As no code design tools become more common, so do the pitfalls. You know what they look like - the purple gradients, annoying hover effects, sections that fade as you scroll. So how do you avoid a site that feels vibe coded while still taking advantage of these new tools? In this episode of Design Review, YC’s Aaron Epstein is joined by Visiting Partner Raphael Schaad, the founder and designer of Cron (now Notion Calendar). Together they’ll review user submitted sites with an eye for how to leverage these tools and avoid the common vibe coding mistakes. Thanks to the companies that submitted their sites for review.* 2.58 - Nunu.ai 9.25 - Rosebud AI 13:30 - Getcrux 19:12 - Sphinx 25:43 - Build0 30:30 - Zarna *Some of the featured websites may be updated between the time we film and publish Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs
Whether it's for sales, recruiting or making new connections, cold outreach is a necessary tool for helping build your startup. But as you probably know, most cold emails either are ignored or end up in the trash. So what can you do to make sure your emails break through the noise? In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Aaron Epstein shares expert advice on how to write cold emails that have all the right ingredients to get noticed and convert new customers. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Intro 01:47 - Map your funnel 07:49 - Finding emails 09:52 - How to get more responses? 22:12 - Examples 30:59 - Final thoughts
In this special episode of Design Review, YC General Partner Aaron Epstein and YC Product Designer Eve Bouffard break down how they went about redesigning the YC homepage from the ground up. They’ll discuss the motivations for the redesign, the unconventional process they took and lessons for founders building their own sites. Chapters: 00:00 — Designing A New Website 01:00 — The Old Homepage 02:30 — Centering the Story on Founders 04:00 — The New Vision: Inspire, Don’t Sell 05:30 — Visualizing Founder Transformation 07:00 — Letting Founders Speak for Themselves 08:45 — Bringing YC’s Network to Life 12:00 — Minimal Design 17:00 — The Future of Interactive Web Design Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs
YC Group Partner Aaron Epstein talks about different startup business models, how to monetize, and how to price your product. Pricing and monetization is one of the most common questions from founders, and this talk outlines 9 business models as well as highlighting business model lessons from the top YC companies. Business Model Guide: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/Gh-business-model-guide Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Introduction 00:13 - Outline 00:42 - 9 business models that build billion-dollar companies 02:28 - Business model lessons from the top 100 YC companies 09:42 - Overall lessons 16:06 - 5 pricing insights from top YC companies 29:15 - Story of Segment - How to charge for your product 32:00 - Wrap-up - Key pricing insights #startup #tech #entrepreneur
Website design critique given live by Aaron & Eric https://www.startupschool.org/posts/32309