Wayback Machine

The speakers walk through YC’s website redesign, explaining how they replaced a utilitarian layout with a story about founders and their journeys. The redesign emphasizes founders’ faces, personal accounts, YC’s origins, and the transformation from going through the batch to building major companies. They describe using animation and interactive elements to make those stories clearer, while keeping the visual design minimal. They also explain how rapid prototyping with AI coding tools helped them explore interactions and creative directions beyond static Figma mockups.

Karri Saarinen explains that a startup’s brand and website should reflect its stage and speak clearly to its earliest target users. Linear’s first site used specific language, a simple product preview, and a waitlist to build interest without implying the product was more mature than it was. As a company grows, the homepage should evolve while staying focused: explain enough to orient visitors, then let other pages cover details. Reviewing startup websites, Saarinen emphasizes clear copy, purposeful motion, readable design, trust, and choosing a specific customer need to stand out.