunities of their own. 'I get tens of DMs daily from designers who signed their first clients after following my advice,' he says, reflecting how his content turned into a real-life inspiration for many.

By combining hands-on projects with public storytelling, Mark was able to position himself as an important and rising voice in UI/UX design with a global audience watching.

The Evolving Role of Design in Startups

Mark Vassilevskiy sees Skale evolving beyond client services into long-term partnerships with startups. Inspired by an agency like MetaLab, which took equity stakes in companies such as Uber and PayPal, he plans to adopt a similar model: aligning Skale's success with the growth of the startups it supports.

At the same time, he aims to raise design standards in tech companies, giving early-stage startups access to world-class branding and product design from the start. As artificial intelligence automates entry-level design tasks, Mark believes that if companies want to succeed, they'll have to continue refining their narratives to speak even more directly to the needs of their users, and Skale aims to help them through that process.

The vision for Skale is ambitious: grow to $10 million (£7.3 million) in annual recurring revenue within three years and become a go-to partner for startups worldwide.

'We want to be the design partner for startups, helping them grow while shaping what tech design will look like in the near future,' Mark says, outlining a path that uses creativity to drive deeper and more lasting business impact.