A good design on a bad product or business probably won't help in the long run.
Conversely, a bad design on a good product can hinder a project in the long run.
Designers are an important part of the mix, but you'd be a fool to concentrate on design alone. In my own experience, we successfully bootstrapped a startup with no designer, winging it based on user feedback and our own intuition. But when we got funding, the first person we hired was a designer - and the popularity of the product rose accordingly.
Conversely, a bad design on a good product can hinder a project in the long run.
Designers are an important part of the mix, but you'd be a fool to concentrate on design alone. In my own experience, we successfully bootstrapped a startup with no designer, winging it based on user feedback and our own intuition. But when we got funding, the first person we hired was a designer - and the popularity of the product rose accordingly.