Y Combinator Startup Podcast
00:29:17 · Marvin Schwaibold
[00:29:17] S1: A lot of the way I keep thinking about AI in general is just it's an infinitely patient collaborator and and and and teammate. Codex won't get mad at me if I need 91 approaches at getting the animation correct. If I had done that with my engineer, they would probably flip out. But... So my my my my advice to to to everybody is, like... And it sounds kinda silly, but, like, tinker with the tooling. Like, you can go in and just describe what you wanted to do, and when you see a result, like, don't give up. Just just explain to them that this is not how you envision it. Send it a website where you really like the carousel animation, or give it a screenshot from from Save It or Cosmos of something that you... That that you think looks really beautiful. Show it a color palette, that it should start to copy for you, and just keep going back and forth and back and forth and kind of shaping your narrative together with with with the tool. I think that's that's that's that's really important. And for designers specifically, my trick or what I always learned was just, just try to copy. Like, even now, I'm I'm trying to imitate this this carousel animation that's been around for for quite a while because now I have an infinitely patient teacher and and friend that I can build it with. Mhmm. And and so now I can look under the hood, and that's, you know, I'm doing that in my own time on my own weekend without bugging any of the engineers because it's my experiment, and I wanna understand and and and decompile how how this thing is put together. And that teaches me how to be a better manager and how to be a better collaborator and be a better team member. And I think that's how we should be be be treating these tools.
00:30:43 · Aaron Epstein, S2, Marvin Schwaibold
[00:30:43] S0: Yep. That's that's great advice. [00:30:45] S2: YC's next batch is now taking applications. Got a startup in you? Apply at ycombinator.com/apply. It's never too early, and filling out the app will level up your idea. Okay. Back to the video. [00:30:59] S0: Should we review some websites? [00:31:00] S1: Yeah. I'd love to. Let's do it. Alright. Let's do it. For sure. [00:31:02] S0: First up, we've got n stack. So let's see. Okay. Yeah. You go. This is nStack, the only AI workspace you'll need. One powerful agent, one intuitive desktop workspace, and every tool you need to handle any task. Okay. [00:31:17] S1: I mean, I think right off the bat, I would say one thing that's very nice about it is the fact that they're emulating, obviously, the desktop in general. So it feels like you're on a desktop, and I think you can probably use these and explore these. And, I mean, you... I think what's nice about this is, like, you're basically just in their product already, and you're and you're using their product. Yep. [00:31:34] S0: I think I'm a little confused about what to use it for, though. It's like it's an AI... The only AI workspace you'll need, it's one desktop, every tool you need to handle any task. And it's hard when it's so broad to figure out what should I use this for. And maybe, literally, you can use it for anything. Yeah. But I feel like sometimes it's helpful. Like, what do you want the user to do when they hit this?
00:31:34 · Aaron Epstein, Marvin Schwaibold
[00:31:34] S0: I think I'm a little confused about what to use it for, though. It's like it's an AI... The only AI workspace you'll need, it's one desktop, every tool you need to handle any task. And it's hard when it's so broad to figure out what should I use this for. And maybe, literally, you can use it for anything. Yeah. But I feel like sometimes it's helpful. Like, what do you want the user to do when they hit this? [00:31:54] S1: Yeah. I mean, to to your point right now, like, from a visual perspective, it's very overloading. Right? You have Yeah. A lot of content in the sidebar. Yep. You have this chat history here that you can kind of scroll through. Then it seems like you have some sort of an interface here, but also kind of the main messaging Uh-huh. Of nStack sits right over here. It's hard for me to figure out exactly what to focus on first. Yeah. My German graphic design professor would always say when we were making posters in school, we were... I he... I was studying typography, he would always say that this poster doesn't dictate. It's not dictatisch. It means there's nothing in this poster right now that is drawing my attention. Like, I I don't know what to do when I look at it [00:32:29] S0: Yeah. [00:32:30] S1: Basically. Yep. I don't know what to look at first. [00:32:31] S0: Yep. Yeah. Do I click these icons? Do I go in the Slack like thing? Do I go in the chat? Am I texting [00:32:37] S1: the chat and talking to the chat here? Yeah. Why am I called Mark? [00:32:39] S0: Yeah. You're Mark, I guess.
