Process is brand
How you do anything is how you do everything, especially as a company.
Over time, and especially as we are in the early days of building AIR, I’ve come to believe that the process isn’t just internal ops and org charts, it’s the brand itself. How you work signals who you are and what you value.
I had a coach in college who always used to say, “How you do anything, is how you do everything.”
He demanded that water bottles were aligned on the sideline, equipment bags were loaded on the bus in a certain sequence, and that our practice schedule was broken out minute by minute. My 19-year-old brain dismissed this as OCD, but now I understand that when no detail is too small to ignore, coupled with the highest level of group accountability, you are one step closer to building a championship-quality organization.
The process is the brand, and all the best brands have a unique process. Consider these four very different organizations: a viral art collective, a dev platform, a restaurant, and a global macro hedge fund. Each has a process so distinctive, it is the brand. Each offers its own inspiration as we continue to develop our process at AIR.
MSCHF: Process as a cultural filter
Gabe Whaley, founder of MSCHF, stopped by for a lunch and learn with Cohort Zero in May. Beyond a masterclass in distribution and architecting virality with product case studies like Big Red Boots (the viral moon shoes that captured the fashion world by storm) and Tax Heaven 3000 (a playful spin on our dreaded annual rent for being American), he talked about their process for selecting what to build next. It follows:
The entire team brainstorms twice a week for one hour (no more)
Team members produce write-ups for the top ideas
The senior team evaluates based on goals and feasibility (e.g. will we get sued?)
Remaining ideas are go into the “idea pool” and are untouched for three months
Ideas that don’t stand the “test of time” are removed
Remaining ideas are set into production (10–12 month timeline)
What’s magical about this process is how it ensures that MSCHF’s projects, which historically drop every two weeks, consistently feel perfectly summoned by the cultural zeitgeist of that moment. It’s a process designed to slow down hype and surface only the most resonant, timeless ideas. Despite the appearance of chaos, there’s disciplined editorial rigor beneath every drop.
Replit: Process as public collaboration
One of the grandmasters of the vibe-coding stack, Replit is critical infrastructure for the next generation of application-layer AI companies. We have been lucky to have
participate in Cohort Zero of AIR. Beyond being a visionary product designer building AI-powered games, he has also brought valuable experience from his previous role as a Product Design Manager at Replit.Replit has an intimate relationship with their developer community, so much so that they actively develop their core product roadmap in tandem with them. This is the principle of “building in public” and beta testing brought to its scaled conclusion. They go as far as launching public community votes, and maintaining Discord channels that directly shape new tools and features—essentially pair-programming with their users.
Where MSCHF’s process filters for cultural sharpness, Replit’s builds for resonance. The process is the relationship with their community.
Chez Panisse: Process as a values-aligned ritual
Alice Waters, the godmother of the slow food movement, offers a great example of how to build a process that reflects an organization’s values.
Menu follows the market: Each day’s menu is written based on what local farmers, fishers, and foragers deliver that morning. Ingredient availability drives creativity, not the other way around.
Supplier relationships are personal: Chez Panisse maintains deep, long-term partnerships with small producers. Daily communication ensures the freshest, most ethically grown ingredients.
One fixed menu, no choices: The downstairs dining room serves a nightly prix fixe menu that reflects the season and the chef’s vision. Guests are invited to trust the kitchen and surrender control.
Menus as seasonal storytelling: Each menu is a reflection of the day’s harvest, written with care and intention. The language is simple, poetic, and honors the rhythm of nature.
One thing I particularly love about Alice Waters and her process is that it’s not for everyone. If you are the kind of diner that demands control, or does not care for what’s fresh in the winter, you are not the customer. As we all know but often forget, it is impossible to be everything to everyone. Chez Panisse knows their ideal customer.
Bridgewater: Process as organizational philosophy
In a very different world at Bridgewater, the decision-making process is rooted in founder Ray Dalio’s philosophy of radical transparency and idea meritocracy. The firm encourages open debate, frequent feedback, and data-driven analysis to identify the best ideas, regardless of hierarchy. Key elements of the process include:
Principles-based framework: Decisions are guided by a codified set of principles that aim to reduce emotional bias and promote logical consistency.
Dot Collector: Employees rate each other in real time during meetings, generating data on decision-making abilities across the firm.
Believability-weighted decision-making: Not all opinions are treated equally; decisions are weighted based on individuals’ track records and expertise.
Transparency and recording: Meetings are often recorded and accessible internally, reinforcing accountability and openness.
The overall goal is to create a culture where the best ideas win, and people constantly evolve through rigorous, honest feedback.
Different as they are, these orgs share one thing: they’ve made the how of their work just as intentional as the what. That intentionality shapes their identity. Each example underscores a critical truth: a brand’s strength often stems from the deliberate, even radical, clarity and conviction woven into its operational DNA.
At AIR, process is also product
And then there’s AIR. Our process is built around the belief that creativity thrives in calm, structured environments. It’s more artist residency than startup bootcamp—and that’s by design. Every three months, we welcome six early-stage companies and six idea-stage Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) to gather and build around the belief that great design, an eye for storytelling, and a muscle for novel distribution are the winning elements of building culture-defining companies when the marginal cost of software goes to nearly zero. It’s intimate, highly collaborative, and intentionally removed from the hustle and bustle of company building (we are settled on a quiet street in Carroll Gardens), and we do not force a demo day.
As we welcome our latest cohort this week, we’re thinking deeply about how to create an environment where the creative process is as tightly considered as your software stack, strong POVs are encouraged, and design leads the way.
Whether you’re running a kitchen, a fund, or a startup, your process is your signal. People will feel it before they understand it, so it’s worth making intentional.
Comment below or reach out if you can think of any other brands or organizations where their process is their brand. I would love to hear about them!
Chris Dowd is an investor at Collaborative Fund, the venture fund backing and companies that push the world forward. This post was originally published on their blog.
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i feel like the canonical example of Process As Company is ideo who basically structured their offerings around which stage of their "design thinking process" you were actually buying into. my memory is that most people didn't go all in and many only engaged in the first n stages or occasionally the last few for products that already had strong requirements and internal design ideology behind them.
I've often thought about writing a book called "Creative Production: The Generator, The Editor, and The Finisher," about the distinctive roles/phases I break creative projects into (Rick Rubin's book came closest to what I've envisioned). AI is and will continue to be an handy generator, though so far seems poorly suited to be an editor or finisher.