Behance

Scott Belsky noticed that creative professionals—designers, architects, and artists from his college network—were struggling. Their careers felt at the mercy of circumstance, their work wasn't getting the attribution it deserved, and as a result, they weren't performing at their best. He saw a fundamental problem: portfolios were scattered across the internet, visited only by people who already knew about them. What if you could invert that model? What if you made creative work searchable and sortable by client, project type, or skill, allowing people to discover the artist *first* through their work, then learn who they are?

"Why are people having their portfolio sites sitting on some websites out in the ether, only visited by people who know them? Their work should be broken out and searchable and sortable based on the client, the search term or whatever," Scott explained. Everyone told him it was impossible. "People would always say, yeah, good luck with that."

Behance wasn't a quick project. Scott spent **five years bootstrapping** the company, funding it through unconventional means: selling notebooks and speaking at conferences. He built a product for an audience he deeply understood—creative professionals—and obsessed over their experience. This foundation of product thinking would define his entire career.

One of Scott's core insights during this period was the importance of the "first mile" of user experience. "It's the only part of the product experience that every customer will experience. After that is just drop off," he would later explain. Most teams ignore onboarding, defaults, and progressive disclosure—but Scott knew that in 60 to 90 seconds, you either hook someone or lose them forever. He also understood the psychology of his users: creatives wanted validation, discovery, and a way to be seen.

Behance gained traction through design-focused channels, especially Pinterest. Scott noticed that Behance was driving traffic through Pinterest back in the early days, and he eventually met Ben Silverman, Pinterest's founder, through an introduction. That relationship led to his first angel investment and a lifelong belief in the power of product-driven relationships.

The five-year bootstrap phase taught Scott discipline. When he finally raised venture capital, it was just $6-7 million, and only right before the acquisition. He had proven he could build a sustainable, valuable business without outside money—a rare accomplishment.

Behance was acquired by Adobe for approximately **$150 million**. After the acquisition, Scott spent three years integrating the product into Adobe's ecosystem. But more importantly, his approach to product thinking—obsessing over first-mile experience, understanding customer psychology, and building for creative professionals—became his trademark.

Today, Scott serves as Chief Product Officer at Adobe, but Behance's legacy lives on. The company proved that a bootstrapped, product-first approach could build a company worth nine figures, and that building products for creative people—the ones "that really move things forward"—was a worthy mission.