Dev shops show you screens.
Not stats.
They show you what looked good.
Not what worked.
Portfolios lie.
You’ll see:
– Beautiful dashboards
– Feature-rich mobile apps
– Enterprise-ready design systems
What you won’t see:
– Retention
– Usage
– Revenue
You’ll never meet the founder who gave up.
The one who burned $40K and never got past onboarding.
The one who had to rebuild it all six months later.
Founders don’t need pretty.
They need proof.
So ask better questions.
“What did this product prove?”
“How fast did it get to traction?”
“What behaviour was validated?”
If they can’t answer that, you don’t need them.
Because portfolios are packaging.
You’re looking for pressure-tested product thinking.
And that rarely makes it onto Dribbble.