Y Combinator Startup Podcast
00:41:30 · Aaron Epstein, Marvin Schwaibold
[00:41:30] S0: we've got this call out here, which... It's interesting. You know? It it says create, describe your game idea, right, [00:41:36] S1: when you [00:41:36] S0: click into it. What's interesting is there was no copy under the title Instaplay. And so we we were up to ourselves to try to figure out how to orient around this page. Yes. And the first thing that we did is we saw all the visual games [00:41:52] S1: Yeah. [00:41:52] S0: All the screenshots of them. Yeah. And so we jumped right to that. Yes. And so we missed the fact that, actually, the primary purpose here is for us to be able to just create our own games on the fly. Yes. And so I think a line of text could help with that or some type of callout that makes that... The prompt box more prominent. [00:42:10] S1: And and, again, it goes back to your example from from earlier. It's like, what is the one thing we want the user to take away when they land on the page? Is it exploring the the the multitudes of of games that have already been created on this platform, or is it the fact that we can create our own games? Creating our own games actually leads you to a sign up page, which no one's gonna do if they haven't seen their created game. Right. So you have to come up. You have to cough up enough credits to try to, like, onboard people into the product. [00:42:35] S0: That's the
00:42:35 · Aaron Epstein, Marvin Schwaibold
[00:42:35] S0: That's the [00:42:35] S1: cost of acquisition of one user. By the way, in that metrics is extremely important. It's probably, obviously, what what what they're what they're thinking about. Correct. But that cost of acquisition can't be continue with Google. Right. It has to be whatever I just asked it to do, it has to spit it out perfectly, and I have be able to try it one or two more times. And if that works, I might be inclined Yes. To actually... Yeah. So you [00:42:54] S0: put in a prompt, you submit it, and it takes you to this screen asking you to sign in. Yeah. And the problem is, we don't know if this is good. [00:43:00] S1: And so... This is a great example, obviously, where I would also... You could build out a really cool interactive carousel here, and each game has almost, like, ten seconds of, like, a real [00:43:09] S0: play Yeah. [00:43:10] S1: Rather than just seeing these static these static assets right now. Don't I know what's behind it, so I don't know what I'm looking at. This is a great example. You could probably get Codex to tap into each one of these, screen record it, and replace that as the thumbnail, at least maybe on hover states, and it kind of will bring maybe more interactivity and dynamism into all of this into all of these different, like, universes. I think what they're trying to show with these with these covers is just like, look. With Instaplay, you can do a lot of stuff. Mhmm. I don't even think we need to be able to play all of these different games [00:43:38] S0: Yep.
00:43:38 · Aaron Epstein, Marvin Schwaibold
[00:43:38] S0: Yep. [00:43:38] S1: If the call to action is to create our own game and be game designers ourselves. [00:43:42] S0: Right. And so if that is the primary call to action, that is not what we did first. And then you probably want to actually create the game for people so that they can play with it. And then if they wanna save it Yeah. Or come back to it later, share it with anybody, then you gotta sign up, or then you gotta create [00:43:55] S1: your account. And and here also... Look. So you have create my games for you explorer. No one knows what any of that means, by the way. But if you click on any of them, like my game, for instance, again, it leads you to a sign up. Mhmm. Like, if you are not signed up to this page, you shouldn't even see my games probably. Right? Like... And have the ability to tap into something that then will lead you to sign in again. For you leads me back to the game I was just on, which I don't know if that makes a lot of sense. And explorer is basically the page we're already exploring on home. I don't even think that needs to be a new button. The only thing you've done now on the explorer page is taking the input field away from me. Mhmm. So now I can't I can't create a game anymore. So there's a few things there in the hierarchy where I would really think very... Like, put yourself in the position of someone coming to your website for the first time who has no idea what it is that you're building or selling. Yeah. How do they interact with the product?
00:43:55 · Marvin Schwaibold, Aaron Epstein
[00:43:55] S1: your account. And and here also... Look. So you have create my games for you explorer. No one knows what any of that means, by the way. But if you click on any of them, like my game, for instance, again, it leads you to a sign up. Mhmm. Like, if you are not signed up to this page, you shouldn't even see my games probably. Right? Like... And have the ability to tap into something that then will lead you to sign in again. For you leads me back to the game I was just on, which I don't know if that makes a lot of sense. And explorer is basically the page we're already exploring on home. I don't even think that needs to be a new button. The only thing you've done now on the explorer page is taking the input field away from me. Mhmm. So now I can't I can't create a game anymore. So there's a few things there in the hierarchy where I would really think very... Like, put yourself in the position of someone coming to your website for the first time who has no idea what it is that you're building or selling. Yeah. How do they interact with the product? [00:44:43] S0: It was also interesting because you went into the game, and we were like, okay. We're done with this one. I wanna get back. It wasn't obvious to me that you do the fast forward icon Yeah. To get back to the home page. Fast forward icon. Thought it was gonna take me to another game. [00:44:55] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Or it it can be misconstrued as an arrow really quickly.
00:44:55 · Marvin Schwaibold, Aaron Epstein
[00:44:55] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Or it it can be misconstrued as an arrow really quickly. [00:44:58] S0: Right. And so it's interesting. You actually click the back button to get back. Right? Because there was no obvious home to go back to. [00:45:05] S1: Exactly. [00:45:06] S0: Yeah. But this is super cool. You can imagine just getting people to put in a prompt and creating a game just like the racing game you were just doing. Yeah. People could play with this for hours. [00:45:16] S1: And A 100%. [00:45:17] S0: You just gotta get people to that value of creating the game and experiencing something. [00:45:20] S1: Once you've created that game and you're proud of what you created, being able to share that with your friends is probably a really nice growth hack for these guys. And and I think there's a lot of, yeah, there's a lot of value in in in this kind of work, so props to them. [00:45:31] S0: Yeah. Nice job, Instant Play. Okay. Next up, we have Mintlify, the knowledge infrastructure agents build on. Self updating documentation for startups, enterprises, and agents. Right. Cool. I'm obviously very familiar with Mintlify. It's an incredible company. It's been growing really quickly and is a product that tons of YC companies and other dev tools use. Yeah. Yeah. This It's a beautiful website. Yeah. This this looks very professional. Yeah. It looks like something that is trustworthy. [00:46:00] S1: It's straightforward. Clean. Clean. Yeah. The the the very nice compositions with color and typography and spacing and line heights.
00:46:00 · Marvin Schwaibold, Aaron Epstein
[00:46:00] S1: It's straightforward. Clean. Clean. Yeah. The the the very nice compositions with color and typography and spacing and line heights. [00:46:08] S0: Yeah. So let's drill let's drill down to, like, why do we feel that way? What are the what are the specific elements of this page that make us feel like this is very clean and professional and all those things that we sent? [00:46:17] S1: I I think because it's it's it's it's being reductive in exactly the correct ways, and it's showing only the things that are actually necessary to show. It's got a very clean headline, a small paragraph underneath, the get started button is very prominent. It's showing off some kind of a dashboard. You can kind of understand, okay, this is probably where where the documentation would live and where would the documentation would get updated. The the graphic in the background is actually... Is adding to the vibe rather than taking away from it. It's it's subtle, and in the background, it feels it feels like it's it's it's helping you think. It's some kind of a network or something. It it feels like they're very they're very cautious and careful with what they're building and some kind of an infrastructure intelligence layer. I I never know about logo walls, but at least this logo wall is very well put together,