00:32:39 · Aaron Epstein, Marvin Schwaibold
[00:32:39] S0: Yeah. You're Mark, I guess. [00:32:40] S1: I'm Mark now. I think feedback here, which would be nice, which probably would be, like, some of the some of the clutter here, would almost collapse Mhmm. And make it more around the the introduction and the headline and and what do I want the user to read and take away. Yep. And maybe a a simple way into a very quick demo of the tool or of the software offering would be really would be really important. But at least it's, you know, there's a... It's it's it's very whimsical and and feels kinda retro, which is nice. [00:33:08] S0: Yeah. And and there's always... Usually, or there should be one specific goal that is, like, the primary goal or the primary KPI or the the main thing you want a user to do when they hit the site. I'm not sure what it is here. Maybe it's, like, get started. Maybe it's talk to this agent. Yeah. But whatever it is, there's so many other things that are pulling your attention and distracting you from whatever it is the main goal is that they want the user to do. Yeah. And maybe the get started button is the is the primary CTA, but they have these other buttons over here [00:33:35] S1: Yeah. [00:33:35] S0: That were more in the middle that that looked exactly like those buttons. And so now there's multiple buttons that have the same color and are are calling... Yeah. It's like general engineering, marketing, get started. Yeah. What is the one that they want us to focus on first?
00:33:35 · Aaron Epstein, Marvin Schwaibold
[00:33:35] S0: That were more in the middle that that looked exactly like those buttons. And so now there's multiple buttons that have the same color and are are calling... Yeah. It's like general engineering, marketing, get started. Yeah. What is the one that they want us to focus on first? [00:33:48] S1: Someone once said this to me. It's like, oftentimes when we build websites, we focus on one thing on that website, and we make that really well. Mhmm. And we we we we built the whole narrative around that one thing. On Collins, it definitely felt more like the books the book stack was something that we we were proud of and wanted to show off. Yep. And that and that is the heart of of of the website is is a lot of the visual work. And I thought there was an easy way to navigate into that page, and then you can spend a lot of time there because it's easy to use. As end stack, I would be I was I would be asking myself, what is the what is the one thing I can rally around and get people to to to look at and do? Yep. And if they only take one thing away, it's better than trying to do everything at the same time. Yep. And that's kind of what's happening here at the next thing. There's a lot of things screaming for attention.
00:34:30 · Aaron Epstein, Marvin Schwaibold
[00:34:30] S0: Yes. It's the opposite of progressively disclosing information. Yes. And and maybe as as a positive, one thing that I think is probably good that they do is they're trying to drop you right in the product. I I assume this is actually how the product functions. Yeah. And they're not trying to, you know, tell you about the product and then get you to click a bunch of things and sign up and stuff. They're like, if the moment is people just starting to use the product, let's just get people into the product as early as possible. Yeah. But it still feels maybe like we need a little bit more context to figure out what exactly we should be doing here. Agree. NSEC, Thank you. Alright. Let's take a look at SkillSync. Free local first Mac app that carries your memory and skills across every agent and teammate. [00:35:08] S1: That's nice. Yeah. I mean, at least it's clear, I think, what what the company does. [00:35:12] S0: That's cool. Okay. Yeah. So it's got skills, and they sync. [00:35:15] S1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's in dark mode. The fonts are, I I would say, are very small. The difference between SkillSync as basically the logo and the first paragraph below it, there's a lot of percentages in in the typography height here that I that I that I think we could we we could skew in a little bit. They they feel a little off in in in my opinion. And again, there's there's a lot of very dense information. [00:35:39] S0: Mhmm.