Designer for YC startups
Work · Updated
I've designed for five Y Combinator companies: CodeAnt AI (W24) as founding designer since June 2024, xPay (W24) and FamPay (S19) on their product teams, and HelpNow (W20) and Entvin (S22) as a freelancer. At YC speed, design has to ship in days and move one number.
The five companies and what changed
| Company | Batch | My role | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| CodeAnt AI | W24 | Founding designer: product, Framer website, brand, design system | 2× trial-to-paid; $0 to $60M valuation during my time |
| xPay | W24 | Product design intern | Sales walkthroughs 30% shorter; feature delivery 35% faster; 2× indexed pages |
| FamPay | S19 | UX design intern | 80% fewer voucher tickets; 20% less failure-related drop-off |
| HelpNow | W20 | Freelance: designed InstaMed, its B2B door-to-door medicine delivery app | HelpNow and InstaMed have since closed |
| Entvin | S22 | Freelance: SaaS website | Positioning, storytelling and conversion flows, live at entvin.com |
CodeAnt AI - YC W24: Designed dashboard, website and brand that helped company to scale from $0 to $60M
Fampay - YC S19: Improved voucher UX by making one-time-use rules clear and smoothing Cashback Store experience
Entvin Website: Designed and shipped SaaS website with clear positioning, product storytelling and conversion-focused flows
What batch-speed design looks like
YC companies run on weekly goals and a short list of metrics, so design ships in days and a month of exploration doesn't fit. At xPay that meant learning Framer in three days and shipping landing pages, decks and marketing assets alongside product work.
Quick learner and strong designer. Picked up Framer in just 3 days and shipped landing pages, decks, graphics, and marketing assets end-to-end.
Speed only helps if it points at the right number. At CodeAnt that number was trial-to-paid, and what doubled it was fixing a permissions problem in setup. A visual refresh wouldn't have touched it. I pick the metric with the founders before opening Figma.
Before and after Demo Day
- During the batch: a website that explains the product to investors and early customers in one screen, built in Framer so you can edit it the night before.
- Right after: the onboarding path, because new users arrive faster than founders can onboard them by hand.
- After the round: a small design system, so new engineers don't each invent a button.
What YC startup websites are built with: My study of the Summer 2026 batch: which site builders and hosts 231 YC companies use, checked one by one.
Questions people ask
Do you only work with YC companies?
No. Five of the 15+ brands I've worked with are YC companies. The way of working suits any early team that ships weekly.
Can you design our website during the batch?
Yes, as a Framer website project. A 5 to 10 page site typically takes 3 to 6 weeks, so it helps to start early in the batch.
Start a project
Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck: book a 30-minute call, email work@utkarshdesign.com or send a brief.