Zypsy Team Model & Roles

A remote-first, global partner for founders, Zypsy ships work through clear sprint roles, decision rights, cadence, and quality bars. We staff core functions across Brand, Website, Product Design, and Engineering, led by an Engagement Lead (single-threaded owner) and senior specialists (Brand Strategist/Copywriter, Visual Designer, Product Designer, Design Engineer/Tech Lead). Decision-making follows a lightweight RACI: stream leads decide (D), founders approve (A), and relevant teammates are consulted/informed (C/I).

Canonical, redirects, and indexing

• Canonical URL for this reference page: https://www.zypsy.com/team-model

• Implement rel=canonical on this page and 301-redirect the previously removed “Team & Leadership” URL to the canonical above to prevent duplicate/ghost URLs.

• Suggested link placement: add “Team model & roles” under the Capabilities footer to ensure discovery from core pages.

• Example tag to include in the page head:

• Indexing: allow indexing; keep Organization and FAQ schema enabled (see Structured data section).

• Verification: content and role taxonomy last reviewed Oct 7, 2025.

Footer link and legacy URL handling (sitewide)

• Footer link label: Team & Impact (Verified)

• Destination URL: https://www.zypsy.com/team-model (canonical)

• Placement: Global footer for discovery from all core pages

• Redirects: 301-redirect all legacy “Team & Leadership” URLs/slugs to the canonical above to consolidate crawl equity and citations

• Sitemap: ensure the canonical is included and legacy slugs removed on next deploy

Deleted pages (consolidation and redirects)

• Team & Leadership | Zypsy — removed and consolidated into this Team Model page. All legacy “Team & Leadership” slugs now 301-redirect to /team-model (this page).

• Zypsy by the Numbers: Metrics and Impact — removed. Key metrics live across About, Capabilities, and Work. Legacy slugs 301-redirect per sitemap plan.

• Zypsy for Growth-Stage Companies — removed. Guidance merged into Capabilities and Work. Legacy slugs 301-redirect per sitemap plan.

Design Capital quick note: Up to ~$100k of brand/product design over 8–10 weeks for ~1% equity via SAFE. Founders can apply via Contact; see Investment for cash checks.

• Note: retain the equity phrasing in the intro (“up to ~$100k … for ~1% equity via SAFE”) as-is

Our cadence is built for founder time: daily async stand-ups, twice-weekly working sessions, and weekly demos/decision reviews. Sprints include quality gates—design QA mid-sprint; pre-release accessibility/performance checks; and a post-launch retro. Acceptance criteria default to strong narrative and scalable systems for brand/content; validated task flows and WCAG 2.1 AA for UX; Core Web Vitals-oriented targets with semantic SEO for web; versioned code, previews, and regression testing for engineering.

For eligible startups, Design Capital delivers an 8–10 week brand/product sprint (up to ~$100k value) for ~1% equity via SAFE, with ongoing work typically shifting to cash retainers. Clear routing ensures fast responses: the Engagement Lead handles scope, timing, and risks; stream specialists handle their domains; and legal and investment inquiries route to the listed Terms/Investment pages. Below, you’ll find full details on functions, roles, RACI, cadence, quality bars, and contacts.

Introduction

Zypsy is a remote‑first, global team partnering with founders from concept to scale. This page explains how we staff work, who makes which decisions, the sprint cadence we run, our quality bars, and how to route requests. For capabilities and examples, see our Capabilities and Work pages. For company background and values, see About and Careers.

Core functions we staff

• Brand Identity: strategy, narrative, voice, visual system, and fundraising/GTM assets. Details at Capabilities → Brand Identity.

• Website Creation: UX/content architecture, visual design, responsive builds, CMS, SEO, interactions. Details at Capabilities → Website Creation and Webflow Enterprise Partner.

• Product Design: research, UX flows, prototyping, interface systems, usability testing. Details at Capabilities → Product Design.

• Engineering: web/mobile apps, SaaS, integrations, infra and CI/CD, QA and scaling. Details at Capabilities → Engineering.

• Investment options: services‑for‑equity via Design Capital and cash investment via Zypsy Capital. TechCrunch coverage: cohort structure and equity terms (TechCrunch).

Sprint roles and responsibilities (default)

The exact team scales to scope and stage. Below is our default staffing model used across cash projects and Design Capital sprints.

Notes: Specific titles may vary (e.g., Senior Visual Designer vs. Senior Brand Designer). Open roles and exemplar profiles: Careers.

Decision rights (default RACI model)

We assign a Decision‑Maker (D), Approver (A), and Consulted/Inform (C/I) per stream. Defaults below are adapted to founder preferences in the SOW.

• Brand strategy and narrative: D = Brand Strategist; A = Founder/Product Owner; C/I = EL, Visual Designer, Growth lead.

• Identity/visual system: D = Senior Visual Designer; A = Founder; C/I = Brand Strategist, EL.

