How We Redesigned Our Website
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Welcome to a special episode of Design Review with Evard, designer at YC, discussing the brand new YC website launch. This project was a labor of love. Plan: review old YC website, feedback and changes needed, new homepage thinking, and unique build process.
Old homepage designed 4-5 years ago during COVID, served well but needed update for modern times and different message.
Very utilitarian, like a B2B SaaS template with CTAs, hero picture, text, stats, logos. YC is a special brand that could be more inspiring and storytelling-focused. Top companies section shows logos but underplays founders YC helped. Emphasize founders who built these companies; YC was pivotal in their trajectories.
Headline 'top YC companies' doesn't convey impact. Better: 'dozens of billion-dollar companies that started at YC'. 'We help founders make something people want and the results speak for themselves' – vague; specify results. 'We improve the success rate of our startups' – quantify by how much. Doesn't quantify or illustrate outcomes. 'YC is run by startup founders who've built exactly what they wanted when starting and growing a startup' – key differentiator: YC partners were all YC founders. 'Founders interest first' section lists negatives: don't take board seat, don't take months to decide, don't require decks. Should be positive version.
Took learnings from old site, focused on messaging to make you dream, not sell a program. Inspired by YC roots, studied Paul Graham essays.
Word 'formidable' from PG essays and Jessica Livingston describing early founders; still used internally at YC. Footnote defines it in PG's words, nodding to his essay style. Hero headers second section: before/after of successful founders funded by YC. Emphasizes founders' faces, humble beginnings so builders think 'this could be me'. People on left look like current batch founders; in 10 years, they'll be on right with generational companies.
Highlights combined valuation of all YC-funded companies, additional logos. Paragraph describes YC using exact copy from original PG-made site 10-15 years ago (verified via Wayback Machine), tweaked for updates: fund companies 4 times/year, in San Francisco not Mountain View. Original had batch photos communicating environment.
Describes YC experience in founders' words: interviewed recent (last 1-2 years) founders on feelings, key takeaways. Quotes as continuous text; hover for name, company, face. Credible when from founders, not YC. Puts founders front and center.
Perk: personalized advice from recognizable Silicon Valley faces. Used AI to lightly animate event photos for aliveness. Tried many tools; faces often changed unrecognizably. Recommended tool 'one' from recent YC startup (Fall batch) worked best.
All YC partners were founders in your shoes, went through batch. Hover cards show partners' batch photos. Visualizes they understand your journey. Shows YC is fun, playful, not taking itself too seriously.
Highlights recent media: YC videos, podcast episodes, startup news, PG essays. Final CTA: 'it's never too early to apply to YC'. Addresses founders thinking they're too early, need revenue/progress. Fund people not quit jobs, still in school, no idea/customers yet. Best shot: hit apply button. Footer: 'YC's next batch taking applications. Got a startup in you? Apply at ycombinator.com/apply. It's never too early and filling out the app will level up your idea.'
Focus on storytelling, remove distractions. Hero minimal/simple after iterations; no pictures/animations. Airy, breathable, content floating; no borders/hard dividers. Minimalistic: emphasize faces/founders, remove unnecessary elements. No apply button in hero; not B2B SaaS chasing conversions. Inspire to see yourself in stories.
Started with Figma mood boards, few frames, but felt constrained for animations/out-of-box thinking. Created new repo/project, used Opus 4.5 in Cursor: prompted to build. Saved time, more efficient/creative. Kept old homepage background color for continuity/brand. Section-by-section: most compelling interactive version with animation to communicate message (e.g., transformation: during YC to now, companies in middle separating before/after). Prototyped live, iterated variations; wouldn't have reached final without live building. Used Opus 4.5 as co-worker/design team member: prompted 'display this info creatively', iterated from bad/good kernels (e.g., to carousel). Focused time on interactions/storytelling, not basic coding. New tools enable higher-level focus.
Web/product design trend: evolve to interactivity/animation to better communicate messages, not for sake. Easier than ever now.
Fun project, proud result to serve YC/founders for years. Evard's incredible work, late nights. Dream working together.
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