Design-Driven Guide for Entrepreneurs

Rhea Alexander wears many hats at Parsons—Associate Professor of Strategic Design and Management, co-director of the Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative, founder of the Parsons Entrepreneurs Lab, co-chair of the Faculty Senate, and faculty trustee. Her 2023 project, “A Design-Driven Guide for Entrepreneurs: Strategies for Starting Up in a Multiverse,” completed with co-authors Rose Pepper, Joseph Press, and Kylie Sweat, stems from over ten years at the eLab testing different models for supporting entrepreneurs. The guide targets Gen Z, alphas, and creatives who think differently, building in community and the inflection of social and environmental justice through colorful frameworks and case studies drawn from the lab.

The book expands the notion of strategic design into an operating guide through the methodologies and processes that inform practice as a business leader, organization, or entrepreneur—across micro, macro, and meso levels. It moves from mindset (design is very much a mindset) to mission, methods, and multiplicity. Alexander believes design strategy has the capacity to make deep and profound change in the world, that businesses can thrive by applying it, and that designers and entrepreneurs can transform how they frame and start up their ventures. Throughout her practice, she has worked to create pathways for underserved entrepreneurs into the ecosystem, motivated by her own experience as a woman finding it difficult to start up, be heard, and access opportunities equal to men.

Her current research confronts a troubling reality: the gender gap in funding female founders. Since around 2019, women received about 4-5% of venture capital funding, but that figure dropped to just 1.8% by 2025. Alexander has spent several years investigating why through exploratory research, interviews, and workshops—asking whether it’s the impact of AI, social and cultural norms, or all of the above. Having written articles and papers on her findings, she’s now building prototypes using strategic design methodology to research, build, and test systemic interventions. Her ultimate hope is that people take away a sense of empowerment—particularly those who find entrepreneurship intimidating or have been told they lack a business mindset—contradicting that message with the assertion that they absolutely do, and that a multiverse of possibilities exists to make positive change in the world.