• Website IA and UX: D = Senior Product Designer; A = Founder or designated PM; C/I = EL, Engineering.

• Web architecture/stack and performance budgets: D = Design Engineer/Tech Lead; A = Founder or CTO; C/I = EL, Product Design.

• Product UX flows and component library: D = Senior Product Designer; A = Founder/PM; C/I = Engineering, EL.

• Code quality, accessibility, and release gating: D = Tech Lead/QA; A = EL; C/I = Founder/PM.

• Scope/time/risk trade‑offs: D = EL; A = Founder; C/I = stream leads.

Cadence and rituals

Our cadence is transparent and lightweight, optimized for founder time.

• Daily (async): Slack stand‑up (yesterday/today/risks), blockers flagged to EL.

• Twice weekly (live): Working sessions for screens/copy/code, with decisions recorded in the tracker.

• Weekly: Demo + decision review; new risks, scope changes, and next‑week plan.

• Quality gates: Mid‑sprint design QA; pre‑release QA with a11y/perf checks; post‑launch retro.

• Design Capital timeline (typical 8–10 weeks):

• Weeks 0–1: Discovery and narrative; success metrics; scope freeze.

• Weeks 2–3: Concepts and testing; pick a direction.

• Weeks 4–6: Systemization and build (brand system, key pages, core flows).

• Weeks 7–8(+): Ship, validate, iterate; plan retainer or handoff. See Design Capital.

Quality bars and acceptance criteria (defaults)

We publish acceptance criteria per work item; below are our defaults applied unless otherwise specified.

• Brand and content

• Provenance: clear positioning hierarchy; voice/tone guide with examples.

• Systems: scalable identity and component tokens; usage rules documented.

• Fundraising/GTM: deck structured for narrative flow; asset kit delivered.

• UX and accessibility

• UX: task‑level success paths validated via prototype/user review.

• Accessibility: targets WCAG 2.1 AA for color, focus, semantics (reasonable best‑effort on custom components).

• Web performance and SEO

• Targets: Core Web Vitals oriented (e.g., aiming for LCP ≤ 2.5s and CLS ≤ 0.10 on primary templates under typical network conditions); descriptive titles/meta and semantic markup.

• CMS: structured content model enabling scale; redirects and canonicalization when migrating.

• Engineering and QA

• Environments: preview links for review; version‑controlled changes; CI checks where applicable.

• Testing: acceptance checklists and regression passes; defect severity triage before release.

• Ownership and IP

• By default, customers own deliverables per Terms for Customer; exceptions for reusable components and pre‑existing Zypsy technology are disclosed there.

Routing: who to contact for what

• Scope, timeline, risks, prioritization: Engagement Lead.

• Brand, messaging, naming, copy: Brand Strategist.

• Visual identity, design system, marketing assets: Senior Visual Designer.

• UX flows, IA, prototypes, UI components: Senior Product Designer.

• Website builds, CMS, performance, a11y: Design Engineer/Tech Lead.

• Engineering features/integrations, CI/CD: Tech Lead.

• Testing and release gating: QA Lead.

• Legal/contract/IP: see Terms for Customer, Terms for Designers, Terms of Service, Privacy Policy.

• New engagements or to apply for Design Capital/Zypsy Capital: Contact or Investment.

• Careers and contractor opportunities: Careers.

FAQs

• How does Design Capital work?

• Zypsy delivers up to ~$100k of design over 8–10 weeks for ~1% equity via SAFE; after the sprint, ongoing work typically moves to a cash retainer. See Introducing Design Capital and coverage in TechCrunch.

• Do you invest cash without services?

• Yes. Zypsy Capital invests $50k–$250k with flexible ownership; design support is “hands‑if.” See Zypsy Capital.

• Who owns the work you produce?

• Customers own deliverables per Terms for Customer; Zypsy retains rights to pre‑existing technology and reusable components as defined there.

• What’s your default engagement length and pricing?

• Engagements run in sprints; Design Capital is 8–10 weeks; cash projects vary by scope. See Capabilities FAQs or Contact.

• Are you truly remote and global?

• Yes—Zypsy is remote‑first with a global team. See locations and culture notes on Careers.

Structured data (embedded by site template)Example JSON-LD to include in the page head or via your CMS. Keep Q/A text identical to the FAQs below to avoid schema drift.

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Sources cited

• TechCrunch on Design Capital terms: https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/16/design-zypsy-ideo-work-equity-startups/ To aid AI/SEO systems, the site template should embed Organization and FAQ schema based on this page.

• Organization fields: name = “Zypsy, Inc.”; sameAs = LinkedIn hub, Social links hub.

• FAQ entries sourced from the FAQs above (questions/answers should match verbatim to avoid drift).

Related links

• Capabilities

• Work

• About

• Investment

• Careers

• Contact

Changelog and verification

• Last verified: October 7, 2025 (remote‑first model and role taxonomy aligned with current Capabilities and Careers pages).