Inside The New YC Website
YC's Aaron Epstein and Eve Bouffard detail the redesign of the YC homepage, shifting from a utilitarian, B2B-style site to an inspirational, founder-centric narrative. They discuss the new design's focus on storytelling, the unconventional AI-assisted development process, and the future of interactive web design.
The redesign of the Y Combinator (YC) homepage was driven by a fundamental shift in philosophy: moving from a functional, sales-oriented site to one focused on inspiration and authentic storytelling. The goal was to make potential founders dream and see themselves in the YC journey.
Critiquing the Old Design
The previous homepage, while functional, was critiqued for feeling like a “utilitarian, B2B SaaS template.” Its primary shortcomings were:
- Lack of Storytelling: It presented facts and logos but failed to convey the narrative and transformative experience of YC.
- Founder Obscurity: The site highlighted company logos but overlooked the founders who built them, underplaying YC’s pivotal role in their journeys.
- Weak Messaging: Headlines were generic (e.g., “Top YC companies”) and didn’t quantify the impact (e.g., “We improve the success rate of our startups”).
- Negative Framing: A section on founder alignment was framed negatively, listing things YC doesn’t do (e.g., “We don’t take a board seat”) rather than positively stating its principles.
A New Vision: Inspire, Don’t Sell
The new design is centered on putting founders front and center, telling their stories to inspire the next generation of builders.
Core Principles:
- Founder-Centric Narrative: The entire site is built around the stories and faces of the founders, showcasing their transformation from humble beginnings to industry leaders.
- Return to Roots: The team drew deep inspiration from Paul Graham’s essays. A key word from these essays, “formidable,” is used in the hero section to describe the extraordinary founders YC funds. The definition is provided in a footnote, a nod to PG’s writing style.
- Historical Continuity: While the design is modern, the core description of YC is the exact copy written by Paul Graham for the original website over a decade ago, with only minor updates for accuracy (e.g., location).
Deconstructing the New Homepage
Each section of the new homepage is intentionally designed to communicate a specific part of the YC story through visual and interactive elements.
- Founder Transformation: The section immediately following the hero illustrates the “before and after” of successful founders. By showing their humble beginnings, it aims to make the journey feel accessible and relatable, encouraging potential applicants to think, “This could be me.”
- Authentic Founder Voices: Instead of YC describing its own benefits, the site uses a collection of direct quotes from recent founders. These “sound bites” are stitched together to form a continuous narrative. Hovering over a quote reveals the founder’s name and company, adding a layer of credibility and authenticity.
- The YC Network Comes Alive: To showcase the value of the YC network, static photos of prominent guest speakers were subtly animated using an AI tool. This makes the images feel more engaging and alive without being distracting.
- Partners Were Founders Too: A core differentiator for YC is that its partners were once YC founders themselves. This is communicated visually through an interactive section where hovering over a partner’s current photo reveals a picture of them from their time in the batch. This adds a playful, humanizing element that reinforces their deep understanding of the founder journey.
- A Clear, Direct Call to Action: The final CTA directly addresses a common founder concern: “It’s never too early to apply.” This phrase was chosen to dismantle the misconception that an applicant needs significant traction or a fully-baked idea, encouraging applications from individuals at all stages.
An Unconventional, AI-Assisted Process
The design process was unique, quickly moving beyond static tools like Figma to embrace a more dynamic, code-first approach.
- From Figma to Live Prototyping: After initial mood boards, the team felt constrained by static design frames. They pivoted to building directly in a new repository, using AI coding assistants (specifically “Opus 4.5 in cursor”) as a “co-worker.”
- Creative Exploration with AI: They used creative prompts like “Display this information creatively” to explore novel layouts and animations that they might not have conceived of in a traditional design tool.
- Focus on Interaction Over Implementation: This AI-assisted workflow saved significant time on foundational coding, allowing the team to dedicate more bandwidth to refining the storytelling through meaningful interactions and animations. They believe this represents the future of web design, where AI tools handle the basics, freeing creators to focus on higher-level communication and user experience.