How to create (YC) startup websites that sell
Agencidev has created websites that have brought in over $300,000 worth of customer sales (excluding enterprise sales which would bring that number higher) in the last 24 months. For the average B2B software startup, the AOV is ~$29 per B2B customer. That means roughly 1,034 customers that have been acquired via websites created by us.
Here, with all the dogmatism of brevity, are 21 of the things we've learned.
The most important decision in any form of sales is positioning. We have learned that the single thing that has the largest effect on your website's sales and conversions comes from this decision: How should you position your product? Should you position Codex as a coding agent or an agent for tasks and workflows? Should you position VSCode as a code editor or a coding canvas where people and agents can collaborate on code? The conversions of your site depend less on how we write your copy and how stunning the visuals are than on how your product is positioned. Positioning must be communicated well on the site, clearly conveying to the reader what purpose the product serves (ie. its value proposition) and why it is more advantageous than its alternatives.
Unless booking a demo is required in the sales process, avoid it being the main CTA of your homepage. There is far more friction in getting the reader to schedule a call, commit their time, wait for the scheduled time, show up, and speak to a human being for x minutes before they get to use the product than there is for them to simply click a "Get Started" button (or something of the sort), make a payment, and instantly get access to the product they want to use. Unless there is a clear purpose, that is also equally clear to the reader, in getting a demo booked, "Book a Demo" should be avoided as the main CTA. Sales benefit more when it is kept as a secondary CTA for readers more interested in learning than buying.
Include FAQs to make sure the reader is able to find answers to their biggest concerns. Excluding an FAQ section entirely is a great error that will be punished by the AI search engine gods who refuse to thoroughly read your site's copy to answer questions of their own customers. But even apart from the missed GEO benefits of FAQ sections, FAQs provide an extra layer of security for the reader who wants a quick answer to a concern they have without wanting to delve into the depths of your site's copy. This type of reader is 57% of people who decide to look at your site, according to Raft Labs (2025). If possible, use customer testimonials as answers in FAQs so that real customers answer for potential customers.
Every piece of copy and every visual should contribute to the complex symbol which is the brand image. 95% of all startup website visuals are created to match the section it's in, but not always the rest of the page, and rarely the rest of the website. Most startups lack any consistent theme from one page to another. The startup who dedicates their use of copy and imagery to sharply communicating a consistent personality and positioning for their brand gets the largest share of the market.
Make sure the main visual in the hero section shows the product itself on a simple background or on a model. The best way to do this is to make it an interactive demo where the reader can click, copy, move, and even taste what using the product is like just from interacting with the hero. If neither can be obtained then make sure the personality of the brand can be felt through the hero's visuals.
First-class aesthetics. It pays (literally) to give the reader a website where they are wowed by the look and feel of interacting with it, regardless of the product itself. As any beautiful woman would tell you: Even just looks gets you buyers. Agencidev has been conspicuously successful in doing this — for ourselves, HILstart (YC26), Mireye (YC26), Founders, Birdhouse, and others. If your website looks ugly, the reader will conclude that your product is poorly made, and they will be less likely to buy it.
Don't be a bore. In the famous words of David Ogilvy: Nobody has ever been bored into buying a product. Yet most website visuals are clunky, shoddy, and dull. Most website copy is impersonal, detached, irrelevant, and elongated. It pays (literally) to involve the reader and get them to feel things while interacting with your website. Talk to them like a human being. Do not bore them with nonsensical adjectives. Wow them with motion and visuals. Empathise with the problems of their current situation. Charm them. Get them interested in what they're looking at.
Don't bury new things. It is easier to interest the reader in a product when it is new or has new shiny things on it. Do not bury the fact that it is new or has new things. Embrace it. Many startups have an instinct to bury their new things in a boring changelog filing cabinet. That is why most new features and updates fail to bring new customers. It pays to relaunch your product again as a new shiny thing each time there is something new about it. If Apple were to launch iPhone 18 Pro as a repeat of iPhone 17 Pro but simply with a new colour, its sales would surge. Simply because it is new. Be like Apple. It pays to relaunch your product each time something is new.
