YC's new site replaces a utilitarian B2B template with a minimalist, story-driven experience that puts founders front and center.
From B2B Template to Founder Story
The old YC homepage was utilitarian. It had a hero image, a left-aligned headline, some stats, and a row of company logos. It could have been any B2B SaaS site. But Y Combinator is not a SaaS product—it's a community of founders who have built some of the most valuable companies in the world. The redesign started with a simple question: how do we communicate that YC is special?
The answer was storytelling. Instead of listing features, the new site puts founders at the center. It shows their faces, their humble beginnings, and their transformations. The goal is not to sell a program but to make the visitor dream: 'I could be one of these people.'
The Word That Changed Everything
The design team went back to YC's roots, studying Paul Graham's essays. One word stood out: 'formidable.' Graham and Jessica Livingston used it to describe the extraordinary founders they funded in YC's early days. The word still resonates internally, so the team made it the anchor of the new hero section. A footnote—a nod to Graham's essay style—defines it: 'Formidable: inspiring fear or respect through being impressively powerful.'
That single word sets the tone. It's not about growth hacks or revenue milestones. It's about the kind of founder YC wants to back: someone who is formidable.
Before and After: Seeing Yourself in the Journey
The most powerful section of the new site is the before-and-after transformation. On the left, a photo of a founder during their YC batch—young, maybe a bit uncertain. On the right, the same founder years later, having built a billion-dollar company. The message is clear: these founders started exactly where you are now. The design makes it easy to see yourself in their shoes.
This section also includes the combined valuation of all YC companies and a set of logos. But the emphasis is on faces, not logos. As one of the designers put it, 'We wanted to put the emphasis on the founders and the faces as most of the companies.'
Founder Voices, Not Self-Promotion
Rather than telling visitors how great YC is, the site lets founders speak for themselves. The team interviewed recent batch participants and collected short quotes about their experience. These quotes are displayed side by side, forming a continuous narrative. Hover over a quote, and you see the founder's name and company. It's credible, personal, and far more convincing than any marketing copy.
The same philosophy extends to the partner section. Each YC partner is shown with a photo from their own batch days. Hovering reveals a younger version of them—proof that they were once in the same position as today's applicants. It's a playful, humanizing touch that reinforces YC's core message: we've been where you are.
Minimalism That Serves the Story
The new design is deliberately minimal. No hard borders, no heavy dividers. The content feels like it's floating on the page. The team removed all unnecessary elements to keep the focus on the founders' faces and stories. There is no call to action in the hero section—no 'Apply Now' button. That might seem counterintuitive for a site that wants applications, but the logic is sound: an early CTA would distract from the inspiration. If the story works, visitors will scroll to the bottom where the button reads, 'It's never too early to apply.'
The copy itself is a nod to history. The paragraph describing YC is almost identical to the one Paul Graham wrote more than a decade ago, updated only for batch frequency and location. It's a quiet reminder that YC's core offering hasn't changed.
Building with AI: A New Design Process
The most innovative part of the project wasn't the design itself—it was the process. The team started with mood boards and Figma mockups but quickly felt constrained. So they created a new repository and started chatting with Opus 4.5 inside Cursor, an AI-powered coding tool. They would describe what they wanted for each section—'this is the information we want to show, display it creatively'—and iterate on the AI's output.
This approach allowed them to prototype interactions live. They experimented with scroll-driven animations, hover effects, and carousels that would have been tedious to mock up in static tools. The AI acted as a collaborator, generating ideas that were sometimes bad, sometimes brilliant, and always worth exploring. As one designer put it, 'We spent more time on interactions than on any previous project, and that's because the new tools made it possible.'
The result is a site that feels alive. Animated photos of speakers from YC events—generated with a tool recommended by a recent YC startup—add a layer of warmth and energy. The animations aren't decorative; they communicate that YC is a place of real people and real moments.
What This Means for Web Design
The YC redesign points to a broader trend: the end of the static landing page. As AI tools make it easier to build interactive experiences, designers can focus on storytelling and emotional impact rather than pixel-pushing. The goal is no longer to optimize conversion rates by a fraction of a percent. It's to make visitors feel something—to inspire them to take a leap.
For YC, that leap is applying to the batch. But the lesson applies to any brand with a compelling story. Show, don't tell. Put your users in the narrative. And don't be afraid to let the design get out of the way.