Ignorance to mobile design can be fatal for conversions. Though it is tempting to simply hide all your website's fancy visuals and animations for its mobile version, such laziness comes with a pay cut in conversions. Mobile devices account for over 55% of internet traffic globally as reported by Statcounter GlobalStats (2025). Removing your high converting visuals and copy on smaller screens is a costly mistake.
Include a tutorial or explanation demo video for technical products that need explanation. Showcasing the product itself is the highest converting way of introducing its idea to the reader. Ruby on Rails, Omarchy, Basecamp, and others are great examples of this. It isn't enough to merely speak about your product. You must show it in real-world use.
The main CTA button must stand out in colour and contrast. Your main CTA button is what the reader uses to buy your product. It must always be within view from any point of any page, and must always announce itself and be easily noticeable for the time they decide to buy.
Place reviews and testimonials above the price section to use the Anchoring Effect and make the price look smaller. Also show price transparency like monthly/annual billing price differences costs if not included to avoid frustration in the checkout process — it is always frustrating to see an extra $20 bill on checkout suddenly spawn out of nowhere. The reader always wants to know where their money is going to and why. Extra fees spawning in checkout may tank your abandonment.
Use Stripe or a merchant with multiple payment providers for checkouts. More time inputting card details is more time and more friction that can lead to a change in mind.
Endorsements or testimonials by reputable authorities (big clients, celebrities, or such) should be placed high on the homepage and around the CTA. These create trust and authority for your product. Testimonials from reputable authorities are almost always successful in increasing conversions. But avoid irrelevant celebrities whose fame has no natural connection to your product or your customers. Irrelevant celebrities steal attention from your product. Even if Kylie Jenner uses your AI tool, do not feature her in your website's marketing.
Give discounts on more usage (or bigger plans) and show the savings prominently ($100 plan is 20x more usage than the $20 plan, despite being only 5x more in cost). Human nature's natural instinct to optimise for efficiency incentivises the larger plan. This leads to greater AOV, LTV and ARPU without a proportional increase in CAC.
Have a good mixture of benefits vs. features (a good ratio is 60/40 to 70/30 and highly depends on target audience's psychographics). People pay for benefits, not features. But features are what they use to compare alternatives and make decisions. Start by setting up a problem that the reader recognises in their current situation. Then show how your product can solve that problem. And prove that solution by the mention of the product's arsenal of weapons (features) in its grasp that it can use to wage war on said problem. This technique has always proved the most effective at producing sales results. But do not use it unless you can do it without half-assing it. The reader isn't a moron. She is your wife. She is not swayed by mystical fantasies and exaggerated adjectives. If you are unable to deliver on this properly, simply provide a clear list of your product's features and use cases.
Avoid a diarrhoea of words. Make your website's visuals tell the story. What you show the reader about your product matters far more than what you tell them about it. It pays to visualise your product's value proposition. It saves time. It drives the point home. It is memorable.
Avoid visuals of AI people. These deter the reader. The reader cannot identify themselves in an AI person. And AI people do not invite reality and possibility. They invite "fake-ness", disconnection, and shoddiness. If AI generated imagery is used to depict people, it should be made hidden or clearly made in an abstract form where it looks like art rather than a photograph or video.
Do not waste headlines on useless slogans or nonsensical adjectives. On average, 5x more people read a section's headline than the body text. It follows that a poor use of headline is a waste of 80% of your energy and effort on creating your website. That is why all headlines we write at Agencidev for our clients clearly outlines the value proposition of the product. Your headline must clearly communicate what your product is and what benefit it provides. Headlines that promise a benefit sell 30% better than those that don't. We have also found benefit in injecting news (that's relevant and interesting) into headlines. The reader is always on the lookout for new products, new features in old products, or new uses for old products. In terms of length, headlines between 6-12 words get the greatest conversions in sales (but 4+ words also work).
Use visual hierarchy and white spaces evenly so that the primary actions and buttons stick out, whereas basic texts are less "in-your-face". White space is good as it can be used to strategically direct the reader's gaze to where you want it. We have it as a standard principle to run every section of a website we're building through an eye tracking simulation to ensure the first three points of visual attention are places that make money.
Photographs vs artwork. We have found that photographs work better than artwork (whether real or AI generated art) in attracting the reader's interest. They are more appealing, more believable, and sell more.